History of John Smith Griffin
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Mission 1927

He decided to put-down that he had worked as a painter for the Southern Pacific. This was a mistake as they had all of the personnel files right there at the depot and immediately checked them and found that Mac worked as a section hand. The foreman refused to hire him but finally after some persuasion from Woody, agreed that if Mac could mix from white lead, oil and colors three colors that he picked out he would hire him. As soon as the foreman left the shop, Woody got hold of me and the three of us worked all morning mixing the colors that the foreman had selected. When he came back at lunch time and found the colors mixed, he was amazed. Anyway, Mac was hired and tae all went to work as painters. Fortunately the lead painter was a fellow who was in his last year in college and painted during the summer. He was very understanding and helped us all out as we went along. We painted switch shacks, water towers, office buildings, box cars, and most everything that there was to paint around the railroad yard. We really had a good time and of course earned good money (for those times) too.

About the middle of the summer I received my call to go on a mission. I was very much surprised when the call was to the French Mission. They had not honored either of my requests as to the places where I wanted to go. I suppose that one of the things that influenced their decision was that I had been exposed to two years of "french" in school: If they had realized how little french I knew, I am sure that this would not have been a consideration. I had instructions to report to the "Mission Home" in Salt Lake on August 22, 1927. There were quite a group of missionaries in the home and we were all assigned to rooms and a schedule of classes was given to us.

YEAR (FILE ) SUBJECT
---- ------- ---------------------------------
1927 (9078) John Griffin's Elder Ordination Certificate
1927 (9081) John Griffin's Mission Call Letter

I shan't forget the quiet refined atmosphere of the mission home and the change from the horse play that I had been use to during the summer months while I was working with the gang as a painter.. We were in the mission home for two weeks. The rules of the home were very strict. You had to be in bed by nine each night, you could not go out and visit friends in the evening - no shows - and the head of the mission home, a brother Snow, was very strict. He was roundly disliked by everyone in the home and was shortly thereafter replaced. I recall one evening several of us went to a show. We did not get home until about 10 pm. and Brother Snow was waiting at the front door to "greet" us. I recall that the show was "Beau Gest" one of the best I have seen.

With the prospect of going away for three years looking me in the face, my romance became increasingly important. I was really deeply in love and it took a lot of level headed thinking to keep from running away and getting married before going on my mission. I recall that on one Saturday the mission home provided a sight seeing tour of Salt Lake City for the missionaries so that we would be acquainted with the city and be able to tell others about it. Dorothy came down from Ogden and went with me on the tour. I remember very little of the tour but I am sure that if I had just made the suggestion Dorothy would have gone with me and been married at that time.

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