45 years ago today - Dec 28, 1973-Friday

[Leonard Arrington]
Dr. Warr told some interesting things about Reed Benson [oldest son of apostle Ezra Taft Benson] while he was fixing my teeth. He was a companion to Reed in the British Mission [in 1947-49]. ...

Dr. Warr said Reed had heard when he was a student at BYU that when two people sleep together (like missionaries) [in the same bed] the smaller and weaker of the two will lose strength and vitality to the stronger of the two. And he thought that he must be losing strength to Dr. Warr, which accounted for his lack of vitality and energy to do all he wanted on his mission. So he proposed to sleep in his sleeping bag next to Dr. Warr so he wouldn't continue to lose his strength. Dr. Warr told him he wasn't sleeping next to a sleeping bag. The matter came up to President Boyer who told Dr. Warr to throw it out the window if he persisted in doing it. Dr. Warr was later telling this to one of his relatives who responded, with reference to Reed: "That elder should have known that it is always the weaker person who draws strength from the stronger!"

Reed was always wanting to do things an easier and better way, and this sometimes involved questions of mission policy and mission rules; so he was a kind of problem for the mission president. ... according to Dr. Warr, at the suggestion of President Lee and other church authorities, he has left John Birch, and is now a full-time [LDS] seminary teacher in Washington.

[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]

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