First of all, it offers solid proof that at least some historians have a wicked sense of humor and can employ it in writing. This is helpful when discussing an estimated 6,700 encounters with people who reject your message.
Second, and this might be helpful for Anxious Bench readers, Harline gives you a glimpse into the interior world of those smartly dressed Latter-day Saint missionaries you are bound to encounter from time to time. Well, at least into his memories of his interior world from forty years ago. It was a world of hubristic hopes of converting scores of Belgians, a place of intense self-doubt and anguish and insecurity, and a heart longing to connect with God and with the people around him.
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