Although I didn’t “officially” go on a mission I do have some missionary experiences, both while in the Navy and since in married life.

The first experience was with a young man named Bjorn. We were on board the USS Dixie (AD-14) together and I and another shipmate, Scott Derails, taught him the Gospel. We were able to baptize him in Yokohama Japan. It was a wonderful experience to see this young man change his life so much. The baptism was...unique to say the least. The only font we could find was in a Catholic Monastery that had been converted from a Buddhist Palace. The little Japanese Priest was so delighted to be of service and bent over backwards to see that everything was just perfect for us. The problem was that someone told him that a Mormon Baptism had very strict rules about water depth and temperature, it had to be at least six feet deep and nearly freezing cold. When we arrived he was so very apologetic because he could not fill his font more than five feet two inches. Well poor Bjorn stood five feet 3 inches on his tip toes. As for the water temperature he had acquired 3 large ice cubes about two square feet each and had them floating in the water. I had to literally hold Bjorn up out of the water with my left hand while I raised my right hand to the square for the baptismal prayer. We were in and out of the water as fast as possible. I don’t ever remember seeing some one as totally happy as Bjorn was that day. What a wonderful experience it was for all of us, cold, deep water and all. Bjorn was transferred off my ship a week after his baptism and I have never heard from him again. I often wonder how he is doing.

The next experience was with Mike. Mike was a well known “bar room brawler”, not out of meanness, he just enjoyed getting drunk and tearing up the place. He was probably the most vulgar and profane person I have ever met to this day. He was a very large medic and I had usually tried to stay out of his way whenever possible. One night he came into my berthing compartment and literally picked me up by my pajama shirt (and mostly chest hair), held me at arms length and asked me if I was one of those $#@& %$#@ Mormons. I nervously responded that yes, I was indeed a Mormon and his response shocked me.“Good teach me what I need do because I am going to get baptized this Friday!” I responded that the first thing he had to do was put me down, which he did. Everything we taught him he accepted and did immediately, and yes he was in fact baptized on Friday just five days, after my being pulled out of bed by him. A very short time later he was transferred away and I didn’t see him for at least a year probably closer to 2 years.  At that time he was a Stake President in San Diego. I saw him again over 40 years later, I ws serving at the Recommend Desk in the Jordan River Temple when a group of newly assigned Mission Presidents all came to the temple together. He was assigned to be Mission President in the Central Utah Area.

While in San Diego my roommates and I started making appontments for the missionaries. The poor missionaries were so busy that they didn’t have time to knock on doors in fact Salt Lake ended up sending two additional companionships to the area to keep up.

While I was selling vacuums door to door part of my territory was Tooele. In Sunday School we were challenged to give out at least one Book of Mormon with our testimony and picture in it. I accepted the challenge and decided I would expand it to giving out one Book of Mormon per month for a year. I would often stop at the old “Salt Air Park” and read my Book of Mormon for lunch on my way to or from Tooele. I was usually able to find a tourist family who would ask me about the religion and I would leave them my copy of the Book. The problem with doing it that way is you never get the chance to know of the fruits of your labors — or so I thought. One Friday morning while I was Assistant Coordinator at the Temple I had the opportunity of working with the Living Endowment Patrons. There was a very sweet group of people and it turned out to be a fairly large family there to all receive their Endowment and be Sealed as a family. They somehow recognized me, maybe from the picture in their Book of Mormon and or my name badge. We got to talking and sure enough this was one of the families I had given a Book of Mormon to several years before. What a cherished moment to meet them again in the temple and assist them in receiving their Temple Ordinances.

I also served for a short period of time (probably 2 months) as the 1st counselor in the Stake Mission Presidency before the Church revamped the Missionary system and did away with Stake Missionaries. I enjoyed the service and was just “getting my feet wet” as it were when the change came.