Anna Kirstine Mauritz-datter's departure from home and testimony of the Gospel
Published October 25, 2026 at 12:50 PM
Contributed by
Millennial Star Research
Anna Kirstine Mauritz-datter, a young woman from Drammen, was driven from her home by her parents due to her conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Upon leaving on September 1, 1854, she wrote a farewell letter to her parents expressing her love for them but prioritizing her testimony and the Gospel. Senator Reed Smoot, her son, later visited her old home in Scandinavia and discovered this letter in an old family Bible.
In the October 1923 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder John A. Widtsoe shared the account of his journey to Norway with Senator Reed Smoot. During this visit, they went to Smoot's mother's former home in Drammen, where they discovered the original farewell letter written by Anna Kirstine Mauritz-datter (also spelled Mouritzen) preserved within an old family Bible. Elder Widtsoe noted that he obtained a copy of this letter, which served as a poignant testament to the sacrifices made by early converts in Scandinavia.
In Their Own Words
“A few words from your daughter, Kirstine. Dear, my parents. Pray God for courage to accept this great tmth contained in this book and now restored, so that rejected knowledge may not be a testimony against you on God's great day to come. I pray God that on that great day we may be able to gather together in joy and happiness, and that we may then be crowned to God's glory, and that He may say to us all : 'Come now, my faithful children, you shall be rewarded for your labors.' — Millennial Star 86:19”
Sources & References
The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Manchester, later Liverpool, England, May 1840–1970), Vol. 86, No. 19 (1924). https://archive.org/details/millennialstar8619eng (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high) Additional sources (periodical research): Report of the Ninety-Fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, October 1923, p. 153. https://historicalgeneralconferences.weebly.com/reed-smoot.html
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