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Mission call season
S3E16 · Missionary Extravaganza
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Standard of Truth · Season 3 · Episode 16 · 55:02

Missionary Extravaganza

Wilford Woodruff, one of the most successful missionaries in church history, had days when five people asked for baptism and days when a priest and nearly a whole congregation rejected him.

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The question ·

What should a young missionary know and do to prepare before leaving on a mission?

Richard

It's mission call season, and Richard's sons are serving in Spain and preparing for Peru, so this episode is a missionary extravaganza. The mailbag brings Darren from St. George, who wants a church history tour with Atlantic City betting, and an email from Elder LeDuc himself in Ibiza. Richard explains the newsletter and episodes they'll recommend for mission prep, and Gerrit gives his two big tips: know what you believe and how it differs from what others believe, and know that people's agency is not your failure. Gerrit reads Wilford Woodruff's journal, including a mission with Gerrit's own ancestor Jonathan Hale, to show the highs and lows every missionary feels. He closes by saying that even a desire to believe can make you a great missionary.

Who comes upWilford WoodruffJonathan H. HaleJoseph SmithJan Hus
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Intro Welcome to the Standard of Truth Podcast. In this podcast, Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat and Professor Richard LeDuc explore the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the life and teachings of Prophet Joseph Smith. They examine the original historical sources and provide context for events of the past. They approach the history of the Church with faith, expertise and humor.
Gerrit Hi, welcome to another episode of the Standard of Truth podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat, and I'm joined by my friend, Professor Richard LeDuc.
Richard Hello, Gerrit. In this week's podcast, it's gonna be a little bit different.
Gerrit Is it gonna be interesting?
Richard It'll be the same as all the other episodes. So, it's missionary calling season. It's begun. It's my favorite time of the year. As young men and women get mission calls to all over the world to preach the gospel, it's a lot of fun. In our ward and stake, it seems like I'm going to a couple of these per week, and it's a blast. Our son was recently called to the Peru-Lima East mission, where he'll be going. It'll be fantastic. And one of the things that kind of just happened, as kind of just an accident, as we're helping prepare him to go on a mission, is we were going through... We get a lot of emails that talk about how great we do at indexing all of the different...
Gerrit I don't know that I've read those emails.
Richard Where, you know, it's difficult to find some of the content.
Gerrit So we don't even have the ability to index our emails to find those emails that say we did a good job.
Richard That's correct.
Gerrit That's what you were saying.
Richard That's right. And so I went through, and we found a bunch of different episodes that are really kind of mission prep episodes. And so this particular episode, we're going to get into the Phebe Draper mailbag here in just a second. But this episode is a missionary extravaganza episode. And so we're going to have a newsletter that's going to be coming out in April that will have probably about 25 to 30 different links to different episodes that we've...
Gerrit Of other people's podcasts that are helpful?
Richard Yeah, it's all following him.
Gerrit Okay, all right. I was going to say, there's no way that we've done 25 to 30 that are helpful.
Richard We have not. So it's all Hank Smith and John By The Way stuff, but we'll be linking to a bunch of different episodes that... And we'll be talking about some of those different points of doctrine of the restored gospel, as well as just things to help prepare. So after the mailbag, we'll kind of jump in to some of that stuff, and you've got some stories from missions of time gone by.
Gerrit Not from my mission, because we've got to have some...
Richard Yes, they're faith-promoting.
Gerrit There's got to be a faith-promoting one. Yeah, we want people to go on missions.
Richard So we'll start off with our first email. It comes to us...
Gerrit And by the way, we have received so many emails in the past few weeks. So I just want to remind everyone who emails in again, thank you so much for the emails, at least the ones that are positive. The negative ones there, you know, I mean...
Richard I love the negative ones.
Gerrit I think it's funny.
Richard The negative ones are my favorite.
Gerrit It's funny how many episodes someone will listen to while hating it the entire time. You know, you're like 19 episodes in to hating it.
Richard Yeah, it's really the core of my marriage. My wife's staying with me.
Gerrit You're hopeful that by sometime in the 30th year, you're gonna like me eventually. Don't worry. After 40 years together, then... I start growing on you a little bit. Well, that's just to say that thank you so much for sending the emails in. They are so incredible. Some are hilarious. Some are faith promoting. We certainly don't have the ability to respond to all of them, but we do read them all. We do appreciate them, and we try to get to the ones that we can. So if we don't end up reading yours on the air, responding to you, please know we do read them, and we really do appreciate them. Unless, of course, you sent the one calling me names.
Richard The one.
Gerrit The one yesterday morning.
Richard This comes to us from Darren from St. George. Dear Professor Lepuke and Dr. Dirkmaat. Yeah, you know what? I got called that in elementary school. I was online looking for your tour of Atlantic City sports betting combined with church history tour, and I was unable to find one. I would strongly support or suggest doing the betting portion first, then on the way to Palmyra, we can listen to President Hinckley's talk on gambling. By the way, that was in April of 2005 in that general conference. It's called Gambling. And just, there is nothing that I do that makes my wife more irritated than make sports betting jokes on this podcast.
Gerrit Yeah, both of our wives actually suggested to us that we should never mention the lines on games, and certainly not a parlay.
Richard So it's a satirical attempt at humor from all the sports radio that we listened to growing up as kids. We're obviously kidding. Don't gamble.
Gerrit Unless, of course, you've got an inside pick on Golden State versus Sacramento. And if you do, we want to hear it here.
Richard Oh boy, that's not doing me any favors.
Gerrit Okay, well, I'd like to see Richard in trouble.
