German E. Ellsworth (1871-1961) spent long stretches of his adult life as a missionary. First came a four-year-mission in California. He had barely returned home to California and taken up what he thought would be his life’s work as a teacher and principal, and had begun to raise a family with Mary Smith, when he was called to preside over the Northern States Mission, with headquarters in Chicago. Seventeen years later (17!) he was released from that calling having served from 1902 to 1919. He worked for the U.S. Treasury Department for a time, until he was called again as mission president, this time to the Northern California Mission, with headquarters in San Francisco; he served there for eight years (1941-1949) – one of the missionaries who knew him then was my aunt, the Sister Missionary of a past Keepa series. He was an innovative mission president, whose techniques will be the subject of a couple of future posts.

I’ve enjoyed getting to know him recently through some of his correspondence from the early years of the 20th century on file at the Church History Library. Here’s some of what I enjoy:

He had a sense of humor. Once, after reassuring an elder that he could speak freely about the difficulties of missionary life, he wrote:

It gives us a chance to know your feelings and sometimes it saves us expressing our own. It’s a little like the man and the woman who were running to catch a train, and just as they were out of breath and within a few rods of the station, the train pulled out and left them. The man put down his grips and cursed and swore till the air was blue, and when he was thru the good lady standing near, said, “Oh, I thank you so much, you have expressed my feelings exactly.”

In an age when branches in the mission were still almost always presided over by missionaries “from home” or “from Zion,” as if local converts were not as capable or qualified (say, how much experience did the first apostles in this dispensation have before their calls?), he championed the practice of calling local men as branch leaders, both to give them experience in the Church and also to free his elders for more proselyting.

The Chicago branch which has long been presided over by Elders was organized last night and placed in the hands of local men. Branch President and two counselors, Sunday School Supt. and two assistants. M.I.A. Prest. and counselors. The Sunday School was some months ago put in the hands of local men, retaining students and Elders from home as teachers. The change was so successful that we feel that in the branch, also, local men should be used. Our Milwaukee branch is completely organized and has a very successful set of visiting teachers.

The very first “historic site” owned by the Church outside of the Great Basin was the pioneer cemetery at Mt. Pisgah, Iowa, which was located within President Ellsworth’s mission. He assigned elders to care for that cemetery every spring.

The president of the Iowa conference with two or three of the Elders there, cleared out the brush and repaired the fence around the Pisgah burying ground and report it in a good condition for a year or so, when new posts will have to be put in. This repair work was done at a very nominal cost. The work of taking out the brush was considerable of a task. In their judgment it was better to repair the fence there than to discard it and put in a new one.

He was aware of the value of maintaining a good reputation for the Church. When one of his elders left some unpaid bills behind in one town, President Ellsworth counseled his Conference President, that elder’s direct supervisor, to see that the debts were paid.

It would be well to write him a letter again mildly showing what it would mean to every Elder who follows, if someone of us makes a mistake or neglects to square our accounts or give some good reason for our delays. Latter Day Saints have a wide reputation for being square. Our credit is as good as any people on earth. People will trust us in money matters when they will not take a word of our religion. It would be a serious mistake to forget our accounts.

President Ellsworth was supportive of the few sister missionaries who served in his Mission, and sometimes sought to have more of them sent to serve there. The sisters, he said, were fully as qualified and capable as the elders, and must use their time to proselyte. Their company was not to be sought by the elders.

I desire you to say to our sister missionaries that we hope they are following instructions given them in our talks to them. It has been a serious question with our people – that of lady missionaries — and I have been making a careful study of Salvation Army sisters and I tell you their earnestness and straight forwardness in work as I have seen it is to be commended to our sisters for they never spend a minute with a sister or brother in the army when there is a stranger around. I know I have been guilty with you of robbing friends and saints of my time and the time of our sister missionaries by talking to them in company with friends and saints that looked on with eager eyes. I had a long talk with our sisters and they promised to do their best and spend all their time with saints and friends and I wish you to say in council meeting that any Elder is not doing his full duty if he seeks their company and thus detains them from spending their time with saints and friends. They are missionaries with us and as such their time is the Lord’s and belongs to the people. We do not think it wise for them to visit the hall during the week unless by appointment to go out to street meeting or visiting and they know the way by this time that they can find their way home from services or visiting without the services of an Elder.

When a woman with a particularly “colorful” past applied for baptism, an elder sought President Ellsworth’s advice on whether or not such a woman was welcome in the Church. His reply:

There are, in fact, no two positions to take in the case you mention. If your applicant for baptism exhibits by her daily walk and conversation that she has truly repented of her sins “who can forbid water that she should not be baptized?” The answer is obvious, “no one.” We do have the right to ascertain if fruits meet for repentance make themselves manifest in the lives of such people, and if they do not, though they be baptized, the sin remains as though there were no baptism performed, but we cannot forbid them under worthy conditions the sacrament of baptism and the blessing of the Holy Ghost.

One woman regularly sent 50c or 60c in stamps to Chicago to help with the missionary work. Married to a non-member, she could do no more than this toward paying her tithing. Month after month, President Ellsworth acknowledged her contribution and reassured her that her offering was gladly accepted.

We were pleased, today, to get your letter containing the fifty cents in stamps for tithing, and to note the splendid efforts that you are making in this and other lines of your religion. It is also noticeable that you express a regret that you cannot pay more or, one tenth. We think the Lord must be pleased with any one of His children who does his or her best. That is all he requires. “He who does his best does well. Angels can do no better.”

