Start spreadin' the news

[After a week off, the BASOTRUSSL is back and--if not better than ever--at least as good as it is most weeks. This week's Gospel Doctrine lesson covers some of the events from the first 30-plus years after the Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. Since a big chunk of that involved sending missionaries all over the world, and since it's only about a fortnight until my parents leave on their mission, it seems like a good time to revisit the journals of the first church member-slash-missionary-slash-member missionary in my bloodline, my Great-grandpa Hofmann (GGP for short). Today's excerpts focus on his first mission. Previous posts drawing from GGP's diary can be found here and here.]

Not long after GGP's baptism, he was living in Samaden, Switzerland, and attending church meetings in nearby Pontrosina. The visiting President mentioned below is likely a District President, though the diary does not specify.

President Hyrum W. Valentine and his wife came to see us...[he] asked me the question, "When the Lord would want you on a mission, would you go?" I told him when the hospital is finished [GGP's architectural endeavor at that time] I plan to go to Zion. I have the money and clothes and all that I need. [At this time many if not most LDS converts hoped to move to Utah as soon as they could.] He answered and said again, "Would you go on a mission when called by the Lord or His servant?" I answered, yes, I would. He told me that the money and clothes, etc., I could use on a mission as well as for going to America.

As we were finishing the hospital building, wealthy men came to me and told me they intend to build and had chosen me to do the architectural work for them. But I kept my promise to the Lord to go on a mission to Germany, the land where I was born...the following day I left for my mission in the Hannover District...

On the way to Hannover I visited very briefly with my parents, brothers and sister, and found my mother was in much better health than when I saw her the last time I was home for her "funeral service."

As I arrived in Hannover, [District President Joseph] Anderson was in prison for preaching the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. A few days later he was released and went with me to Braunschweig, where I was assigned to labor with Elder Ben. Pierce of Provo, who had been there for a short time.

President Anderson went with me from door to door to show me how they do tracting. As we went to the meeting house in Braunschweig, we saw that we were watched by plain clothesmen. They first contacted President Joseph Anderson, but he directed them to me as an LDS missionary who had picked him up in his tracting services. As they tried to arrest me, Joseph Anderson disappeared and was no more to be found. They asked me for his address in Braunschweig, but I told them I do not know his address as we had not yet baptized him. They took me to police headquarters, but they could not put me in prison as, at that time, I was a German citizen who had his citizen papers in best order. My military papers, too, were in order. Nearly every day when I went tracting I was arrested one or two times, taken to police headquarters and set free as I had transgressed no law. My companion, however, had to avoid to be arrested as a foreigner proselyting the Gospel in Germany. If they could have arrested him, he would have been put in prison for a while. With the help of the Lord he escaped each time. He even could outrun dogs when they were sent after him. He had to rent and live in a room without registering; if he had registered, he could not have lived in Braunschweig.

At the end of July 1914, a great district conference was held in Hannover under the leadership of Elder Hyrum M. Smith of the Quorum of the Twelve, then President of the European Mission. He told us what would happen in the near future, that [the branches and districts] would be reorganized with local brethren as the leaders, that the local brethren and sisters should have the opportunity and experience in leadership. Had his advice been followed, much confusion could have been avoided as the elders were called home only two or three weeks later.

August 1, 1914 Germany declared war on Russia...in those days missionary work among the people was nearly impossible as the people thought and spoke only of war.

Once while tracting in Scotland, I had water dumped on me from a second-story window. But that was the worst thing that ever happened to me. I definitely didn't have to worry about getting arrested every day, or being chased by dogs...I'd love to read this Ben Pierce's diary as well. There's more to share about my ancestor's missionary efforts, and about his experiences in the first World War, but I'll save that for future posts. Isn't GGP Hofmann amazing?