Evan's Mission

Excerpt from Evan's history

Evan entered the mission home in Salt Lake on April 20, 1931. His Dad and Mother took him to Salt Lake and let him out on the corner of South Temple and 1st East. This was half a block from the mission home by Eagle Gate. He had one suit case with all of his clothes in it. Brother and Sister Taylor were at the mission home. Sister Taylor is President Grant's daughter. Evan checked in with her and was assigned a room where there were two double beds and four Elders. He was told he would be called at 6:00 A.M. and was told what to say: "Good morning and Thank you." They had one Elder they had called and told him it was 6:00 A.M. and he said, "Oh Hell!" This is probably why they were told what to say. Classes started at 8:00 A.M. and were taught by members of the quorum of the twelve. Evan liked the classes taught by Bro. David O McKay the best. He taught a class on the New Testament. At this time Bro. McKay was a professor at the University of Utah. Evan said that he was truly a wonderful teacher. They were taught by a Doctor on how to take care of themselves and had instructions on how to take care of their money.

Evan spent two weeks in the mission home during which he went three Endowment sessions in the Temple. The missionaries were taken through the Temple going in all the rooms and up in the top. They were given a talk while in the Temple by the Temple President, Brother Christianson. They wanted the missionaries to be able to say that they had been in every room of the temple. Evan was set apart for his mission by Brother Richard Lyman. He left Salt Lake City, April 29, 1931, on the 12:30 P.M. train. After buying his ticket he had $18.00 left. There were only three missionaries going to the Eastern States. Evan said he would just sit up and not get a pullman as he didn't have enough money to afford one. A chair car ticket to Brooklyn cost $52.00 and it took four days to get there.

The very day Evan arrived in New York, he was taken to a street meeting. He stayed at the mission Home for two days with President and Mrs. James H. Moyle. He learned to love and appreciate them. He witnessed a marriage there which was a new experience for him. He was assigned to work in the Massachusetts district and was put on the passenger ship that went from New York to Boston. He was met by B. C. Bingham who was the presiding Elder of the district. After spending a few days with him he was assigned to work with Burtis Hall who was from Cache Valley. They worked together in Lawrence Mass. When D. C. Bingham was released, Harden D. Young became the Presiding Elder and Evan was his companion until he got a call to go to the Blue Ridge district where he was appointed to be the Presiding Elder. The Blue Ridge District was part of Pennsylvania and Maryland. The headquarters of the Blue Ridge District was in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Evan took Elder Grant Thorn's place there when he was released. The mission president gave permission to have a car so Evan bought the one Elder Thorn had. It was a Model A Ford Coupe, and after using it for awhile he decided he needed a two seated car to take missionaries around so he traded it and got a two seated Model A Ford. There was a dozen missionaries in the district and the district was spread out so it was necessary to have a car to get around. Not many district leaders had cars.

Evan did a lot of door to door tracting in Altoona, Harrisburg and Buck Valley. They held street meetings and meetings in the jails. They also worked hard to keep the work in the branches going. At the end of the two years of his mission President Moyle asked him if he would stay another three months because of a shortage of missionaries there. He wrote home and got his parents consent to do this. He attended the annual missionary conference at Palmyra, New York for the 3rd time. Conference meetings were held at the Old Joseph Smith farm house. They tried to hold it as near the spot as they could determine where the plates were taken from the hill. They slept in the old barn across the road from the farm house for two nights. The meals were served cafeteria style to the 150 to 200 missionaries who attended these conferences. Evan met D. C. Bingham here again. Bingham had been working in the east and took his vacation to come to the conference.

Evan, Elders Forest, Green, and Rasmussen, built an exhibit at the York Pennsylvania County Fair. This gave them an opportunity to contact many people. Evan has a picture of the booth with the missionaries.

Evan had an honorable release from his mission on the 20th of July 1933. He drove the Model A Ford home. Con Haderlie from Freedom, Wyoming and other missionaries there rode with him as far as Chicago to the World’s Fair. He stayed two nights at the Northern States Mission home. He was introduced to a missionary who was looking for a way back to Ogden, Utah, who didn’t have money for transportation, so he rode home with Evan. Evan paid for his meals and other expenses. They stayed one night in a motel and slept in the car two nights. It took three days to get to Ogden. After Evan left this missionary at his home in Ogden, he went on to Salt Lake City to the mission home. It was in the afternoon and he talked to President Grant who had just come from golfing with his son-in-law. Sister Taylor fixed a bed for him to sleep in that night. Evan's mother and brother Reuel were at the Maxam Hotel. Reuel called the mission home and told Evan to get down there before his mother went crazy. She was so anxious to see him and had waited quite awhile. It was a happy reunion after 27 months.

The next day he was interviewed by a General Authority in the Church Office Building. He was told to keep close to the church. After the interview he went to the Maxam Hotel and got his mother and they came home to Afton. They sang and visited on the way. Two of the songs were, "An Angel from on High", and "O My Father". Evan said, "My heart pounded for joy as we came over the Salt Creek divide. It seemed like I had been gone for years."

The first time he walked down town Evan met the Forest Ranger, Ona Harrison, who greeted him and said, "Where have you been, I haven't seen you for a few days." Adjustments have to be made after returning from a mission and are sometimes harder than those made when starting a mission. Evan came back to the work he had left to someone else and put his shoulder to the wheel. The first time he milked the cow she switched her tail and broke his glasses. He said, "That makes me out of patience." The first job he had when he came back was to put forms in for a rental house his father was building. He helped mix the cement by hand in a box with a shovel.