Richard Then before we get there to Palmyra, we can repent as President Nelson has asked us to do daily. This is very funny. I just wanted to let you know that I love listening to the two of you. You're the highlight of my week. And I've built my testimony and knowledge up in many ways. I am very grateful for it. I live in St. George, Utah, and drive for a local shuttle company three times a week up to the Salt Lake Airport. I'm half tempted to play the podcast out loud and make my passengers listen just like that officer does. However, I may lose my job, but if I do, I understand that there is an opening for a budget director, even though production budget is zero dollars. That seems high, actually, Darren.
Gerrit Yeah, I think it's more like negative 400 at this point. And you know, you wouldn't actually lose your job because you were forcing people to listen to the podcast. You'd lose it because someone would open the sliding door to your van and throw themselves out into the Virgin Narrows or something. I guess that's the other direction.
Richard That's how far they'd jump to get out of them, which I find hard to believe because with you two being Mormonites, I know you, quote, lead away this people after the foolish traditions of your fathers and according to your own desires, and ye keep them down, even as it were in bondage, that you may glut yourselves with the labors of their hands, unquote.
Gerrit I think that's a reference to the premium content. We are glutting ourselves with the labors of their hands.
Richard Keep up the good work, and thank you so much for the humor and insight you provide. Thank you very much, Darren, that's very kind.
Gerrit You're the man.
Richard So this is actually the email from my other son, serving a mission in Spain, that really kind of sparked the whole discussion. Dear prestigious and well-honored Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat.
Gerrit He never once spoke to me like this before.
Richard And you too, father. That's very little house in the prairie of you. Thank you.
Gerrit Thank you.
Richard It is a pleasure to be able to write to you to a representation of the elders of Ibiza, Espana. My name is Elder LeDuc and as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I find this podcast as an extremely valuable resource that may provide clarity on so many things. And not only that, but protection to people's testimonies. I remember the conversations with professor, not doctor. Yes, Professor Richard LeDuc, where he told me that the reason for starting this podcast was to help myself, my brothers, and others prepare for when those who are against the Church start throwing shafts in the whirlwind, and that our testimonies may be stronger, that we may know the history and much needed context of things. And I will say, just as an aside, that from a personal standpoint, being able to have these resources for our family and loved ones and friends is the main driving force to do this in the first place.
Richard That was before the premium content. I write this, I write this-
Gerrit That was before we were glutting ourselves, apparently.
Richard I write this email primarily to ask if the podcast accepts missionary service funds as a way of payment for premium podcast.
Gerrit No, we do not.
Richard We do not. I want to extend the appreciation that my dear companion has for the podcast. He loves the podcast. He's a convert to the church and finds the podcast not only hilarious, but an excellent way for him to learn how the world views the church and how he can prepare himself and his future family. Love you, Gerrit.
Gerrit And dad.
Richard It was dot, dot, dot, long pause.
Gerrit Okay, yeah, very well played, Andrew.
Richard Thanks, son. Elder LeDuc. So anyway, so there are, thank you, Andrew, for the very kind email. So there are, we've done about 105 episodes or so by the time this comes out, and about 15 of them are pretty good. 15 of them are all right. There's about 30 that will be helpful for, as we were talking about this before we started recording, there's, depending on where you go on your mission, you're gonna encounter different things.
Gerrit Right, for sure.
Richard Right, a North American, a Canadian, and United States mission is very different from a mission to Peru or to Poland or to Africa or wherever, right? And so, but there are some basic things relating to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ that's valuable for all missionaries to know before they go on their mission. And then there's some things that are maybe a little bit more specific to certain parts of the world.
Gerrit Right, so not every episode is probably the greatest mission prep material, like whether or not there's a baptismal drowning. That's kind of like a safety issue, you know?
Richard Right, Mormon battalion parts one and three, you want to get to those first.
Gerrit You got to get to them early, you got to get to them often. Polk think of the church? The Fourth of July celebration, clearly essential to your missionary efforts. I mean, so one of the things I would say, now look, am I an expert on missions? No, I mean, this is just my opinion, so you can take it with a grain of salt. I think wherever you end up being called on a mission, it is one of the first things you want to do, is you want to familiarize yourself with both the culture and religion, the predominant religion of the place that you're going. This is not so that you can just simply find better ways to bash with those people, that you meet with, oh, hey, I've got a pretty good idea, you're a Southern Baptist. What do you think about the convention's stance of the 1913? I mean, that will be fun, but it's also not very effective.
Richard Well, and that's ultimately it, right? In terms, in order to be a great missionary, you need to love and serve the people, hold them to feel and recognize the Spirit, and help them to make and keep commitments, as you teach them the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Spirit's the thing that teaches them and is the converting factor. That said, there are things that you can know that can help your personal testimony, as well as help... I know on my mission, I was confronted with several things that I was unaware of or didn't know, and it would have been nice to have a little bit of additional context to that before I entered the mission field. Gerrit went in prepared. I did not.
Gerrit Well, I mean, there were still things that I wish I had known.
Richard Sure.
Gerrit I mean, on one of our premium contents that we were glutting ourselves on, I told the story about how I made the mistake in my very first meeting of a completely less active... We called them less active, but they were not active. They'd never even considered being active. They were completely inactive. But you say less active because it's a way of, I guess, making everyone feel better. And that my very first appointment, first place I went on my mission was to go meet with these people. And I thought that the best way to help them understand the gospel was by teaching them about the deification of man and how they could become gods. Now, yes, I had knowledge, but I didn't have wisdom with what to do with that knowledge. And so there are a few things. I think there's two areas that can really benefit anyone who's going out on a mission wherever they go. Clearly, if you're going to Latin America, I mean, understanding Catholicism and the aspects surrounding Catholicism, the points of doctrine on it, will be helpful because how are you going to be able to relate to the people you teach?
