A long post … I did not have time to write it more briefly.

Did you know the Church History Library publishes a blog? The Historical Record posts three or four times a month, with articles by archivists and librarians that focus on the collections in the Library. Some posts highlight new collections, or collections newly digitized, or they provide hints on successful research strategies for those who actually go to the Library for research. A great many other posts tell stories from Church history, stories that archivists and librarians have teased out of the materials at the Library. Even if you never set foot inside the building, these stories will almost certainly interest Keepa readers.

Musical Missionaries, a recent post by archivist Michelle Sayers, tells about some novel approaches to missionary work around the world in the middle decades of the 20th century: Elders and Sisters with musical talents, both vocal and instrumental, were sometimes organized into whole choirs or orchestras, sometimes assisted by smaller groups of especially harmonious missionaries. These musical groups toured their missions, performing on the radio or before live audiences in schools, churches, and musical halls. The records consulted by the post’s author and her colleagues did not provide much information on how successful these musical groups were in leading to baptisms, but surmised from evidence found that the effect on the musical missionaries themselves was profound and lasting.

Well, you might guess that I have a story or two to add to the subject of musical missionaries so ably introduced – and so fabulously illustrated! Really, look at all those photographs! – by The Historical Record. This story takes place in 1943 in one of the missions of the United States. I have decided to keep everything anonymous, because ever since learning about the one negative aspect of this story, my impressions about a certain apostle have been colored in a way I haven’t yet been able to shake. I don’t want to spread that shade. Thanks for understanding (if some of you supersleuths identify anyone, please keep it to yourself or write to me privately, and I’ll praise you publicly).

Late in 1941, a California sister – I’ll call her “Rose” here – was called on a mission to one of the United States missions. For the first six months of her mission, she served as any other missionary did. Her mission president’s evaluation of that time was that “She was regarded as one of our best missionaries in home contacting.”

The idea of forming a chorus of missionaries had come to the mission president a year or so before Rose began her mission. Some 60 elders evacuated from Europe at the beginning of the war had temporarily swelled the ranks of the missionaries, and some of them had been members of the Millennial Chorus that performed so well in the British Mission. The Mission organized its own chorus, drawing from those experienced singers from the British Mission, and adding to their ranks with the approval of the First Presidency, who directed that elders called as new missionaries who were known to have musical experience should be directed at least in part to that particular mission.

The mission president was frank in his reasons for organizing such a chorus.

One of the chief objectives of our program here has been the reaching of the upper class citizen in the communities where we have branches. Even in these enlightened states, it is a deplorable fact that we have been recruiting all too largely from the lower, or lowest, social stratum. … There are many branches in this Mission in which our people are uneducated, unrefined, unsuccessful in economic struggle, non-social, quarrelsome, jealous, and saturated with prejudice.

Those words might make some readers uncomfortable, but that sentiment is still heard occasionally in the Bloggernacle. Missionaries love their converts, but sometimes wards and branches who are left to integrate the most humble converts after the missionaries go home have expressed their frustrations freely. Regardless, recognizing one motivation for such a missionary group is important.

The mission kept careful records of their singers’ activities – number of performances, size of audience, fan mail received, newspaper coverage given. In the first three years of the chorus’s existence, a report noted that

we have reached in singing engagements more than 750,000 people. It has been the rule in the presenting of these programs to give not only a program of songs but to say something – as much as possible – about the Gospel of Jesus Christ as we understand it. The problem of introducing the singing groups has led to the selection and development of some rare and wonderful talent among the young men of this mission. I have listened to these young men and have been thrilled by their eloquence and their sincerity. Literally hundreds of business men have choked with emotion and wiped tears from their eyes as they have listened to these young men. If it were not for the choice musical program provided we could not have purchased the privilege of speaking so freely and so frankly to more 3,000 audiences upon the principles of the Gospel and the work of the Church.

In the spring of 1942, a new feature was added to the chorus’s performance: A chorus of six sister missionaries – including our Rose – began to tour and sing with the larger chorus. Audiences loved the Ladies’ Sextette, as they were called: They could sing, they were vivacious, and they were willing to answer all questions addressed to them. Here is a photograph from a 1943 newspaper article, with their sisters and their director, who coached them, selected their venues, made their travel arrangements, and otherwise managed their business. I’ve blurred the elder’s face – he was a future general authority, and you might recognize him. Sorry.

