Samuel Smith, one of the younger brothers of Joseph Smith, was the first missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons).  The Church was organized in April of 1830, he was called a missionary in June, and by the 30th of the same month, he had left home to fulfill his mission.

Samuel was to sell the Book of Mormon in the area around Palmyra.  He had a number of copies, but had a difficult time interesting anyone in them.  He would stop here or there, present the Book of Mormon, but be “turned out of doors as soon as he declared his principles.” 

In his first day, he traveled twenty-five miles.  Evening found him tired and unsuccessful.  He found an inn at that point and asked the landlord if “he did not wish to purchase a history of the origin of the Indians.”

The landlord wished to know the origin of the history and became angry when Samuel told him that his brother had translated it from gold plates. 

"You liar!" he said, "get out of my house-you sha’nt stay one minute with your books."  

Samuel left.  This marked the fifth rejection in that long first day.  As the Apostles in the first Christian days shook dust from their feet against those who would not receive their words, so Samuel washed his feet in a nearby brook.  He spent the night under an apple tree, five miles further on.

In the morning, he saw a small cottage close by.  The cottage was occupied by a poor widow, but she gave him food when he asked, relating the story of the long, fruitless day he had spent the day before.  He ate, then told her of the Book of Mormon – and how it had come about by translation of golden plates.  The widow believed him, but did not have the money to buy a book.  Samuel gave her one and moved on.

He walked the next eight miles to Bloomington and stopped at the house of a Methodist preacher.  His name was John P. Greene and he was about to start his own preaching mission.  John was not interested in the Book of Mormon – he thought it was “a nonsensical fable” – but he would see if anyone on his route was interested and take their names.  If Samuel would return in two weeks, he would let him know if any Book of Mormons looked likely to be sold.  Samuel left a book with him and went home.

In two weeks, Samuel made his journey back to Bloomington – this time accompanied by his mother, Lucy Mack, and Mr. Smith.  They meant to visit the tavern inn that Samuel had been badly treated at, but were stopped by a sign of small-pox and had to avoid the inn entirely.  A citizen told them, when asked, that the small-pox was confined to that tavern and that the tavern keeper and two family members had died of it.

However, Mr. Greene had sold no books and they returned home.

Samuel waited two more weeks and went to Mr. Greene’s one more time.  Mr. Greene was not there, but his wife, Mrs. Greene, was.  She told Samuel that there was no chance of selling any Book of Mormons through Mr. Greene’s route – and Mr. Greene himself had no interest in keeping the one he had.  However, Mrs. Greene had read this Mormon book and “was much pleased with it.”  Samuel told her to keep it, that the Spirit would not let him take it back.  Mrs. Green “burst into tears” and asked Samuel to pray with her, which he did.  Afterward, he instructed her “to ask God, when she read it, for a testimony of the truth of what she had read and she would receive the Spirit of God, which would enable her to discern the things of God.”

Samuel returned home, then.  

Mr. Greene, at the urging of his wife, eventually read and prayed about the book as she had.  Afterward, both he and his wife were baptized into the Mormon Church.  Phineas Young was Mrs. Greene’s brother and received the Book of Mormon next.  He believed it wholeheartedly and began to preach it.  Brigham Young was the next one to receive a Book of Mormon – then Mrs. Murray, his sister, was the mother of the wife of Heber C. Kimball.  All gained a testimony of the book and the Church that carried it.  Brigham Young convinced his brother, a Methodist preacher, also of the truth of the Book of Mormon.

Although Samuel did not convert many to the gospel himself, his efforts as the first Mormon missionary brought entire families - the Young and Kimball families - to the restored truth of the Church.

– This story is paraphrased from Preston Nibley’s Missionary Experiences, published in 1942 by Deseret Book.  Lucy Mack Smith was the author.