I have in my possession some journals from the late 1880's. They were written by a man named Lars Eggertsen, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The current owner of them is a man from Monroe, Connecticut. He is Lars' great-grandson. The owner's parents left the Church after they graduated from med school. They moved out to Massachusetts and left the church behind. But family heirlooms were still passed down including these journals. Certain items have been authenticated by the church such as a scrap from one of Joseph Smith's coats. The Church has expressed the desire for possession of several of his items but he does not wish to give them up. I ran into this man while on my mission and he lent us the journals, specifically the ones Lars used while he served his mission in the land of his fathers, Denmark. We had them for over three weeks and we fell in love with them. Last semester I was prompted to ask permission to transcribe them and he heartily gave permission and some advice about how to go about it!
I haven't gotten very far in my transcribing, but the following is a neat passage from the first journal written by Lars' father Simon Peder Eggertsen in Danish about his mission and translated by Lars:
"I was very happy in those days though I had many trials but God blessed me in many ways. On the 23 of April 56 I was very much downcast and a strange spirit whispered to me that I had now spent $300 of my money and still you do not know if Joseph Smith had been visited by angels and had received the priesthood. I prayed very ardently to my God and on the evening between the 3 and 4 of April 56 I had a vision and saw a large temple and many people and Brigham Young the then president and a voice came that it was all true and that the priesthood was restored and I should get ready to go to Zion with the first emigration. I also saw an old man Lars Jensen whom I had traveled with and preached and his hair was now snow white whereas it was red at the time I knew him. I was now so happy that I cannot begin to describe my feelings of joy. On the 4 after I had had breakfast I went over a farm on way to a town to preach feeling so happy that I swung my hat in air and said I was willing to loose every drop of blood for my testimony of the gospel and Joseph Smith. On the 13 of August with Rasmussen we went to Gierslev to bare our testimony to Jens Frericksen whom I after baptized. There were others present and they heard our words and seemed to accept them. At 10 o’clock we had prayers and left. Shomaker Hansen one of the men with several others laid in wait for us and as we come about a 100 yards from the house they bounced* upon us and gave us sevier blows. Blood rushed from me in large streams I had never seen a person so mangled as I was and my companion, even in the war. Nearly all my blood was spilt there were four men that hear (beat?)* us. They left us and my companion. I crawled back to the house of Jens Fredricksen some way and was washed and cared for. I was anointed by myself and Rasmussen and continued to bare testimony of Joseph Smith. In 2 weeks time I was well."
* The red highlighted words are guesses at the word due to handwriting legibility.
