Elder Johnson's First Week in the Mission Field

We now return to Grandpa Johnson’s mission adventures. Near the end of September 1926, he finished his mission training in Salt Lake and took the Union Pacific to the mission home in Omaha, Nebraska. Upon arriving, he wasn’t greeted by his mission president or, let alone, any other missionary. In fact, the mission home had changed locations without notice. So he started on a search for the mission home. He writes, “Block by block, I went (my suitcases now weighed 90 lbs each) until by accident or otherwise, I found the place at 3044 Elliot Avenue.”

Here are some more highlights of his first week in the field:

September 28, 1926

[My companion and I] started tracting on the block just west of the mission office. This being my first experience, Elder Oldroyd did all of the talking with the exception of two places. One said she had heard of the Mormons and wanted to hear no more. The other, a young man, took the tract. That night I made my first attempt to teach. I got up, spoke up, and shut up, all while a street car was passing. Here I sold my first Book of Mormon.

September 30 , 1926

… I tracted alone for three hours, having doors slammed in my face and being told to get off the place, for they would have nothing to do with the Mormons….

Upon reading this, I’ve realized that some things about missions (senior companions doing all the talking, slammed doors, etc.) haven’t changed in 80 years.

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