One of the reasons I've always wanted to go to Boston and Cambridge is because I knew my dad served his mission there many years ago. He served his
LDS mission in the New England States mission from May 11, 1942 - May 1944. I have his missionary journal and I read it years ago. Since going to Boston, I've been reading it again. It is captivating to read about his missionary service and to imagine him in some of the places we visited now that I've been there. Back in 1942 he spent 10 days in the mission home in Salt Lake City being trained and then he and 10 other Elders made the trip from Salt Lake City to Boston Massachusetts by train. In his words he said "Tonight was the night we left Salt Lake at 7:00 pm for Denver. Mother, Edna, Clair, Rex, John, Sarah, Grandpa, Uncle Joe,
Reah,
Mirt, Laura and Aunt
Rodea were there to see me off. I think I will miss "Fat" as much as anyone. Here are the lines of travel from Salt Lake to Boston. Salt Lake to Denver over the Rio Grand. Denver to Chicago by way of Omaha Nebraska over the Burlington. From Chicago to Buffalo by way of Detroit over the Illinois Central, from Buffalo to Boston over the New York Central line."
His mission home address was 100
Brattle Street, Cambridge Massachusetts. From what I've read, the Cambridge chapel that was dedicated over 60 years ago in 1956 was built on the spot where his mission home once stood. The mission home was purchased by the Church from the Henry W. Longfellow estate. It stood where the chapel now stands in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and had to be cut in half to be moved down Hawthorne Street to its present location. That beautiful and historic Cambridge chapel burned down earlier this year. See
this article for more information.
His first area was Plymouth, Massachusetts. He was assigned to serve with Elder
Lunt. He states on
May 25, 1942: we had lunch and went tracking. We had a few conversations. I tried it once - boy oh boy I hope and pray I will be able to do as well as Elder
Lunt after awhile.
August 16, 1942: Came in to Cambridge to church today. It was the third time since I got here that I've gone to one of our church buildings. They had a very fine meeting. After the meeting Elders Nilson, Stewart, Hall, Mack and myself went and had lunch. After which Mack and I went to a ball game. Red Socks and Washington. In the evening we went over to the mission home to a social. Very nice. Went back out to Hyde Park for the night.
October 25, 1942: Well we had our first person ask for baptism. Mrs. Bartlett is coming down to interview here and Cora her daughter. Had a swell talk with them.
Later that first year he wrote on
December 31, 1942: Had quite a weekend. Six of us went over to
Malden and had a good game of basketball. Tonight four of us spent the evening in Boston. Boy what a crowd there was, and what a racket they did make about 12:00 midnight. After the excitement had passed we went to a show and didn't get home till 4:30 A.M.
He then served in New Haven Connecticut,
Medford Connecticut , and then he got a transfer to New London, Connecticut. He wrote:
April 2, 1943 - I had a very good day tracking and visiting yesterday, got up this morning and the sun was shinning and here I was not a worry in the world, and I read awhile and when the mail came I went down and got it. There was a letter for me from the mission office, but it wasn't one of the big ones like they send for transfers, so I didn't think much about it. I came up and opened it and this what it said "This is to notify you of your transfer from
Medford to New London, Conn. and your appointment as President of the Southern Conn. district. You could have knocked me over with a pin - all I can say is if President
Reeder thinks I'm the man for the job, then with the help of the Lord, I'll do my best."
He also traveled all around Connecticut coordinating the missionary efforts in that area. He makes journal entries from Bridgeport,
Woodbury, Norwich, New Haven, Conn. and Providence, Rhode Island. He states: I have had the mission car during this time - visited all the members and friends in the district - drove it 1000 miles while here. When out to
McBeth and had a fine supper after which I drove the car to Hartford for Elder
Hawkens to use...
May 1, 1943 - Elder Mack went tracking this morning so while he was gone I sent letters to all the members in New Haven. I hadn't written home for a couple of weeks so I took a five and wrote. I had a very good talk with a fellow on the train. I told him all about the church and what we were doing out here in the east. He seemed very interested and said he was a Jew. Just as I was leaving he reached in his pocket and handed me a pocket knife. It sure is a nice one, pretty nice fellow.
June 1, 1943: Met the President at 9:00 this morning and we all went over to the Yale library to see the
Coe collection. They have more stuff about our church than you can imagine. President
Reeder was very impressed. The collection is worth $200,000. We spent about two hours here...
On
December 4 he wrote from
Watertown, Mass: Got up at 7:00 had breakfast and was ready to go out by 9:00. we spent the whole day visiting people Hammond had met while he stayed there. Had a very nice time. We came in to Boston at 5:00 and did a little shopping. Caught the 6:00 train to Providence.
The last entry was written on
December 7, 1943 from New Haven, Connecticut: Spent yesterday tracking and visiting. I let the Elders come up and spend the day tracking with us. We went tracking out in North Haven, walked 15 miles, spent the whole day. Had some good talks...
Obviously, mission rules have changed a bit since 1942! It's so interesting to catch a glimpse of what his mission was like for him. His missionary journal is a gem. I can hear his voice ringing though in my head and I can picture him in action. He was a person who loved to talk to people and he could instantly put them at ease and find something to talk about. He was a master at asking questions and he could engage anyone in conversation. I'm sure he learned many of these skills while serving in the New England States. Just imagine it. A poor farm boy walking the streets of Boston, surely visiting parts of
Harvard and Yale while in New Haven. I can just see how handsome he was in his suit coat, hat and top coat visiting with the good people of those areas throughout much of New England. It makes me get teary eyed just thinking of what his mission did for his life. I'm so proud of him and so proud that he chose to serve.
While in Boston, we spent one morning touring the presidential library of John F. Kennedy. It was quite fascinating. If you ever get the chance to tour a presidential library, take the opportunity to learn more about a particular president and the events that were going on in the country while they were in office. We've been to the libraries of Ronald Regan and Richard Nixon in California and we were very interested to see what was in the JFK library. It showed a slice of Americana during the short tenure of his presidency which was about 1000 days (minus any references to his dalliances with Marilyn Monroe...) But I digress. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside of the museum, but I did take one quick picture of the wording on a display about space exploration during his presidency and the spin-offs that came from that exploration. Who knew? I thought it was fascinating to find out that the good little GPS system that guided us carefully the entire trip was a product of space exploration and discoveries associated with it. We loving nick named our (on loan from Dave and Janet) GPS "Eleanor" and she saved our lives. She took us from the parking lot of our hotel in Boston, right to the front door of our hotel in NYC. She then outdid herself and drove us from NYC right to the steps of Mike and Yvonne's home in Washington DC. Unfortunately, I accidentally left her in the console of our rental car and when I discovered the mistake 45 minutes later, she was gone. I'm so sorry Eleanor! That was the only downer of the whole trip. Some dishonest Alamo employee or the next person who rented the car said that she was no where to be seen. Yeah, right. Poor little Eleanor. She is now in the hands of a dishonest person. But we have the instruction manual, so I hope they are frustrated trying to figure out how to use her without it. Dirty Rotten Scoundrel!
