I need food way too often to consider all of this time between meals, and not knowing when the next meal was coming. i would have been a very grumpy missionary. i was more in control of my food onmy mission, but I still ended up fainting 9 times from too much sugar from overly sweet, hospitable people.

it’s fascinating to consider arranging a place to preach, then speaking so long at each place. who times their speeches anyway?

While I don’t know how financing worked entirely — calling Edje! we need one of your posts on this! — I note that Elder Jones and his companion are selling their books rather than giving them away (as a general rule). They would have had to pay the mission office for those, probably a part of what causes Elder Jones to be “about $2.00 behind,” but maybe that accounts for their having change in their pockets sometimes. A handful of times he has recorded that someone gave them a little money, and they’d almost have to be receiving an occasional sum from home in order for them to buy the pants and shoes Elder Jones notes buying from time to time, and to take the train as he notes doing a few times. But exactly how the accounting worked with the mission office, or whether there were rules about how much money they could carry or when they could buy meals and when they had to ask for hospitality, I have no idea. Anybody else?

If they are without purse, how do they pay the $1 and how are they $2 behind, etc. They’ve bought 5 cents of candy before, too. How does that all work?

I suspect he writes in his journal during the afternoon when they are in the woods. He says he “slept well” in the evening before he goes to sleep. It might be awkward to write in your journal with all the family around wondering.

He talks so much about how he slept and if he ate a good meal. I guess when you don’t know where you’ll eat or sleep next that is an important part of the day.

This is all very interesting and enjoyable.