Gerrit Now, again, you're not intellectually converting people, but the Spirit is looking for an opening. And how do you get to where there's an opening that someone will drop their guard to where the Holy Spirit can speak to them? Part of the way you do it is by demonstrating that you have enough love for the people you're trying to teach that you know what it is that they believe and not know what it is that they believe because you want to tell them how wrong it is, but know what it is that they believe because of the precious truths that Brigham Young will teach that are in all religions, there are truths.
Richard One of my favorites as it relates to Catholicism that I love is the idea of praying to help speed a person through purgatory. It's a beautiful doctrine, one that we believe and expand upon, not the purgatory part, but in terms of work for the dead. And it's a relatively unique doctrine that Catholics and Latter-day Saints have in relative common.
Gerrit The idea that there's anything that you can do to in any way benefit deceased persons.
Richard And to be able to have an understanding there and to build on that common belief is an opportunity that I've had with many of my Catholic friends that has been faith-promoting, positive, and spirit-filled. And so just to give you an example of a couple of things. So the first thing that we're going to do is that one of the first premium episodes that we did on Joseph Smith and the Restoration was on the apostasy.
Gerrit Wasn't it like nine parts, though?
Richard Well, we're still in it.
Gerrit Okay, we're still...
Richard We just got into the Council of Caledon, and it comes out in a week or two. So it's Joseph Smith and the Restoration, and we're probably three or four years away from getting to...
Gerrit From saying the word Joseph Smith.
Richard Yeah, pretty much. We're going to get to the Westminster Confessional by the end of the year.
Gerrit Once we get to Synod of Dort, I'm all in. If we can get to Synod of Dort.
Richard So you think we're kidding. We're going to spend probably two episodes on the Synod of Dort.
Gerrit Oh, at least. Synod of Dort. Boy, what a... We're going to talk about the... What a promotion for the premium. If you want to hear about the defenestration of Prague, which I believe you and your lovely bride...
Richard I did. My beautiful wife and I, we went there and we saw where they chucked folks out of windows after they killed Jan Hus. So it was actually quite interesting.
Gerrit Now we don't talk about that on that podcast, but as you were saying, we're going to take that premium episode where we talk about the very early stages of the apostasy or the idea behind that there was an apostasy.
Richard Because what is being restored, you have to start with what was lost and when it was lost. And so we're actually going to be dropping that premium episode next week. And many of you are saying, geez, that sounds lazy. You've already got it recorded and it was premium, and then you're dropping it again.
Gerrit I mean, I think that that's about right.
Richard But we're wrapping it in the helping missionaries prepare. That's what we're wrapping.
Gerrit It literally won't help anyone at all, but it will allow us to watch the third quarter of the Golden State Kings game.
Richard That's right. So anyway, so that's an example. A couple of other examples that we're going to be including in the newsletter, which we would hope everyone signs up for and that you share. So if you're going on a mission or if you have children or nieces, nephews, whatever that are going on missions, we would recommend that you share this with them. And as it's a fairly compact way for them to learn a lot of things to help them prepare. So examples of some of the things, some of those episodes. So Gerrit's probably one of his favorite, The Vision, Doctrine and Covenants 76, a deeper understanding.
Gerrit I was going to say there's two things that will really help you wherever you go on a mission. The first is, and it seems weird that I even have to say this, but look, I know even for myself, even though I spent a ton of time preparing before I went on my mission, I spent the first two months of my mission mad at myself that I didn't spend more time preparing to go on my mission. Like, what was I doing? So the first is, you need to know what it is that you believe. Now, I know that sounds kind of glib, because you're thinking, yeah, I get it. I know what we believe. Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon, yada, yada, yada. But I don't know that very many people are aware of the depths of what it is that we believe. Now, I'm not saying you're going to go on your mission and immediately begin quoting the King Follett Sermon to people, although you know what?
Gerrit If you're a bad missionary like me, you will. Yeah, first thing. I don't know what you're going to be like as a missionary, but both for your own testimony and to help people understand why what it is that you are offering is different, you need to know why what it is that you believe is different. And so Doctrine and Covenants, Section 76, the vision is what it's called, that revelation. It's not just, hey, here's the names of the different degrees of glory. This is radical Christian theology. This is doctrine that is completely different than every single Christian you will ever meet. When you see a gulf between you and the person you're trying to share the Gospel with, part of that chasm between you is that you have an understanding of the three degrees of glory and the temporary nature of the suffering of hell and literally no one else does.
Gerrit And we just take it for granted. I can draw a circle on the board. I literally do this all the time in my BYU classes. Walk into the room, have not told them what the lecture's on, walk up to the board, I draw one circle on the board. One circle, no labels, no anything else, draw a circle, turn around to the class, what are we going to talk about today? In unison, entire class, plan of salvation. We're going to talk about the plan of salvation. So we know about the plan of salvation. We know about that. But how many of us have really studied and pondered Doctrine and Covenants, section 76? Do we only go there when we're a little bit worried about whether or not, wait a minute, am I barely making the cutoff for the terrestrial at this point? What was that again? You have to be valiant in your testimony? Does gambling count?
Richard See President Hinckley's 2005 April conference.
