Missionary moments: 'A wavering voice'
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One morning I was awakened by a telephone call. I didn't recognize the voice on the phone but when the person told me his name, I remembered him as a missionary companion from 50 years ago. The call was concerning a person who was in the Church News as a new counselor in a stake presidency, James George Williams. We had known him as Jimmy George when he was about 14. He is now 65 years old.
Elder Richins and I were in the West Central States Mission and had just been assigned to the town of Conrad, Mont. When we got there we were told by a member that there had been missionaries in that town for 10 years and there had never been a missionary convert in those many years.
We were out tracting and knocked on this one door. A woman answered the door and commenced to tell us how horrible Joseph Smith was. Because we had an appointment soon we excused ourselves, but before we left we asked if we could come back and tell her how we felt about the Prophet Joseph, to which she agreed.
Two days later, we knelt and prayed for guidance. Sure enough, the woman was there and let us back in. She said, "OK, tell me what you think of Joseph Smith." After a prayer with her we told her the Joseph Smith story and bore our testimonies to her of its truthfulness, whereupon she began to cry and asked how we could forgive her and how Joseph Smith could forgive her for all she had said bad about him.
We were invited back and taught her and her five children the gospel. Her husband was in the oil fields, but he agreed for her and the children to be baptized.
Elder Richins gave me the phone number of Jimmy George, so as soon as I hung up I called Jimmy George and renewed our acquaintances and congratulated him on the new calling. He told me with a wavering voice how happy he was that 50 years ago two young elders knocked on the door and brought the gospel to his mother's home. All the family remained active and involved in the Church. If I understood him right, there are more than 100 of the family that are now in the Church. — James Chandler Waldron
