Act Well Thy Part - Reprise.

At the end of our first post, we mentioned the stone inscribed with “Act well thy part.” In April Conference,  Elaine Dalton, the outgoing Young Women General President talked about her experience seeing this stone many years ago when she visited the Mission Home in Edinburgh. The Elders in Edinburgh were very excited by this and quickly took a picture with the stone and sent it to the Ensign, in hopes of getting it published. This picture appears on page 74 of the May issue.

Front: L to R: Elders Orgill and Judd. Back Elders Johnson, Jones, Moser, Bland,

Graves, Åkebrand  (one of "our" YSAs from Stockholm), Stoica, Mauff.

The Scotland Ireland Mission has a monthly newsletter, cleverly titled “The SIM Card”, the title for which is shown to the right. 

The June issue of The SIM Card, contains an article about the legacy of the Stone, which I have included, in part, below.
It was in 1898 that David 0. McKay as a young missionary was assigned to work in Stirling, Scotland. After looking for an apartment he and his companion did some sight-seeing. On the way back to their rooms David felt homesick and rather down. Looking up he saw a carved stone above the lintel on the side of a house being built. He said "I was not more than half way up the pathway leading to it when it struck me, carved there-"What e'er thou art, act well thy part." It made a huge impact on him and encouraged him to make a renewed commitment to his missionary service, and indeed subsequently it became his often mentioned motto throughout his life.

The original stone at the Mission Home.

In 1965 two missionaries were teaching a family who lived in the upstairs apartment next to the stone. They told the missionaries that they were moving because the entire row of apartments was to be demolished. President Phil Jensen was then the Mission President, and they passed on the information and asked the demolishers to preserve the stone. Pres. Jensen drove hotfoot to Stirling and paid £30 to purchase it. (Estimated weight is about 500 lbs.) It was delivered and built into a brick frame-work in the front garden of the mission home and remained there until 1970 when David 0. McKay died. The Church then moved it to the Church Museum of Art and History among the artifacts in President McKay's section. There are 4 reproduction copies that we know of - inside the Mission Home in Edinburgh, Alloa Ward Building (being the nearest to Stirling) and in the entrance of the MTCs at Provo and Preston. 

The SIM Card also included the above picture of four of the Jensen children in the mission home garden with the original stone.