Mission  1927

Brother Snow had advised us when we first came into the home that we would not be permitted to go home over the weekend, not even those who lived in Salt Lake City. This seemed silly to me especially since there were no classes on Saturday or Sunday. With my romance such as it was, I was determined that I was going to spend the last weekend home with Dorothy. I talked to Brother Snow about it but got nowhere. Apostle Dovid 0. McKay was in direct charge of the missionary work in the church at that time so I decided to take my case to him. I did this and after listening to my story he put his arm around me and said "Brother Griffin, you go home to Ogden and spend your last weekend with your girl and be back here bright and early Monday morning.", Brother McKay is now president of the Church (1953) and not only because of this instance, I have always regarded him as one of the finest men that I have ever known and a great leader. He has more of the understanding of human nature than most men.


YEAR (FILE ) SUBJECT
---- ------- ---------------------------------
1927 (1041) Missionary Preparatory Training Course
1927 (9079) Seventy's Ordination Certificate
1927 (9083) Seventy's Ordination Certificate
1927 (9082) Minister's Certificate

LETTERS
----------------------------------------------
(L270824) John Griffin to Mother
(L270907) John Griffin to Mother

Finally we finished the training at the mission home and the time came for departure. We left from the station at Ogden, and after several false "All Aboards" we finally pulled out. We stopped over night in Chicago and then went on ton Montreal, Canada, from where we sailed. We went over on the "Montclare" a cabin class boat sailing under the English flag. It was a boat of about 20,000 tons and a very nice boat for its size.


YEAR (FILE ) SUBJECT
---- ------- ---------------------------------
1927 (9051) S.S. Montclare

We were warned before we left that our deportment would be watched carefully on the boat going over. On the trip before some of the missionaries entered into the dancing on the boat and some titled Englishman thought that one of the missionaries was mimicking him on the dance floor. He walked over and slapped the missionary's face whereupon the missionary promptly knocked the Englishman down. So dancing was prohibited. I found that the crew including the stewards looked down on the missionaries with a jaundiced eye and to an extent the trip was spoiled because of the this feeling that we were not wanted.

LETTERS
----------------------------------------------
(L270910) John Griffin to Mother
(L270912) John Griffin to Mother

(MISSIONARY JOURNAL OF JOHN GRIFFIN - page 1)

page 16

Previous Page   Next Page   Table of Contents