Gerrit See the 2005 talk, and also, by the way, Repent Daily. So we know about the doctrine, but do we understand how radically different it is from what other people believe? I meet with people all the time who have questions, and I don't want to say always a faith crisis, but people who are struggling with different aspects of church history or church doctrine and are wanting to better understand them. And almost universally, these people who are struggling often, I don't want to say it's universal, but it's very often, one of the aspects of our discussion is that they don't comprehend how unique what we believe even is. And I know we do a lot of outreach, right? I mean, we love our fellow brothers and sisters who are Christians.
Gerrit I mean, in a world that's filled with cesspools of sin, the fact that anyone believes in Jesus at all, I want to just grab ahold of them and say thank you, right? At the same time, what we believe is not the same. I know we want to highlight the things that are similar, and I get that. But we believe something very different about who we are, what our purpose on this earth is, who God is, and what our eventual end is going to be. And those aren't minor differences. They're actually the main part. They're the whole thing.
Richard Yeah, so that's one. Did I say that we went to where Jan Hus was killed or where the people that killed him were thrown out of windows? I need to be very clear. I think I misspoke. We went to the place where the people... And this is very important.
Gerrit Where the Holy Roman Emperor's envoys were pitched out of the castle.
Richard Because he was killed.
Gerrit Now, don't worry. If you're worried about the Holy Roman Emperor's envoys, although this window is very high up...
Richard It's very high up. It's in the Prague Castle.
Gerrit They live.
Richard They did. They landed on a haystack or something.
Gerrit Probably it was a manure stack.
Richard Likely manure or garbage or whatever.
Gerrit Or literally just medieval Europe.
Richard All right. So D&C 76. Along with that, also Doctrine and Covenants, Section 93.
Gerrit Those two are two sections of the Doctrine and Covenants that are among the most radical things that the Lord teaches Joseph Smith. The reason why your Christian friends or people that you meet on your mission will say that you're not really a Christian, they don't know it. It's not like they're reading D&C 76 and 93, but you need to read them and understand them because they are radically different than what other Christians are.
Richard Along with that, so again, we'll send the links to these episodes, and many of you are saying, this seems like a ploy just to get more downloads.
Gerrit Well, I mean, my mom is only one person. Your mom, Rachel's mom. My mom and Rachel's mom can only download so much. I mean, one of our listeners is a baby that's strapped into the back seat that's forced to listen to us in New York, or possibly criminals in Idaho. Well, if... That's our favorite. Our favorite will still be the criminals that are forced to listen.
Richard So along with that, then, also the episodes of Are Mormons Christian? And The Trinity and the Nature of God. So if you want to really understand what our Christian brothers and sisters believe about God, this was something that I was not understanding at all when I went on my mission. And it would have... It was, again, I was using the same words, not understanding why it was that they were saying, yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Gerrit Yeah, and I think those really are helpful to understand what it is that, again, your Christian brothers and sisters, what they believe, and why is it that they say things like, well, you worship a different Jesus? Because you're sitting there thinking, well, no, I kind of feel like it's the same Jesus. I mean, the one who died for our sins, yeah, that one. But why are they saying that? What's causing that?
Richard So in addition to that, our most popular episodes that we've had are on the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Those are powerful episodes that are very faith promoting. It's not occasionally, from time to time, Gerrit will bear his testimony on the podcast, but it's from time to time. And those episodes are very strong for that. They're very powerful and help you to gain an understanding of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who he was, and a better understanding of the Prophet of the Restoration.
Gerrit Yeah, I mean, we can really bookend that too. I mean, one of the primary things that whoever is sharing the Gospel, whether it's a missionary or someone who's home from the mission, one of the first things they're going to do is they're going to teach about the First Vision and Joseph Smith's experience. And so we talk about the different accounts of the First Vision. If you go on a mission to the United States and you encounter someone who is not a fan of our religion, that'll be something that they very like. We will bring up, and they'll bring it up in a negative way, trying to say, Oh, Joseph Smith didn't even tell the same story about the First Vision. We have multiple podcasts talking about those different accounts and how they are understood.
Richard As well as the translation of the plates and early criticism of the Book of Mormon. Those will also be ones that we do. The Book of Moses was one that was at the beginning of 2022 when we were trying to ride the wave of the Old Testament that slowly died out as we got to Deuteronomy.
Gerrit Right, yeah. The moment numbers came into view. I mean, I know everyone here listening is claiming they read the Old Testament last year. We just also want to remind them that, you know, woe unto the liar.
Richard So after much tribulation comes the blessing, Doctrine and Covenants, Section 58, which was a tribute to our good stake president that passed away, and then as well as the prosperity theology. Only second, they came in only second to the martyrdom, the prosperity theology episodes were very popular, and we received some of the most heartbreaking emails in response to those episodes. And an understanding of actually a sister that served a mission that struggled and didn't have as much success, and in a way blamed herself based on things that she'd been told by her mission president about her own obedience with a lack of success on a mission in Germany, by the way, which lovely people, tough missions.
Gerrit Yeah, no one ever said, I can't wait to have my hundredth baptism in Germany. Well, I guess Charlemagne said that, but he was also forcing tribes into rivers to baptize them at the sword point. So I guess, so if you're Charlemagne, you can get a lot of baptisms in Germany. But that is a really, I like that list of those podcasts because we address that because, you know, serving a mission or honestly, whether you're serving a mission or not, serving the gospel is such a difficult thing because it matters so much to you. It's not like I'm selling like, you know, Tupperware at door to door to people. And, you know, like, hey, have you tried our new lids? Oh, I don't want to. Oh, my goodness, they don't want to try our new lids. I mean, it's something that you know has brought you so much joy that's helped you understand so much about who you are and people are rejecting it.
