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Show Story On Mormon Missionaries Appears In Eastern Paver Loiulinj; M!ni'i to tho f.ict th:t customs und lvliofs of the Mormons nro utill a .source of much intvro.-it mul curiosity in other jwrts of tho country, is an article entitled. "Mormon Youths Volunteer Volun-teer 1V Thousands For Jobs As Missionaries Without Pay," which appeared recently in an article in (lie Cleveland News, Clewland, Ohio. The article was accompanied by two throe-column pictures of missionaries mis-sionaries at the missionary home in Salt Lake City, on.qagvd in work which prepares them for their missionary duties. One of th pictures happened to be of the pprinsvillc girl, Mrs. Vera Bartholomew Bartho-lomew Stokes, who left recently to join her husband on a mission to the southeastern states. Under the pictures was the caption, "With food shortages almost universal uni-versal in the rest of the world, Latter-day Saints missionaries in training: at Salt Lake City ;et special instruction in proper diets and food preparation," and it shows missionaries, including three girls and a young man, learning to cook. The article reads in part as follows: "American Marines rescued Peter Nelson Hansen f rom the hospital hos-pital of a Japanese prison camp in Osaka. September 9, 1945. Hansen Han-sen weighed 120 pounds, about half his normal weight. "After 42 months as a prisoner, his black hair was streaked with white, he suffered from a back injury in-jury and his feet were so crippled that he still walks only with the help of a cane. He was old for his 31 years. "Hansen was detained in Manila for some months to testify at the war crimes trials of Generals Tamashita and Homma, but on November 7, 1946, was honorably discharged from the Army Air Forces after six years of service. 'Six days later, Hansen, whose home is Caldwell, Alberta, Canada, was on his way back to the Pacific Pa-cific as a missionary to the Japanese Japan-ese for the Latter-day Saints (Mormon) Church. "He is now not only working with the Japanese-Americans in1 Hawaii, but he is anxiously awaiting await-ing the reopening of church missions mis-sions in Japan proper, which have been closed since 1923. " A great work lies ahead," he J explains. T have not hate in my heart toward the Japanese. My desire is to help them.' "That spirit of Christian ideal-' ideal-' ism and self -forgetful devotion is f responsible, church leaders say, J for much of the success of the unique Mormon missionary pro- gram, now at an all-time peak oH activity, which asks and gets two years or more of uncompensated service from a majority of the young men in the church. "Some 250 new missionaries have just started 10 days of training train-ing here for missionary service in many of the church's 42 mission 1 fields in this country and 23 foreign for-eign lands. "When they arrive at their new posts they will bring" the number of active mission workers to over 4,000 more than double the prewar pre-war average almost all of whom have begun their service since V-J Day. "Mormon missionaries are different dif-ferent in two major respects from clergymen or mission workers of most other faiths: "They receive no salary and pay their own travel expenses to the mission field to which they are assigned as-signed and for the 24 to 30 months j period they remain there. "The missionaries have no exceptional ex-ceptional background in theology or church doctrine, but are drawn directly from the membership. More than half of the church's young men of eligible age they must be 20 years old or have had military service or two years in college answer the church's call. Young women also may serve. "New features have been added since the war to the concentrated 10-day training period given beginning be-ginning missionaries in the misson home here. "Besides getting an explanation of the use of the Bible, the Book of Mormon and other church writ- ings, and the functions of various church auxiliaries, the missionaries are told such practical things as how to make a bed, how to sew on a button, how to pack a suitcase and how to keep themselves healthy in lands where diets axe restricted by shortages. "Personal hygiene, good grooming, groom-ing, preparation of foods and maintenance of a balanced diet are other subjects for study." |
