Missionary Experiences: Elder Lawrence John Glavinic

  Date: 7-30-63 Boy, I really had a hard night. I must have caught the Asia Flu or something. I was running at both ends last night. It has really left me weak. I hardly had the strength to do any tracting. The more I think about it (being sick) the more I believe it was in actuality just some type of food poisoning. The only question in my mind is what it was that I ate that caused it.  Next day- I felt a little better today. Still not too much energy to do tracting. At noon today we received a letter from the mission president. He said that we will be taking the bus and giving it to the Elders in Tesin ( The New Italian District). So, I guess we will have to go back to the foot and bike mode of transportation. It is kind of a shame because the bus was so nice for investigators and everything; even though it was a little more expensive. Well, I guess I can save a little money now at any rate.  Tomorrow we are going to Chur to work with the Brüder. guess that is good that...

  Date: 7-24-63 District Conference Presiding: Elders Crosby and Hildebrandt Purpose: explanation of smile tracting and appointment getting  People present: 8 Elders from Zurich land, all except the Elders from Chur Elder Crosby- explanation of the sheet distributed buy the mission home. The Elders read from this sheet so questions could be, and were, answered. 

  Date: 7-22-63 Today, the Second Counselor to the Mission President, Brother Hildibrandt and Brother Crosby; I worked this morning with Brother Crosby. He was a real dynamic fellow. In the last 6 months he has come up with his own plan of teaching the people which is quite good and also, he was the originator of the “smile tracting’ approach.  The afternoon turned into a real wild time. First, we switched companions. I worked with Brother Hildibrandt; we went out to confirm the appointment that we made for that night. The other two went out to do some smile tracting. After we were through with our work, we waited for the others to show, but they didn’t come. We had two cars there. One was the one they had brought down with them and the other was the bus. Well, after waiting a time we heard a voice. We looked up and out of a window Elder Crosby was saying, “you had better get our of here with the cars.” At first, we thought he was joking but after we looked a little closer, we...

  Date: 7-20-63 District Conference- Presiding: President Russon Purpose: regular conference People present: President and sister Russon and the 10 Elders from the Zurich land district. Place: Wetzikon  Talks:  1. District Leader0 Guber – reviewed districts           Golden investigators:  a) Elder Musik has made his own “vortrag” with slides that anyone can use.  b) The mission home also has another slide “vortrag” from the German mission 2. Brother Andersen – ATTITUDE a) Story- about a man in the army having the job of cleaning the latrine. A bad job, but he decided to           make it wonderful. So, he really made the heads clean. He had pride in his work (analogy                        between this and respect for the priesthood) (1) Start day right  (2) sleep right  (3) story-Sons of Mosiah  (4) really...

  Date: 7-19-63 Yesterday, we went down to Erlenbach and worked with the brethren there. I really had a chance to compare myself with another Elder who had been out ½ a month longer than me. I really better get on the ball!! After talking with his senior companion who was a “begeister” [excited] fellow, I learned where and how to memorize. That’s on the “can” or in the “head”; the way to do it is to repeat the sentences over and over about 20 times. It is sort of funny because I know this is the way to learn or memorize, but I had to be told to do it first.  Now, my companion and I are starting to speak German all the time. This has really helped in the last 2 or 3 days My biggest down fall is not having the plan memorized so this is my objective: memorize- memorize- memorize- memorize  While working with the Elders in Erenbach, I found out that Elder Butikofer came from Rigby Idaho and knows Clyde Terry Jr. there.

  Date: 7-17-63 I thought I would mention that last week my companion and I went to Glarus to work with Elders Musick and a new one called Murry. Elder Murry and I had some interesting experiences that morning working together. We really found that they speak a lot of dialects. They couldn’t understand my Hoch Deutsch. We had to use sign language to get anything across. We worked that day in a town called Näfels about 10km from Glarus. The town was black Catholic, so we didn’t have much success. However, we did meet a very interesting man who was a dentist in Näfels. He was educated in Germany quite well and intelligent man. He had also done quite a bit of rambling which makes things also interesting.  While in Glarus, we had the opportunity to play football with some of the Swiss kids (American football) One of the Swiss kids really could run and they subsequently “wiped us out”. For the next three days we were really sore. I guess we played too hard. 

  Date: 7-15-63 Last night my companion and I went to Wttingen to speak. I gave the same talk I gave in Wadnswil. It was quite a panic just before I was to speak, I couldn’t find my talk. I was really looking through my pockets! But just as the Bishop announced my name, I found it in a pocket that I must have looked in four of five times before. It was much easier to give the talk this time than the last. I could look at the congregation from time to time and really felt that I understood what I was telling people.  The memorization is coming a little easier now. I know if I continue to work at it that it will come. Perhaps, the most important thing is to become selfless once if I can accomplish it, Then I believe I will be in good shape.  Well, I must get back to my studies now. We don’t have much time.

  Date: 7-11-63 As time goes on I am able to accept more and more responsibility as a missionary. This is a good feeling to know that you are becoming an effective tool in the hands of the Lord.  Today, to our surprise, we had the opportunity to talk with the mayor’s daughter. We tracted out the house without knowing it was the mayor’s home. The mayor or stadt president and wife were away on vacation, but we had a pleasant afternoon speaking with the mayor’s daughter. She was about 25 and had been working in Launsanne but was on vacation. We had the opportunity to give her the first and second discussions with the Book of Mormon. She was quite open-minded, so I hope it turns out well.  We also have a real wonderful family named Oberhotzer. They came through the third lesson just wonderfully. They, or course, have some doubts, but who doesn’t to begin with. It is hard to accept the fact that the church has been restored, and that the priesthood is again hear upon the earth...

  Date: 7-3-63 Yesterday my companion and I went down to Chur to work with the brethren there. Chur, I guess, is noted for being one of the most difficult towns in the mission to work in. Chur is about 100km from Rῠt, where we live, so it took us about 2 hours to drive down. It was real beautiful country. I had the opportunity to see where the Rhem begins and also the town where the classical Heidi was born.  After working for about 5 hours tracting in Chur, I don’t believe it is any worse than some of the places in Zurich that we tracted out. As a matter of fact, I believe it would have a much better future than Zurich. While in Chur, we had the opportunity to do some tracting. I and the other junior companion, Elder Olsen, spent about three hours tracting. This was really a riot because we both didn’t know much German. However, after the day was over, I could understand and say quite a bit.  In the short time I have been here the aus sprache for my name has produced som...