Gerrit And so I think it is a really important thing, a healthy thing for someone to go on a mission to know that God has called you to share the gospel, to be obedient and share the gospel. And you can't control whether or not that person that you're talking to with their agency accepts what it is you have to say. You can't control that. Part of the problem of this life is we desperately think that we can. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be worthy. You absolutely should. And you should pray like everything depends on God, right? Helping you. And then work like everything depends on you as the phrase in the saying goes. But you may not have success right away. You may not have success at all.
Gerrit I often think back to whoever the missionary was, I don't know who it was, who baptized my grandmother, my dad's mom. It was in the Netherlands in the 1920s and 30s. I mean, I can't imagine that there were thousands of people joining the church then, right? And frankly, my grandpa basically only joined the church because she made him. Tell us all this time. Which will also be a really good theme on your mission. And I've often wondered, did that missionary go back home thinking he was a failure? Right? I mean, all I have baptized was just two people and the guy like went inactive the second we baptized him, like barely got out of the water and became inactive. And yet I'm a member of the church. I'm giving this podcast right now because whoever that missionary was, who probably went home thinking that they were a failure, went to the Netherlands and baptized my grandmother.
Richard I thought similarly about Elder Green that baptized my mother. In Arizona, I don't know what his mission was like, but I have two sons going on missions. It's a pretty fantastic thing when you think about it like that.
Gerrit Well, in that vein, I thought I would, I mean, I'm going to do a little bit of self-indulgence. Yeah, sure. I mean, I think long ago, Richard coined the phrase, well, you can go get your own podcast.
Richard Yeah, if you were so smart about serving a mission, go start your own podcast.
Gerrit I think that was our Freemason one, where we...
Richard Oh, by the way, the Freemasonry one is also one of the ones. Just, you know, that's a must. It's an absolute must.
Gerrit An absolute must, the Freemasonry. Probably you'll be okay without it. But I thought maybe I'd share something from Wilford Woodruff's journal. I mean, now, there are few missionaries in the world, in the history of the church, who logged more miles preaching the Gospel and who baptized more people in the early days of the church. Wilford Woodruff is essentially on a perpetual mission. He is constantly out serving. And in 1837, he gets called to go on a mission to the east, and he's eventually going to go to the Fox Islands in Maine. So I'm going to read this entry from his journal, May 31st. The day had now arrived for me to take the parting hand with the saints in Kirtland, and again go into the vineyard to proclaim the word of God. I accordingly took my departure from Mrs. Woodruff, my companion, and Sister Hale, who were expecting to tarry together for a season.
Gerrit I then let Sister Hale, he's going on a mission with Jonathan Harriman Hale. I then left Kirtland in good spirits in company with Elder Hale, and we walked to Fairport 12 miles, and there I took a steamboat, and he goes on in company with Elder Hale. Why am I sharing this? Well, Jonathan Harriman Hale is my great, great, my mom's going to be so mad about this, great, great, great grandfather. You know, Renee's already calling in. We haven't dropped this and my phone's rigging. Did you mention Elder Hale? Did you? You got the greats wrong. So on my dad's side, of course, you know, my grandmother was, you know, his mom was the first member of the church, basically, in my family. On my mom's side, Jonathan Aram and Hale is one of my grandfathers, and he goes with Wilford Woodruff on this mission. And so I thought I'd share a few things from their mission.
Gerrit June 11th, again, so they've started off. I'm skipping a lot of things. He has a lot in there. Much like all of you, when you keep your missionary journal, it will be very, very, very verbose, multiple different days, and then you're going to go several months without writing anything. And then you'll have an argument with yourself about whether or not you should even take back up writing again. Do I try to say everything that's happened? No. I'll just pretend. I'll just pick it right up and like, I'm in Manitowoc. And, you know, well, how are you in Manitowoc? Anyway, that's a Wisconsin place for those of you. There's no members in Wisconsin. So no one listening would be like, oh, yeah, I know where that is. But if you went on a mission to Wisconsin, you might know where it is. June 11th, I was called upon to address the conference in the four part of the day. It was with peculiar feelings that I arose to address a large congregation of saints raised up in another nation under another government separate from my own. Because at this point, they go to Canada.
Gerrit So they've crossed over the border. That's what he's talking about there. And under another government separate from my own nation, for this was the first time that I arose to address a congregation of saints under the British government. So Wilford Woodruff isn't just preaching to Americans, he's preaching to foreigners, right? I addressed to the people, and he uses 2 Corinthians, and chapters 3 and 4, oh, sorry, chapter 4 verses 3 and 4. The spirit of the Lord was with us, and we were blessed after I closed. The saints spake with tongues and prophesied. Five presented themselves for baptism, which was administered unto them by Elder Page after an intermission. Elder Page addressed us on the priesthood and bore strong testimony to the people. Our conference closed by returning thanks to God, and we took the parting hand with many brethren and sisters. I returned with several elders to Elder Stoddard's and spent that night, and there was a woman present who was possessed with the devil.
Gerrit She was oft times dumb and greatly afflicted by the evil spirits that dwelt in her. She believed in Jesus Christ of Nazareth and us as his servant, and called upon us to cast the devil out of her. According to her request, four of us laid hands upon her and commanded the devil in the name of Jesus Christ to depart out of her. And it was immediately done. And the woman arose with great joy and gave thanks and praise unto God, for according to her faith, she was made whole from that hour. A child was also sick that was made whole by the laying on of hands according to the word of God. Now that is a pretty good day on your mission. They go and they preach, and five people who listen to them say, you know what, I'm ready to be baptized. They then have this miraculous, not only casting out of an evil spirit, but the healing of a sick child. Now those are the types of stories we love to hear when we're talking about our missions.
