We were living in Springdale when I got a mission call. I was shipped out on the train to Independence, Missouri [Editor: Sometime around October, 1940]. This was our headquarters.

President John F. Bowman was our mission president. He had been a lawyer for the Church. He was a wonderful man.

Photo looking east down Broadway Ave. from Washington in Enid, Oklahoma, taken on 16 Feb. 2007 by D. Robinson. Elder Gerald K. Gifford served in Enid over 50 years before this photo was taken. (Photo placed in the public domain by the photographer.)

I was sent from there to Enid, Oklahoma. My first companion was Elder Turnbo, a real missionary. We rented a house with three rooms, [including] one large one where we held our meetings. We had about ten members.

Sister Brown fed us many meals. Her husband wasn't a member, but treated us well. Their daughter played the clarinet, and a group of them played in lots of programs. [We] joined them a lot, my companion and I. Sister Brown saved money and bought me a new suit.

We [did] a lot of tracting and attended our meetings, including Relief Society. I stayed in Enid for eight months. My next companion was Elder Larson.

I baptized a doctor and three others in Enid. Elder Larson was a good old country boy, real fun to be with.

After eight months I was sent to Ponca City, Oklahoma, a big oil refining city. [Editor: Perhaps June or July, 1941.]

The missionaries that were there had a fifteen minute talk show on the radio. The ministers of some other churches made them quit, as they had somethign to do with the radio station.

I went with my guitar and tried out for fifteen minutes. They told me to come back, and they let me sing requests for thirty minutes. So I sang twice a week for eleven months over WBBZ in Ponca, City. I sang requests, some western songs, and some religious songs. They called me the Singing Cowboy of the Mormon Church. The radio announcer took me to many other churches to sing in their parties, and I would make them announce me as a missionary of the LDS Church.

I got in many homes through this program. We had lots of street meetings. we went over twenty miles and had street meetings with the Elders and Sisters there.

One time they were having a street meeting by a bank and they were singing "The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning" and smoke started coming out of the basement of the bank. The bank was on fire, so they had to call the fire department.

This was before television. People would go downtown and sit in their cars and just watch people go by. What a sport!

We had lots of cottage meetings at one member's place on the lawn. She was a faithful member. Her husband wasn't a member, but a good man. We had many meals at their place.

We were tracting one day and we knocked on a door and we heard a faint voice say, "Come in." So we went in and a woman was in bed.

She said, "Who are you?" so we told her.

And she said, "Come close to my bend. I can't see. Just light and dark." She said, "Do you believe in prayer?"

We said "Yes." So we gave her a blessing that she would be able to see.

Then we left and in a week we returned. We had given her a Book of Mormon nd promised if she had faith, she could read it. We found her sitting up, pealing peaches. And [she] could read the Book of Mormon.

We were tracting and found a woman that was deaf. We taught her the gospel. We had to almost yell so she could hear us. Well we worked with her and baptized her into the Church.

We met a couple of people in their eighties. They were First-day Adventists. The were real good people, so we taught them the gospel. Finally I asked them to be baptized and they consented. So we, Elder Reynolds and I, ran across towm and borrowed a car from some of our members. We took them out [to] the edge of town where there was a small lake. I baptized them, and as I walked out of the lake, I stepped on [some] glass and cut my foot. It was a cool day, and they took it very well and [were] glad.

A grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter we taught had belonged to the First-day Adventist church and had paid the church to have their names printed on the colored windows. We asked their minister if we could use their baptistry and we payed them.

The grandmother had a bad disease and didn't dare get into the water. But we knelt down with her and promised she would feel good and [it] wouldn't hurt her.

When we went to baptize her, we found that the baptistry was divided. The front half had steps down into the water, and the back half had steps down into it without water. The minister would roll up his sleeves and reach over into the front section and dip the persion down into the water without even getting wet, only his arms.

I had to squeeze myself and those I baptized into the front, narrow part and baptize them.

It happened that the minister was there in the meeting and saw us baptizing his members into our church. He wasn't feeling so kindly toward us.

We had a couple and three boys that lived just outside of Ponca City. They were share croppers. They got half of what they raised.

They were very poor. They had a two room house, [with] a kitchen and a bedroom. A hen was sitting under the bed. The dog and cat came through the torn screen.

My companion wouldn't go with me to see them. On Sundays, he went to Brother Dickman's where he could get a nice meal, including a steak. He [Brother Dickman] worked for a refinery.

Well I went anyway and they [the share croppers] invited us to eat with them. I went and all they had on the table was a meat pie.

I visited them and I baptized them all myself.

After I came home, Sister Morris died and told one of the Elders that if Elder Gifford was there, she would live.

We found a lady that had three children. Elder Mail [Moil? Moyle?] and I worked with them and we baptized the whole family, which was a real delight.

I worked in Ponca city for eleven months, and enjoyed singing on WBBZ for eleven months.

I was sent to Blackwell, Oklahoma for the last five months of my mission. [Editor: Probably May, 1942]

The show houses didn't want the ministers to preach against shows. So if you carried a Bible and a Book of Mormon, you could just walk into the show and nothing [was] said. We did go to a few shows.

We had a lady that wanted to join the Church, but she couldn't leave snuff alone. I was talking about baptism, and I just opened my Bible to Proverbs 6:6 and I looked down and read to her, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise."

Well I said to hwer, "Let me take some of your snuff." Then I got some tobacco, and tea, and coffee. We found a big ant bed and I put just a pinch [of each] in the hole. The ants carried them away from the hole.

Then I got some bread and some sugar. And the ants carried it down into the hole.

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.

When I was in Enid, Oklahoma, my wife and daughter came out ont he bus and visited me. It was so neat. She stayed [at] Sister Brown's place. Anyway, it was wonderful.

Eighteen of our missionaries went to Independence, Missouri for a [Mission] Conference. We saw where the new temple will be, and the Liberty Jail. [It] was a wonderful trip.

We met Brother Pope, who was a retired preacher from the Baptist Church. He was making tracts for the [LDS] Church, he and his boy. They met the Elders after he had retired and joined the [LDS] Church. He and his boy sang in our Conference. He made a song by the tune of "Tumbling Tumbleweeds". Here [are] the words:

In the Shady Woodland

[words by Brother Pope, to the tune of "Tumbling Tumbleweeds"]

In the shady woodland
Joseph sought the Lord
kneeling there so prayerfully
waiting for the Word
Suddenly a light appeared
brigther by far than noon-day sun

Hear the voice of the Lord
as He delivered His word
sweeter than ever was heard
telling the boy of His wonders so heavenly

Angels attended him then
bringing the Gospel again
for the salvation of men
if we but love and obey the commandments

CHORUS

I know the Gospel's true
that a new light was born anew

I'll keep praising the Lord
telling the messaage I've heard
so that the children of men
may be informed that the Gospel has been restored

Now we have a prophet
speaking for the Lord
If we heed His council
listen to the Word
sunshine will change the shades of night
turn all the darkness into light

Hear the voice of the Lord
as He delivers his Word
sweeter than ever was heard
telling the Saints of His wonders so heavenly

Angels will visit us then
help us to overcome sin
so that we may enter in
to the portals of Heaven and dwell with him

CHORUS

When I was released from my mission, we moved to Salt Lake [City] and I worked for Smedley Fruit Company.

I have a testimony of the Gospel and I want all my children to know that it is true. I know it as I know I live.

I've been healed many times from sickness, even immediately.