My brother-in-law, Adam Hettrick, got me a job where he worked at the old Utah Fire Clay Company, making brick and sewer pipe. This was some contrast to the other job as it was so hot in the kilns we could hardly stand it, especially when we first opened the kiln after the fires were out. This was hard work also. Worked there all the rest of the winter into the spring of 1921, then went back to Porterville and worked for Frank Porter all summer. Nobody ever worked harder than Frank Porter and he expected all who worked for him to keep up, so I did. Thinning and hoeing sugar beets, hauling hay, milking cows, cutting brush, and many other things. I lived right with he and my sister Emma and their small children. When all the crops were in that fall I went to Snyderville with Golden Carter and we worked on the ranch of John Riley Porter all winter milking cows, hauling hay both before it went in and after it came out of the cows. The snow was fence high, wind most of the time, and 50 degrees below zero at times. One time I remember, for a solid week it only got up to 12 below zero in the daytime, got frozen fingers and ears. About March I took a week off and went to Salt Lake and had my tonsils out. During that time I went to Ogden to see a girl that lived close to us in Porterville when we were younger, by the name of Mathel Allen . I had a terrific case on her, but she was not so much of the same mind. I guess I was too rough for her. She was very refined and a good musician.
When spring broke, about May or first part of June, I quit the ranch and went back to Porterville to help Frank Porter with his work. All this work was mostly gratis, there was not much money around at that time. The first time I attended church after I returned from Snyderville (I hadn’t been to church all the time I had been up there) the Bishop, Hyrum K. Porter, took me around the northwest corner of the old Porterville church house and asked me if I would go on a mission. This was a great shock to me, a mission, at that time, was not very popular among the young boys. I had picked up the habit of smoking, had not even been ordained a Priest. Some home missionaries, Brother Harvey Richins and a companion from Henefer had contacted me and convinced me to quit smoking. And I had prayed for strength to be able to live a better life. I pondered the call of the Bishop for some time, I thought of the hardship it would place on my father and mother. As I said, there was not much money around at that time, the Great War was just ended and times were tough. I finally told the Bishop I would go if my parents agreed. He called us together and asked them how they felt about me going on a mission. Father thought for some time and then said that there was no way he could support a missionary at this time. Mother spoke up, she was in tears, and said “Pa, I supported you on two missions to England, if you can’t support this our last son on a mission, I will.” And she probably did, God bless her for her strength and courage and faith, she knew that I would never amount to anything in life if I didn’t fulfill that call. My call came from the President of the Church, Heber J. Grant, in July. I was to leave on October 15th, 1922 so I was able to help Frank with all of the fall harvest. I was going fairly steady with Leah Giles. We had been a friend of their family for many years as my oldest brother Heber had gone with the oldest daughter for many years, but they did not marry. This was a happy time for me, she was my first true love. (I will say here that she was killed in an auto accident soon after I got out in the mission field.) My call was to the Central States Mission, Headquarters in Independence Missouri. Samuel O. Bennion was the President. October came, I left with father and mother for Salt Lake on the 13th in the 1917 Ford Modle T., for the first three miles Brother Will Pulled us with a team of horses. (I will say here that all my courting up to this time had been done with a horse and buggy). October 14th we met with some of the General Authorities, George Albert Smith did most of the talking, told us if we didn’t think we could live a clean life and serve the Lord from that moment on, we could be released and go home. Most of us determined to do well. There were not many of us there (less than 2,000 missionaries in the whole world at that time.) I was set apart that day by Richard R. Lyman. We stayed that night and the night before with Heber and Lola, my brother. Early on Oct. 15th we went to the temple to get my endowments. Didn’t get out of the temple until about 3:00 p.m. Went directly to train and said our good bye’s. (This is all the missionary training we had at that time, the rest came the hard way.) We road the train, on hard seats, all night that night and all the next day and arrived in Denver Colorado. This was on the D&RG Railroad. Layed over there a while, changed railroads, and road all that night, all the next day and most of the next night and arrived in Kansas City at 4:30 a.m. Washed up and got breakfast, there caught a bus for Independence. The mission home at 302 South Pleasant St. Four of us, myself, Donald T. Berrett of North Ogden Utah, Leo Hauson of Roosevelt Utah and Arthur A. Day of Nampa Idaho, received our assignment to go to Baton Rouge Louisiana, which was about as far away as we had come from Utah. That afternoon we took the old LR&N Railroad fired with pine knots, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas, to Baton Rouge Louisiana, arriving there five days later, a very hard trip. All the missionaries of the Louisiana district were holding conference. President Bennion was there and gave us our assignments. I was assigned to travel three months with James L. Purser of Salt Lake City. There were only eight elders in the whole district, two of which had arrived one month before us. A day by day account of this mission is in a set of small books elsewhere. Many experiences and much conversion in myself took place in the next 2-1/2 years I spent there. I witnessed miracles that gave me a strong testimony that the Church was truly the Church of Jesus Christ, that he lived and directed his Prophet and the Holy Ghost was with us. We tromped the muddy roads and trails through the back woods, with our little hard pan suitcase with all our belongings and books and tracts in it. It was our chair, our desk and sometimes our pillow, but we were happy. We held meetings in cottages and shacks, with the light of oil lamps without chimneys, walking sometimes 30 miles a day and holding meetings at night. We loved the people and they loved us and were eager to hear our preaching. I was told that I was the best preacher that they had known, but of course, that was to encourage me.
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