Comments on: Without Purse or Scrip: First Tracting of the Argentine Countryside, 1931

By: queuno

queuno — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:04:45 +0000

I’m too young to have served without purse or scrip, but their summary sounds similar to my time serving in the Chilean campo.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:04:50 +0000

(I cross-posted with Jacob B., whose comments always end up in the moderation queue for some unknown reason.)

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:02:44 +0000

Cool, Carol. I scan every news article I run across from my old mission area hoping to connect with some place I’ve actually visited.

Clark, yeah, I should edit that so it’s less ambiguous: this was the first such attempt in the South American Mission (which then covered the entire continent, although there weren’t yet missionaries in very many places).

Some missions, notably the New England Mission, tried without-purse-or-scrip proselytizing at least into the 1950s, usually for relatively short periods in the summer, in rural areas. I think the practice of a missionary’s depending on that kind of support all the time all during his mission ended in the early years of the 20th century, and I don’t know that it was ever tried in urban areas.

By: Jacob B.

Jacob B. — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:00:34 +0000

I should add, though, that during the winter months this wasn’t required. He also said that it was his impression that not all missions at the time were doing this, that his might have been one of the few.

By: Jacob B.

Jacob B. — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:58:38 +0000

Armand Mauss told me he went “without purse or scrip” in New England when he was a missionary in the late 1940′s.

By: Clark

Clark — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:13:34 +0000

An interesting read. I suppose this statement:

It was the first LDS attempt to travel without purse or scrip, to preach the gospel by depending on the local population for hospitality, in this dispensation.

refers to the first LDS attempt in the country or continent? I’m pretty sure the sans-purse-and-scrip approach was the standard operating procedure for most of the 1800′s.

Does anyone know when was the practice discontinued?

By: Carol

Carol — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 14:52:55 +0000

That is a great story. I served as a missionary in the same place. We rode the bus from Buenos Aires to Lujan. Now it is city streets with skyscrapers along most of the way. The Catholics still make a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Lujan. It was interesting to hear about the first missionaries there. Thanks.