Aaron’s recent post about idiosyncratic mission rules was a fun look at the origins of the types of stories that every missionary hears, types of legends. I wonder if and how the stories of Aaron’s skateboard and window were told and retold. It was with these thoughts that I came across a paragraph from a 1898 Mississippi Conference circular in the recently digitized Southern Star:
The following occurrences are quite well known to all the Elders in our Conference. Ministers who fought us have fallen dead in their pulpits; others who have dared to curse us and blaspheme the “Mormon God” have been stricken down so they could not till their appointments where they were to speak against us; but during months of suffering they have had time to reflect on their career and given one more chance to repent and turn from their evil ways. Towns where they have rejected us and driven us out in the middle of the night have, in a few short days, been burned to ashes. Men have turned us from their door, and during the night have been damaged hundreds of dollars by storms, while the neighbor with whom we stayed was not damaged any. The eyes of the blind have been opened and the cases of instant healing have been too numerous to think of naming, one pair of Elders reporting twenty-one cases of instant healing in twenty-three ordinations. (1)
I heard my share of mission lore: the German Laundromat that burned down after displaying the garments in the window; the crazy schismatic ZL’s in the south. I had a few odd mission rules: no music; no mother’s day calls home (though my pres. did import Mountain Dew, so it wasn’t completely austere). I also saw a few miracles.
This excerpt from the American South written about one hundred years to the time I served has a fascinating familiarity to it. It isn’t the first person accounts of Aaron’s ad hoc regulation. It isn’t the decades old legend from three missions over. But it captures the beliefs and stories that the missionaries told in their time and place. And I can’t help but see my missionary self with them.
- O. D. Flake and A. B. Porter, “Mississippi Conference Circular,” Southern Star 1 (December 31, 1898): 39.