Build on the Rock of Revelation

 A Most Wonderful Experience 
written in My Book of Acts, pgs. 148-151 by Oscar Case

The following is the testimony of Oscar Case, missionary in the early 1900s in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Independence, MO. When out preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God sent an angel from heaven to help him convert the whole town.

The Spirit of God spoke to me in a very audible voice, “Get your grips and get off the train.” This was a most thrilling experience.

When I was in the South Dakota mission and had been away from home for months, I wanted to go home and decided I’d go. I was then at Springfield, South Dakota. I had money enough for the trip, bought my ticket, started home to Moorhead, Iowa, where I lived. When we neared Sioux City, Iowa, just one more little station left in South Dakota, just when the train whistled for that station, the Lord spoke to me by the voice of the Spirit, “ Get your grips and get off this train.” I grabbed my grips and got off. There was one other man got off.

There was just a boxcar there for a shelter or depot. There was a little grocery store across the road. It was a fine farming country and a summer resort by the lake. The place was called McCook. That other fellow that got off the train lived there. He went home and I stood alone. I had a little conversation with myself. I said, “There’s only one thing for me to do—get a place and go to preaching. I’m not getting home tonight..”

I walked across the road and asked the merchant if there was a place close around there that I could hold meetings. “I’m a missionary from western Iowa.”

He said, “There’s a schoolhouse, but they are all Catholics; they won’t come to hear you.”
I said, “I’m wanting a place to preach. It’s my job to get them out.”
He told me to go and see the board of directors; they all three live close here.
I went to the first one.
He said, “We are all Catholics; we won’t come to hear you.”
I said, “I want the house.”
He said, “You can have my consent, but we will not come to hear you.”
I remarked, “If I preach in the schoolhouse, you’ll be there.”
He said, “No, I won’t.”

I went to the second and third and they both gave their consent, but both said they are all Catholics and wouldn’t come to hear me. I went back to the store and asked the merchant if there wasn’t one Protestant in the whole community. He said, “Just one. His name is Jennings, and lives in the little green house around the lake on the south side.”
I said, “I’m going to see if I can stay with him.”

I went and found him, introducing myself and told him I was going to hold meetings in the schoolhouse and I wanted a place to stay. He said they were not fixed to keep anyone and anyway, all the people in the whole neighborhood were Catholics and would not come. I told him it was my job to get them out; I was just wanting a place to stay. He said, “I’ll go and see my wife.” He came back and said they would keep me for $2.50 per week. I said, “O.K., I’ll stay with you.”

Next morning I started out; walked all day asking the people to come. We had five, next night, six or seven, and on for five nights. I said to myself, “Something is going to happen. The Lord would not have told me to get off that train for an interest like that.”

I went over to the store and asked the merchant if there was a ringleader among those Catholics, telling them to stay home. He said, “Yes, there is.”
I said, “ Who is it?”
He said, “’His name is Beauschenne. He lives in that big white house down by the bridge about two miles away.”
I said, “ I’ m going to see him.”
He said, “He will curse you.”
I said, “I don’t care if he does, I’m going.”
He said, “You’d better not, he’s mean.”
I said, “ I don’t care how mean he is.”

I went and found Mr. and Mrs. Beauschenne in the living room when I got there. (He was a large man, black hair, and eyebrows about one inch long, stuck straight out.)

He said, “Vel, vat you want?”
I said, “I just want to come in and talk to you.”
He said, “Vat you want to talk about?”
I said, “I want to tell you about the Restored Gospel”2 He said, “Ve got all the gospel ve want. Ve don’t want any more Gospel.”
I said, “I still want to talk to you”
He said, “Ve don’t want to talk.”
I said, “I want to talk and I want to come in.”
He swore and said he did not want to talk. Mrs. Beauschenne stood back a little way and said to him, “Ah, Beauschenne, let him in.” He said, “Vel, she wants you to come in. Come in.”

I went in and just kept right on talking. He got mad. Mrs. Beauschenne went into the bedroom. I kept right on talking and he was mad. In about five minutes she came out of the bedroom crying. He said, “Vel, vat’s the matter?.” She talked to him in French. He said, “Vel, vel, vel.”

I said, “Beauschenne, what did she say?”
He said, “You talk French?”
I said, “No.”
He said, “I no tell you.”
I said, “I want to know what she said.”

Mrs. Beauschenne was still crying and said, “Ah, Beauschenne tell him.”
He said, “Vel, she wants me to tell you. I tell you. My wife, she said an angel appeared to her and told her a servant of God was in her home and she must listen to his story.”
I said, “Beauschenne, you sit down here.”

He sat down. I said, “Mrs. Beauschenne, you sit here,” and she did, and I sat before them and told them the story of the Restoration for an hour and when I got through, he was crying and said, “Ve come to church. Ve be there tonight.”

They told the whole neighborhood. The schoolhouse was full and five families of French Catholics came into the church.

A Man Convinced Against His Will - Remains Unconvinced Still

The testimony above is an example of how the Spirit of God works, i.e. angelic witness from heaven. And even with that, men are allowed to make up their own minds--to come and listen, or not to listen. The following testimony is of how the other power works toward "converting" its people.

When Joseph Smith, Jr. and many other faithful and courageous souls carried the gospel to a dark world, the whore of Babylon and her priests didn't sit idly by and let the light of the work shine through. They did their best to stop it, but Christ said the gospel will roll on until it fills the whole earth with truth. The following reveals what the Catholic church and her murderous Jesuits did in French Polynesia to the missionary sent with the fullness of the gospel. (Ch. History, Vol. 4.....See From Spain to the Society Islands)

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