Excerpt from The Latter-Day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 67: December 14, 1905

The missionary may meet with a similar reception at a number of places, but sooner or later he is almost sure to have the door closed in his face before he can deliver the message. This kind of treatment may cause his hopes to fall somewhat and his courage to fail him for a moment, but soon his deter mination is renewed, and his timidity vanishes. He may consider his first visit in tracting fairly successful. By introducing himself as a Latter-day Saint, or merely leaving the tract without further introduction, on his first visit he is looked upon as nothing less than a respectable gentleman.

By the time he calls with a second tract, some of those who received the first will have read it, and without doubt have been deeply impressed with the truth of its teachings, but learning later that the Latter-day Saints are the same people as are commonly called Mormons, they refuse to investigate further or to have anything to do with such a people. Not because of their doctrines do they shun them, but on account of the prejudice which exists against the Saints. It is indeed astonishing to the young missionary to dis cover on his second visit how some of those to whom he handed the tracts Show their extreme contempt for him and the literature he is circulating. On seeing him at their doors they will at once go and get the tract left the week before, carrying it by one extreme corner, as if afraid of contamination, and push it out to him at arm's length, telling him to never come again to their door. Some have been known to carry the tracts back with a pair of fire tongs, in order to express more effectively their utter abhorrence of everything con nected with Mormonism.

Such are some of the unpleasant features of tracting! But there is a bright aspect to this same avocation. The satisfaction of having performed a most important duty in the service of God gives joy to the heart, no matter how little encouragement one may receive from the people in his labor of tracting from door to door. But often through diligent and prayerful searching a missionary finds those who are willing to listen to his message and testimony, and his visits result in the conversion of precious souls to the great truths that lead to eternal salvation.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.