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The girls sing without charge, and are not allowed to take up a collection or accept a donation. Their main purpose is not to convert others to the Mormon religion, but to prove to people that they are no different from anyone else. Though the girls have sung before all type sof groups, they like best to sing for servicemen, because … “We want to do something to help in the war effort.” …

Any ideas that one might have about Mormons being “queer” or different are immediately dispelled on meeting the girls. With charm and vivacity they will answer questions anyone may have to ask about Mormonism. …

When asked how they came to be touring the country as young missionaries, Miss [H] replied, “It is something we have been saving and planning for most of our lives. To be a missionary for a period is a sacrament that earnest Mormon girls like to take up. It’s a high honor to be selected … None of us are accomplished musicians, but we like to sing.”

The most memorable occasion that the girls can remember is the Easter Sunday they sang for prisoners in the county jail. Several churches co-operated in planning that Easter service for the men.

“We were really touched,” commented one, “to see them so moved by music. It was hard to imagine what their feelings must have been at that time.”

“People have been grand to us,” they smiled. “At first they seemed hesitant just how to treat us, but not for long. We have been received most graciously everywhere we’ve been.”

“When war was declared in Europe,” they explained, “our missionaries were all called back to the United States. Young men in mission fields in this country were called in, and 95 percent of those are now in the armed forces. No more young people are being sent out … It will be the first time in 100 years that more than 2,000 young people have not been out as missionaries.” …

They are now scheduled to sing for several local young men’s groups, and have appeared on the Sunday band concert.

The numbers of missionaries dropped severely as missions ended and missionaries were not replaced. It became necessary to devote missionaries’ time to the most crucial mission roles, and the Ladies’ Sextette, along with the larger elders’ chorus, became a thing of the past in the spring of 1943.

Rose went home later that summer, having spent more than a year as a singing missionary, with another year devoted to tracting and building up the branch organizations. As her train to California passed through Salt Lake City, she took the opportunity to call in person to report her mission. (In those days, if you could make it convenient, you called at the Church offices without an appointment, and met with whichever apostle happened to be available that day. If you couldn’t come in person, you reported your mission by letter.)

When Rose reported to the Church offices, she was invited into the private office of an apostle.

I went to the church Office Building [she wrote later] – where I received the greatest shock and disappointment of my life. I reported to Apostle [X]. He told me to give a brief report of what I had been doing in the Mission Field, so I painted the picture as best I knew how.

When I finished he sat back in his chair and said: ‘Do you know what I think?’

After I said ‘no’ he said: ‘I think you have wasted 18 months of your most valuable time.

‘You were sent into the Mission Field to preach the Gospel – the Restoration – and didn’t do that in singing semi-classical and a few religious numbers.’

Apostle [X] compared the baptisms in Rose’s mission to those in another United States mission, and said that the total baptisms in that other mission far exceeded those of Rose’s. “They haven’t deviated from the old type of missionary activity,” he said.

Well, [Rose recorded], he went on like that for almost an hour. I think I could have given him a clearer understanding of the effectiveness of our work, only I was so taken back at what he said and trying so hard to swallow the lump in my throat that I couldn’t say a word. After putting your time and money and best effort into something as big as a Mission – having an Apostle of the Lord tell you [that] you have wasted your valuable time is a pretty hard thing for a person to take. I haven’t been able to think of anything else.

I feel pretty bad about it, yet I know what we as a group accomplished, and I know that the Lord knows.

Rose wrote a letter to her old mission director, the manager of the Ladies’ Sextette, to tell him what had happened during her mission report, and that manager took Rose’s letter to their mission president. Both men were greatly disturbed, but as they each wrote to Elder [X], their unhappiness, although unmistakable, was tempered with respect for the office of Elder [X]. The mission president stressed the purpose for the program, and the care they had taken to include gospel messages with every performance. He challenged Elder [X]’s comparison of the two missions he had lectured Rose about:

We have had an average of approximately 144 missionaries in this Mission since I came here. An average of 24 missionaries – one-sixth of the total average – has been assigned to singing activities.

Your verdict of “wasted time” was based on a comparison of the baptisms of [this] Mission and the baptisms of the [other] Mission. Surely singing engagements, in which one-sixth of the missionaries participated, could not account for the difference. Obviously there are other reasons why [our] Mission has baptized fewer people than some other Missions.