Gerrit Those are the types of stories that make us go. Frankly, those are the types of stories that when you come home, you reflect on again and again and again and again. But not every day is like that. Here is a different day.
Richard I was going to say that that's the beautiful part of the mission, is that it's the extremes of it all. It really is a lesson in 2 Nephi chapter 2 in that there are times when you feel so sad and so alone and so discouraged. And there are days that are the greatest days of your life. And the contrast is the beauty of the entire thing.
Gerrit Yeah, and it's like a roller coaster with ups and downs. And if you go to Wisconsin, it's all downs. There's very rarely, are there any ups? We all hear the stories. Every prospective missionary listening to me right now has heard the story, right?
Intro It's like, there I was.
Gerrit It was raining sideways. My companion and I had been tracking for 18 hours. We had tracked at every door in the city, and my companion said, Elder, let's just go back home. It's almost past our curfew.
Richard And I said, no, Elder.
Gerrit And I looked down the end of the street, and I saw one house with the light on. And I said, Elder, we're going to go knock on that house.
Richard And that boy, President Nelson.
Gerrit I don't even know how the age thing works.
Richard It's one of those things, though. Just as a quick aside, though, one of the favorite parts about this that Gerrit and I joke about all the time, about when people talk about their missions, where when people talk about their missions, they spend a decent amount of time talking about how hard it is. You don't just blow past it, but you talk about how hard it is. You do actually quickly forget all the hard parts, and you just remember all the great parts. It's a wonder how that works. So then my son goes out on his mission. I tell him, this is really hard. This is really, really, really hard. And he gets out, and he's like, I just wish someone would have told me how hard this is.
Gerrit I'm like, what are you talking about? You spend all of your time telling people, this is going to be terrible. And then you get out there, and you're like, it's crazy, not everybody's listening to me. And it's because you can't really experience it. Of course, you're going to hang on more to those miraculous things. So you hear people say things all the time like, we were tracking for 12 hours a day, knocking on doors, six days a week, and finally, four months in, we baptized someone. And you hear all about the baptism story, but think about what each of those hours was like.
Richard And it does make that baptism just the sweetest thing in the world, or even just someone listening or someone just being able to, where you have the opportunity to preach and teach. Those things are powerful. I'm sorry, I cut you off from the story that you were going to read.
Gerrit Well, I mean, I was going to share this from Wilford Woodruff. You know, so we had that amazing experience, amazing high of highs. And this is just a sample of some of the experiences that he has, because he has a ton of them, that are just as negative, because it's easy to think, well, of course, it's Wilford Woodruff. I mean, of course, an apostle. You know, everybody's listening to him, you know. No, everybody isn't. July 10th, so just a little, a few days later, after that amazing experience, miracles are being wrought, people are jumping into the waters of baptism, like it's a, you know, like it's a spa, you know, at the hotel pool. July 10th, I met at the City Hall in Collinsville for the purpose of preaching the gospel to the people. Immediately after I arose and commenced speaking, the beating of drums was heard at the doors. Laughing and sneering was prevalent in the congregation. The Presbyterian priest was enraged against the truth.
Gerrit As soon as I closed, the priest hurried himself to the place where I stood, and I was immediately surrounded by the congregation. The priest said that I had no right to enjoy my opinion. And he became angry and said very many inconsistent things. After presenting him with some cutting truce, he left me. The priest and the people, with very few exceptions, rejected us and our testimony. So in the one, he holds a meeting, and five people come forward and say, You know what? I've got to be baptized. And just a few days later, he isn't even able to speak because the people are yelling and jeering at him and banging drums to drown him out and telling him, You don't even have the right to your own opinion.
Richard I will say I have a general philosophy for life that in any experience, you want it to be absolutely amazing. And if it can't be amazing, you want it to be an absolute disaster, because then at least you have a better story. And I will tell you that I had many a wonderful and powerful spiritual experience on my mission that I will treasure for my life. And I had several absolute disasters that were hilarious that I will also treasure for my entire life. And so being able to appreciate it even in the moment, having some perspective of, well, all right, we're having our Wilford Woodruff Presbyterian moment here. Here we go.
Gerrit Yeah, I mean, it really is highs and lows, and there's a lot of mundane aspects to it. I mean, as has been spoken, the secret of missionary work is work, right? I mean, you can't allow yourself to come to believe that your past results are indicative of what your next one is. I mean, yeah, if you've knocked on 10 doors, and all 10 people used colorful metaphors to explain what part of hell you're going to be going to, that doesn't mean that the 11th person is going to say that. Even if you think, well, I'm sure this person is not going to. The reality is, we are, that's what we're doing as we share the Gospel. We are seeking out, right, two of a city, one of a village. I mean, we are looking for the elect that God has prepared that are willing to hear the message. And the Lord Jesus Christ himself had many people who didn't accept what he had to say.
Gerrit Do you think it's because Jesus just wasn't obedient enough? Oh, if only, you know what? If Jesus would have really buckled down and studied his, you know, his Preach My Gospel, it would have really made the difference for him. If only Jesus were more holy, if only Jesus had decided to really put his father first. The reality is, Jesus' teaching was perfect. Jesus' life was perfect. Jesus was perfect. And yet people with their agency rejected him. And it cut Jesus. He suffered when he saw people rejecting the message that he knew far better than you and I could ever know was the only way that they could ever truly be happy. And not just happy because they have bread in their stomach for a second, but happy because they have eternal life forever.
