Now before I tell anything further about our travels and labors, let me tell you what our supplies consisted of. At Mission Headquarters we were required to discard our clothing, that is our suit; hat and shoes; and buy clothing befitting a minister of the gospel, the kind which was worn by the ministers of other churches. This was a black Prince Albert suit, with black derby had and black shoes of a plain box-toe style.
As summer was supposed to be about over, (it being the first of September) they also gave us winter weight worsted suits, made to last. We had to have a change of underwear, three shirts, and three pairs of socks. Then there had to be a shoe-blackening kit, a clothes brush, a toothbrush, a shaving kit, and hand mirror.
This was packed in a leather grip or traveling bag, that was about 14 inches long and 8 wide and 8 deep. Then the musts in books were a Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Coveneants for our own use, and two Books of Mormon, two Orson Pratt's Works, two Cowley Talks on Doctrine, six Voice of Warning, and six Mr. Duran books, which we offered for sale. Then there were 300 tracts that we were to give to the paople who we contacted, so the result was that the grip when full and with at least one bundle of tracts tied on the outside, weighed about 40 pounds.
And with that and an umbrella, we were equipped as we got off the train at Edwards, Mississippi on a bright sunny morning. This was in the lowland of the Mississippi Delta with temerature of about 95 degrees and a very low atmosphere.
We were met by an Elder Iverson and he informed us that we would eat breakfast at brother Steffey's about 9 miles away. So down the dusty road we started, our first real missionary experience in the deep, sunny South.
About three hours found us seated at Sister Steffey's table, well filled with good food, and we really did justice to it! But ho! how tired we were after an all-night ride and that nine mile walk in the heat with our heavy load. We spent the balance of that day and night with these good people and then prepared to move on the following morning.
It was here that I started to reduce my load. I had a book that I thought a great deal of (an ecclesiastical history), one that I had brought from home and wanted to have with me in the mission field, but when I had carried that grip the first nine miles I had decided I would get along without this book which weighed two pounds. So I had to give it to Mr. Steffey. When we were ready to leave, Brother Steffey handed me a dollar and twenty-five cents, which was about half the price of the book.
When we got back to Edwards, I used part of the money he gave me to pay postage, and sent a large Bible which I had brought from home, back home, with the thought I would buy a lighter Bible, but I never did. Now, what do you think of a preacher without a Bible? It sounds like a hunter without a gun, but I got by very well. I had a small vest-pocket New Testament and it happened that through my mission my companion always had a Bible. Also, in the homes of the people we visited, there was always a Bible, and I found that it had a good effect to use theirs. It did well away with one argument often raised against the Latter-day saints. Namely that we have a different Bible from the rest of the people.
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