He went on to list ten proposed differences. Several of them resonate today, given the discussion at the recent Mission President’s training sessions at which the necessity for true conversion, not rapid, premature baptisms, was emphasized:

4. We maintain no contests between missionaries on the matter of baptisms.

5. We conduct no competitive contests on baptisms between this Mission and other Missions.

6. We do not follow the theory that if a person is baptized and confirmed a member of the church the spirit of the Lord will complete and perfect the conversion. …

8. We have devoted vast amounts of missionary time to the conversion of people heretofore baptized though not converted. …

10. In our proselyting we have attempted to place the emphasis on quality and not on numbers.

The group’s manager stressed the preaching they had been able to do, and the Sextette’s heartfelt connection with their audiences:

In seven months of activity in and around [city] the group presented programs before 56 non-Mormon church audiences, comprising 32 different denominations. At each of these services the message of the restored Church of Jesus Christ was presented through music and the spoken word, and in many instances the entire worship service was turned over to us by the ministers.

The extreme courtesy and friendliness evinced by the various ministers and the very favorable reaction by them and their congregations to our work are trenchant evidence of the efficacy of this type of approach, and of the power of the Lord to touch the hearts of those to whom we humbly present our message.

Evidence of equal validity is the fact that books of doctrinal exposition were left with ten different ministers when the Sextette left the city. Copies of the Book of Mormon and subscriptions to the “Era” were also distributed widely among the ministry.

Each of our programs, without exception, included at least half of the available time devoted to preaching the Gospel as straightforwardly and as strongly as I knew how. I have spent as much as ninety minutes preaching the Gospel in a sectarian church, invited by the Minister, and with my opportunity increased immeasurably through an introduction most complimentary to Mormonism in general and to us in particular, which he gave. It has been my unique privilege to present the Message of Mormonism before literally hundreds of audiences, including a total of more than 75 church groups, as the article mentions. These remarkable opportunities were made possible solely because of the musical excellence of the Sextette and the fine reputation they were able to establish. …

I shall never cease being grateful for what I consider to be the unparalleled opportunity I have enjoyed to preach the Restored Gospel to thousands of sympathetic listeners who have been able to appreciate its beauties. My experience assures me that seven missionaries engaged in routine work could never have gained access to 5 or probably even one, of those church congregations, let alone 75. I am sure, too, that the ministers above referred to, with whom I conversed and whose requests for literature I gratefully fulfilled, could never have been reached in such number and under such favorable circumstances through ordinary means.

It is hard to appreciate the impression that these fine, clean, talented young ladies made, [Elder X], on the thousands of individuals who have heard them sing. Literally dozens of times I have been approached by individuals with tears in their eyes who have commented on the wonderful spirit which the young ladies radiated. Remarks such as “There must be something behind a Church that would inspire such service from young people like you, and I’d like to find out what it is” were the unfailing result of any series of appearances the Sextette made. I took the trouble to note hundreds of such remarks, a few of which were listed in the Historical Review to which Pres. [M] has made reference. I hope you might take time to examine these.

I wish you might have been present, Brother [X], when the Sextette and I, together with a quartet of Elders, stood before the enthusiastic audience that crowded [city]’s most exclusive establishment – the [City] Club – and humbly presented the Message of the Restored Gospel through song and the spoken word. That audience comprised the very finest people – financially and socially – in the city. The concert was held in the beautiful Club auditorium, under the sponsorship of its management, who also, at their own expense, printed a beautiful program which included pictures of both groups of missionaries, and an article I had been invited to write. This program was mailed to each of the Club’s 1500 influential members. Everyone present at that concert was an especially invited guest, a friend who had thought enough of the Mormon Ladies’ Sextette and of the Cause they represented to brave a severe storm to attend. The tributes paid publicly and in private by the management of the club and by those present were such as to bring tears of joy to our eyes in gratitude to our Heavenly Father for such an opportunity. May I submit, Bro. [X], that the effects of such service cannot be adequately gauged in terms of immediate results.

Neither man mentioned the impropriety of holding an individual sister responsible for “wasted time” when she had done all that her mission leaders had asked her to do.

I do not know whether or how Elder [X] may have responded to the defense of the singing missionaries. I see from her Family Search Memories page that Rose did not let any reaction to Elder [X] drive her away from active service in the Church. The mission president completed his mission honorably, and the musical director went on to become a beloved general authority.

And that’s one of the stories I can tell about “musical missionaries.”