Gerrit And Jesus has people betray him. Jesus has people reject him. And I think we do well to take what Jesus said to his apostles. You know, and to his followers, that the world hated me before it hated you. That if you were of the world, the world would love its own. There's going to be animosity. You're going to have people attempt to yell you down and tell you that you don't have a right to believe what you believe and how wrong you are and all of that. But that's where we try to draw strength from both the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit that has told us that this is true, and from the people who came before us. If apostles and prophets who came before you get yelled out of a meeting house with people playing drums, telling them that they're wrong, well, we're probably going to have something similar happen to us. Now, one last thing I want to share with this story though, is they eventually go to the Fox Islands, which are off the coast of Maine.
Gerrit And while they're preaching, they end up having a lot of opposition, but they eventually have some success. And it's a funny thing, and I think it gives a little bit of an insight into Wilford Woodruff's character that when they finally get someone ready to be baptized, he's a sea captain because they're out here on the islands, Captain Eames. And Wilford Woodruff believes that these are the first baptisms performed by the proper authority upon any of the islands of the sea in this dispensation. Now, I don't know if he's right about that, but these are some of the first missionaries that have gone anywhere outside of nearby Kirtland or to the south or whatever. And so when they go to do the baptisms, Wilford Woodruff stops and has Jonathan Harriman Hale perform the baptism.
Gerrit Why? This is what he writes, Before we left Kirtland, some of the leading apostates there had tried to discourage Brother Hale about going on his mission, telling him that he would never baptize anyone and that he had better remain at home. When Captain Eames offered himself for baptism, I told Brother Hale to go and baptize him and prove those men false prophets. And he did so. You know, they will have ups and downs on their mission. They will baptize people. They'll watch people fall away. They'll convince some pastors to listen to them. And they'll have others who stop at nothing to destroy the work. And I think you can draw strength from reading the accounts of other missionaries, the men and women who served before you. And that's part of the reason why I think, you know, part of the way we prepare people for missions is we have them talk to other people who've served.
Gerrit Because that seems to be a common, unifying thread among those who go and serve an honorable mission. And that is this up and down nature of it, but still the essential aspect of the work.
Richard So my son's friend, he received a mission call to serve in my mission, the California Riverside Mission. And I was talking with him just the other day as we were at another mission opening. And it was absolutely hilarious. I was sharing experiences with him and telling him about all these different things, just the excitement that he had. And the hope here is that as we talk about this, as Gerrit shares some of these great stories, and as we link to other episodes to help, we hope that this will be of great benefit to those that have decided to submit themselves to the will of our Savior and go out and to serve and to preach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and that as they do, they'll have all of the things that will be all of the good and all of the bad and some of the mundane, which makes it all the sweeter when the good comes, and that as you have a better understanding of the gospel and the truths taught, that you'll have an increase in testimony that will make it easier for you to be able to share, and that that will help to invite the Spirit more than almost anything else, and that that will be the thing that helps What helps bring these people to the knowledge of the truth?
Gerrit I think that, you know, Richard has said it pretty well. You don't have to know everything to serve a mission. So if you're listening right now and you're thinking, well, I don't know any of those things. I mean, even if I listen to those podcasts, which I won't because they're terrible and they're boring. Even if I did listen to them, I mean, I might tell my parents that I did listen, but of course I didn't. And even if I did listen to them, I'm not going to be able to retain that. Remember that you don't have to know everything to serve. You don't. You don't even, you don't have to have every answer. If you have a desire to serve God, you're called to the work. You don't even have to be perfect in being able to serve God. You just have to want to. All you have to do is, as Richard said, be willing to submit yourself to the will of God. Now, we were providing these things to try to help make it a softer landing, to help, you know, as you're submitting to the will of God, so you have a better understanding of what it is that you're teaching and why it's so essential and why it's so important.
Gerrit But even if you feel like I don't know anything about the gospel, if you have even a desire to believe, that desire working within you can make you an amazing missionary. So don't say, well, I'm not gonna go until I know more. Say, I'm gonna go, and because I'm gonna go, I'm gonna start to try to learn some more. So we will drop that apostasy episode next week, I guess.
Richard Yes.
Gerrit Yeah, I mean, and by that, I mean, we'll cut it off completely off of our servers.
Richard It'll be very good. We might even clip apart from Doctrine and Covenants section four, where you talk from the harmony, the history, or the holy places from our past, hashtag crinkling leaves episode, where we talk about Doctrine and Covenants section four, which you'll undoubtedly memorize and say in every district and zone meeting to provide you additional context. When you have the additional historical context of that section, it makes it all the more beautiful, the way that that is received, and the way that that can really invigorate you to be an even better missionary.
Gerrit Thank you, every one of you that is planning to serve, all of you men and women, and to all of you who've come back, thank you for your service. Like I said, I am here, I'm talking right now, because some missionary decided to go to a place that must have been terrible, and literally worse than Wisconsin, and yet persevered through the difficulty, and that's why I'm a member of the church. And there are people like that everywhere, who need to hear the messages you have to share. And if you're someone who's back off your mission, hopefully as we talk about sharing the gospel, it spurs us all to do a little bit more to try to share the gospel with our friends and our relatives, our co-workers, and maybe even a random stranger now and then. Thank you so much for listening. We'll catch you again next week.
Intro Thank you for listening to the Standard of Truth podcast, hosted by historian Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat. If you know anybody that could benefit from the material in this episode, please share it with them. And for more resources, visit standardoftruth.com. Until next time.