There were several major universities in the Northern States Mission which drew many dozens of students, often with their wives, from the stakes. For years, the students did not participate in any organized Church activities while they were at school – their memberships remained in their Utah or Idaho wards, and they often felt that their time was needed for study far more than for Sunday church attendance or assisting the missionaries. After advice from Joseph F. Smith, President Ellsworth made a special effort to get to the know the students in Chicago, giving them responsibilities and organizing to support them, rather than calling on them to support his missionaries. Future apostle Stephen L. Richards, and future author of Church history and devotional works Preston Nibley, were among the students he nurtured.

Our students of the various schools met in an excellent social last Saturday night and selected a committee of four making the Mission President chairman to arrange for special meetings and socials during the winter as well as the summer terms. They seemed anxious to unite that they may get better acquainted with each other. The students expressed sincere thankfulness for the counsel and spirit of the letter written them, and to a man that has read it, expressed heir confidence in Prest. Joseph F. Smith and desired that they would ever be worthy and willing to receive instructions and blessings from him.

When a convert asked for advice on reading material, he had two suggestions:

With regard to your friend let us say; if you want a book that always carries a sweet influence with it, you cannot better the Book of Mormon. The following words in Moroni 10:4 are true: “And when he shall receive thee things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God the Eternal Father in the name of Christ if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost.” There is a little story by Nephi Anderson entitled Marcus King, Mormon. It is a fine book in the hands of investigators. It describes the heart struggles of a young well-thought-of Minister, who was converted to Mormonism, in giving up his cherished ideals and casting his lot with the unpopular Mormons. All the principles of the Gospel are beautifully brought out and a sweet love affair ties the whole together. If you think the Book of Mormon a little too strong we can recommend Marcus king Mormon, price 50 cents.

The usual proselyting method throughout the world was for missionaries to distribute brief tracts explaining some tenet of the gospel and inviting strangers to attend meetings. If those attention-getting tracts were well received, the elders would follow up with “small books” – equivalent to what we today would call pamphlets or brochures – explaining in greater depth some question or issue. Only after strangers had been gradually introduced to the Church through these bite-sized and easily digested bits of doctrine did the elders spring the Book of Mormon on them.

President Ellsworth became convinced that these proselyting methods were backwards. He became one of the greatest proponents of the use of the Book of Mormon in missionary work that the Church has ever known. In fact, he had to produce the “Chicago edition” of the Book of Mormon, beginning with an edition of 10,000 and reprinted in editions as large as 100,000, to supply the demand he had created. In letter after letter, he explained his philosophy, endeavoring to convert first missionaries, then presidents of other missions, and even general authorities, to the necessity of letting the Book of Mormon speak for the Lord, as it had done in the earliest days of the Restoration.

We trust that you have conceived the plan that we believe was inspired of the Lord to forward the cause of truth in this part of the earth. That we may be more clearly understood we will state again that it is our mission during these summer months to sell Books of Mormon or in fact from this time on to consider first and foremost as a missionary the Book of Mormon. This book was given by the Lord. It contains the fulness of the everlasting Gospel. It is another witness for Christ. This is the book carried by the first missionaries and it is the only thing they had to leave for the people to read and they did a wonderful work. Of course, we have other books and tracts which should follow in their order but this is the order: first Books of Mormon – in every home, in every meeting, second, after we cannot dispose of a Book of Mormon offer a ten cent book and third let your generosity be aroused sufficient to give them a tract.

Again:

It is with pleasure that I write you a few personal lines in commendation for the good work being done in your conference and also to give notice that we have changed our ways of presenting reading matter before the people. Books of Mormon then 10c books then tracts. If I ever had an impression it was to get the Books of Mormon before and in the homes of the people. It is the book that the Lord says contains the fulness of the Everlasting Gospel and it is the book used by our first missionaries with wonderful success. It is the book that the Lord has promised all to know is true that would read it and then ask with a sincere heart and a desire to know. After we have done our best to get a Book of Mormon into their homes and have fallen down, then present one of our smaller books and should we fail in both they will gladly accept and read a tract if they get it for nothing. It is true that many people will not have a Book of Mormon but it is also true that we can dispose of 25 where we now get rid of one if we put our efforts in this line. Whenever a Book of Mormon is left there is a missionary in sight and under the Spirit of the Lord will many honest father, mother, son or daughter or neighbor or visitor be led to read it. A 10c book or tract would be put out of sight but a book of the Book of Mormon size will be put where it cannot be hid.

And again:

There should be a Book of Mormon in every home, in every library. It is our business to put them there. Teach our Elders the wonderful talk that we can make in its favor and it will be hard for them to keep a supply on hand. If we were working for ourselves we would at least have to sell 25 a week in order to live providing that we got them for nothing in the beginning. But we are not working for money, we are working for the Lord and will be blessed only so far as we do our level best, therefore it should be our constant prayer to improve our ways and methods in forwarding the work of the Lord. The important way of improving our work is by placing the second witness for Christ before the people.

And yet again:

I want to make a request of you brethren during the month of February and ask you to prayerfully carry it out and we will test this proposition. It is this: In your conversation with the people, will you talk less upon polygamy, authority and the organization and put especial stress on the divine mission of Joseph Smith and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon? There is no other book on earth, the reading of which will give you as much peace and joy as the Book of Mormon. The same peace and joy will always accompany a talk on that book if the talk be with the honest of heart. Our time is too precious to spend it with anyone else. Please comply with the request, and he who does with a prayerful heart, not despairing if he is successful only once in a hundred times, will have two or more Books of Mormon to his credit on the eve of the last Saturday of this month.

Correspondence is often the best way to get to know a figure from the past. Unlike diaries that can often be cryptic, letters are meant to communicate. Unlike speeches which may be impersonal in order to suit the many ears listening, letters are intimate, one-on-one discussions. This is why I love to read old letters!