In Kenneth’s own words, Part 5

(1942) Battle Creek MI

We stayed at the Branch President’s home for two or three days, until we got a place to stay. My first experience in the mission field was the following Sunday when they called on me to speak. Up to that time, looking at an audience made me forget what church I belonged to. I told them everything I knew about the church in a minute and a half when I left on my mission. For some reason or other I was able to hold forth for a whole half hour, in fact the Branch President had to pull on my coat tail.

My first companion was Morris Toler from Robin, Idaho and he was just finishing his mission and he was sitting (we called it sitting on their trunk,) he didn’t want to do too much. So I had a poor beginning. I went tracting by myself a few times, which was against the rules, but I wanted to be doing something, and he eventually got so he’d go with me. And we did quite a bit of tracting. I was with him for four months and then he went home and I got an Elder Tanner from Phoenix Arizona as my junior companion and we worked together for another three months. We had to do country work while I was there in that state. Country work is when you go around and visit the members in the towns and cities or the area. Most of the cities just had one or two member families or perhaps even just one member. So we had to do the baptisms, blessings, marriages whatever needed to be done. So we had quite an experience at Chase Michigan. I’ll have to relate that because I can’t forget it. There we had, oh about 4 families of Chases, all the same family but they were sons of the patriarch. They had their houses there all together in this little group. Well they decided to put on a big dinner for the missionaries. They had the table spread clear through the front room and into the bedroom, so everybody could sit down. Before we sat down we had prayer, kneeling prayer at the side of our chairs. The old patriarch said the prayer and he prayed for a long while. A chicken came in the open door and pecked at everything as it went on down. As it got down to him he reached up grabbed the chicken, threw it out the open window and never missed a cadence in his prayer. It was quite interesting, we had a good time there and we had a lot of wonderful experiences. We went up to St. Marie and Mackinac Island and spent a day up there, enjoying ourselves. We also saw Beaver Island where the Strangites who left the church early in its history and established a cult there until Brother Strang was killed by one of his members and then that broke that up. But anyway after we came back to Battle Creek, then I was transferred to Indianapolis Indiana.

(1942) Indianapolis, IN

I had a wonderful opportunity while we were in Indianapolis. Elder Hadland Gunderson and I were together at that time and we went into the home where we were going to room and as we walked through the door, the blinds were all drawn and there was a big crowd there. They weren’t members of the church, none of them. We walked on through and they showed us the room that we were going to live in and I told Elder Gunderson, “There’s something wrong here, I’d like to go see what’s wrong. He said, “We shouldn’t interfere, it looks very serious” and I said, “Well, I’ll ask”, so I went out and I ask the lady. I said, “I noticed that it was very quiet and everybody is sad, is there something that I could do to help”? She said, “Well, there is nothing you could do, our daughter has Nephritis and she can’t see, hear or speak, and we are waiting. The doctor says it will just be a short time until she passes away. The family has gathered and she’s already comatose”. I said, “Well, we are ministers, would you mind if we gave her a blessing”? And she said, “Oh, I would love that”. So we had a prayer and went out and administered to this young lady, she was sixteen years old. Elder Gunderson anointed and I sealed the anointing, and I had the best spirit that I have ever had. I gave her a blessing. I don’t know what I said, but I gave her a blessing that she would get well. We excused ourselves and went tracting. We came back in a couple of hours and she was sitting up talking to her mother. It’s hard to relate the feelings we had. She was able to go back to high school and finish out her life. Well, the whole family came to church for a week or two and then it waned, and it goes to show you that, he that seeketh after a sign will waver. It didn’t last but it was still a wonderful experience.

In Kenneth’s own words, Part 4

(1941) Left on Mission

I had my farewell on the Sunday before I left on my mission and I entered the Mission Home December 7, 1941, the day war was declared, the day of Pearl Harbor. Reed Crystal, a friend of mine, got called at the same time so we went down, (we didn’t have a temple in Idaho Falls at the time, we had to go to Salt Lake) we caught the train and rode down to Salt Lake. On Sunday evening we arrived there and they met us and took us to the mission home. At that time, you went in on Sunday night, entered the Mission Home, on Monday you had classes, Tuesday you went through the Temple and received your Endowments also you were set apart to go on your mission. I was set apart by Joseph Fielding Smith. On Wednesday you went back through the temple again, had a few classes, Thursday morning you left for the mission field. Monday morning we had a testimony meeting, I remember and all the missionaries were supposed to bear their testimony. I had only borne my testimony once and I didn’t have a solid testimony. I knew I wanted to go on a mission but I didn’t really have a solid testimony of the gospel. So I waited my turn and bore my testimony. But I remember we had a missionary from Freedom Arizona. The poor kid came from a very poor family but he wanted to go on a mission so bad that he’d worked at anything he could. He’d rode bareback at the rodeos and earned enough money to put him through. He had an old straw suitcase, I remember, and he wore Levi’s and a work shirt when he came to the mission home and we all kind of looked at him like he was different. But at that testimony meeting he bore the most fervent, wonderful testimony that I had ever heard! He knew the gospel was true!

(1942) Chicago, IL

We rode in a train to Chicago and as I was assigned to the Northern States Mission, the headquarters was in Chicago at that time. There were six states in that mission, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. We got to Chicago Friday night and they met us and took us to the mission home which was out at 2253 North Sawyer Avenue, in Lincoln Park in Chicago. We spent two or three days there until they decided where we were going to be assigned on our mission. I was sent to labor in the town of Battle Creek Michigan. I had an interesting experience on the way to Battle Creek. It was about the 18^th of December and Moody bible institute had let out for the holidays. I got on the bus and it was just full of these Moody Bible Institute students. Some were Baptists, some were Lutherans, some were Methodists some were (I don’t think there were any Catholics) but there were Seventh Day Adventists, all different sectarian religions and I got by fine until a girl sat by me and wanted to know what I was doing out there and I told her that I was on a mission for my church. She says, “Oh, what church is that”. I said “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints”. She didn’t know what that was, so I said, “Commonly called Mormon”, and then the whole bus erupted, because they all knew about that. We had a really lively time clear to Battle Creek Michigan. I would bring up something and the Baptists would take my side and I’d bring up something else and the Methodists would agree with me and so on. We had quite a discussion. When I got off at the bus station in Battle Creek Michigan they were all arguing among themselves. I probably set the Moody Bible Institute back a whole year.