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Make a share card from any line

I was going to say, there's no way that we've done 25 to 30 that are helpful.

GerritBanter

It's funny how many episodes someone will listen to while hating it the entire time.

GerritBanter

I think that's a reference to the premium content. We are glutting ourselves with the labors of their hands.

GerritBanter

Now, yes, I had knowledge, but I didn't have wisdom with what to do with that knowledge.

GerritInsight

And those aren't minor differences. They're actually the main part. They're the whole thing.

GerritInsight

And you can't control whether or not that person that you're talking to with their agency accepts what it is you have to say.

GerritInsight

I will say I have a general philosophy for life that in any experience, you want it to be absolutely amazing. And if it can't be amazing, you want it to be an absolute disaster, because then at least you have a better story.

RichardBanter

The reality is, Jesus' teaching was perfect. Jesus' life was perfect. Jesus was perfect. And yet people with their agency rejected him.

GerritInsight

But even if you feel like I don't know anything about the gospel, if you have even a desire to believe, that desire working within you can make you an amazing missionary.

GerritInsight

Like I said, I am here, I'm talking right now, because some missionary decided to go to a place that must have been terrible, and literally worse than Wisconsin, and yet persevered through the difficulty, and that's why I'm a member of the church.

GerritInsight

More from this episode

Claim checkThings people say, and what the episode shows.

Claim check

What critics say, and what the episode found
If a missionary isn't baptizing, they must not be obedient enough.
You have to know everything about the gospel before you can serve a mission.
Take it to classReady to use in a lesson or a talk.

Take it to class

Ready to copy into a lesson or a text

Gerrit's mission prep advice: know what you believe and how different it really is. Sections 76 and 93 are radical Christian theology.

Learn what the people you'll teach believe out of love, not to argue. Brigham Young taught that there is truth in every religion.

Wilford Woodruff had a day with five baptisms and a healing, and then a day when a priest and a congregation shouted him down. Every mission has both.

You can't control anyone's agency. Gerrit is a member because an unknown missionary baptized his grandmother in the Netherlands, and that missionary may have gone home feeling like a failure.

Banter binThe funniest moments in this episode.

Banter bin

The running jokes, for people who skip ahead
Glutting ourselves with the labors of their handsDarren quotes Korihor, and Gerrit decides it's about the premium content; it comes back twice (6:56, callbacks 9:03, 12:53).
Richard and the sports bettingDarren wants a church history tour with Atlantic City betting; both wives want no more lines or parlays (4:39, callback 21:38).
Officer RDarren is tempted to make his shuttle passengers listen, "just like that officer does," and criminals in Idaho stay the favorite listeners (5:54, callback 24:50).
The audience: Gerrit's mom (and Rachel's mom)"My mom and Rachel's mom can only download so much," plus a baby strapped into a car seat in New York (24:50).
Gerrit's mom checks the greatsRenee will call because he got the number of greats on Jonathan Hale wrong (34:00).
The production budgetDarren thinks a zero-dollar budget seems high; Gerrit puts it at negative 400 (6:37).
Synod of DortThe premium apostasy series is three or four years from saying the words Joseph Smith; Gerrit is all in once it gets to Dort (16:01).
The defenestration of PragueRichard visited the window and clarifies who was actually thrown out; they landed on what was probably a manure stack (16:46, 23:26).
WisconsinNo members in Wisconsin, the mission roller coaster there is all downs, and Gerrit's grandmother's mission was worse than Wisconsin (35:05, 38:59, 53:37).
It was raining sidewaysEvery prospective missionary has heard the one-lit-house story, and that boy grew up to be President Nelson (39:22).
The Phebe Draper Palmer Brown MailbagSend Gerrit and Richard your question.

The Phebe Draper Palmer Brown Mailbag

Your question could be next week’s episode
Questions from Litners drive a lot of episodes. Send yours. If it makes the show, Richard reads it on air.
General ConferenceGeneral Conference talks that cite a scripture read in this episode.

In General Conference

Talks from the latest General Conference that cite a scripture this episode reads or names on air
October 2026 General Conference · cites D&C 76Come to the Lord in His Holy HouseElder Gerrit W. GongElder Gong lays out three doctrinal foundations for temple worship: eternal families, moral agency, and the Holy Spirit of Promise, which makes honored covenants binding.October 2026 General Conference · cites 2 Nephi 2Jesus Christ Is the Great Deliverer!Elder Kevin J. HathawayElder Hathaway testifies that Jesus Christ is the great deliverer and that the question for the faithful is not whether He will deliver, but how and when.October 2026 General Conference · cites D&C 58The Hour of Your Mission Is ComeBishop Sean DouglasBishop Douglas thanks missionaries of every age and urges the rising generation to place full-time missionary service high on their list.

Summaries, themes and lessons for every talk are on What Did They Say?

Go deeperWhere to read more.

Go deeper

Deep dives the episode points toward
Wilford Woodruff and Jonathan Hale's 1837 mission from Kirtland to Canada and the Fox Islands of Maine (32:59).
D&C 76 and 93 side by side: what makes them so different from traditional Christian ideas of heaven, hell and who we are (24:16).
Where Catholic prayers for the dead and Latter-day Saint work for the dead overlap, as common ground for missionaries (14:52).
Jan Hus and the defenestration of Prague, coming up in the premium apostasy series (16:46).
SOT Litner · S3E16.