Mormon missionary diarists are the

Mormon missionaries Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)—widely known as Mormon missionaries—are volunteer representatives of the church who engage variously in proselytizing, church service, humanitarian aid, and commu ...

who kept records in the form of diaries and journals recounting their activities on behalf of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

(LDS Church) in various parts of the world. Both male and female missionaries kept these diaries and were encouraged to do so by the church. Many of these documents have been donated to the

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

Harold B. Lee Library The Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL) is the main academic library of Brigham Young University (BYU) located in Provo, Utah. The library started as a small collection of books in the president's office in 1876 before moving in 1891. The Heber J. Gran ...

, and since 2003, a large selection of these have been transcribed and digitized.

Personal diaries

Since the early days of the LDS Church, church leaders have encouraged the record-keeping of individuals and the church as an organization. Personal record-keeping is considered to be a high priority, especially as an individual experiences "spiritual, cultural, social relationships, and personal growth". Because a mission is viewed as an "intensive spiritual experience, accompanied frequently by the gaining of new cultural and social insights", missionary journaling has been emphasized by the church throughout the years.

Digitizing the diaries

Many of the missionary diaries in this collection were saved as archives by the diarist's family and later donated to Brigham Young University's

. In 2003, students and faculty began the five-year project to transcribe and digitize the diary collection, consisting of 115 missionary diarists and 376 written volumes.{{Cite news, url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/695238987/BYU-posts-115-LDS-missionary-journals-online.html?pg=all, title=BYU posts 115 LDS missionary journals online, last=Stuart, first=Elizabeth, date=2007-12-26, newspaper=DeseretNews.com, access-date=2016-10-26 Criteria including readability, language, and content were established to determine which diaries would be most valuable to the collection. Most of the diarists featured in the collection never rose to great prominence. However, the mission diaries of church leaders such as

Hyrum Smith Hyrum Smith (February 9, 1800 – June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the original church of the Latter Day Saint movement. He was the older brother of the movement's founder, J ...

James E. Talmage James Edward Talmage (21 September 1862 – 27 July 1933) was an English chemist, geologist, and religious leader who served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) fro ...

, and

Moses Thatcher Moses Thatcher (February 2, 1842 – August 21, 1909) was an apostle and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He was one of only a few members of the Quorum of the Twelve to ...

are included. All diary pages were digitally prepped, scanned and uploaded online to create the collection. The digital images of the diary pages appear next to the transcription to make the information easy to read.

List of diarists

* List of Mormon missionary diarists (Asia and Middle East) * List of Mormon missionary diarists (Europe) * List of Mormon missionary diarists (North America) * List of Mormon missionary diarists (Pacific)

References

External links

Mormon Missionary Diary collection
at the

L. Tom Perry Special Collections Library The L. Tom Perry Special Collections is the special collections department of Brigham Young University (BYU)'s Harold B. Lee Library in Provo, Utah. Founded in 1957 with 1,000 books and 50 manuscript collections, as of 2016 the Library's special ...

19th-century Mormon missionaries 20th-century Mormon missionaries

Diarists A diary is a written or audiovisual record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digital. A personal d ...

* Diarists Harold B. Lee Library-related articles