Sunday, March 6, 2022

Excerpts from M. Blaine Peterson's Notes while Serving as a Missionary (1926-1929)

M. Blaine Peterson (1906-1985) was a Utah politician. He set apart as a missionary in September 1926 to serve in the German Austrian mission (he would serve until July 1929).

 

In a recent biography, we read the following, showing how common it was then (and sadly, still is now) for those who were themselves unconverted to the faith would go out on a mission in the hope to convert themselves:

 

In early October, Blaine said farewell to his family in Ogden and made the short train ride to the mission home in Salt Lake City where he would receive a crash course on how to be a missionary. . . . That evening, Blaine wrote in his journal the ten reasons he had decided to serve a mission:

 

1. To prove to myself that the Gospel is true. . . . (Mike Peterson, Lord, Keep Me Humble: The Life and Political Career of Utah’s M. Blaine Peterson [Cold Shoulder Press, 2021], 71, emphasis added)

 

Elsewhere, we read the following, showing that Peterson did not simply “follow the leader” (a commendable attitude) during his mission:

 

On the inside cover of his mission-rules book, Blaine wrote down some personal guidelines that would guarantee him success as a missionary:

. . . .

3. Obey your superior Elders—but obey your own conscience (Ibid., 83, emphasis added)