I was prompted to look for other versions of the story. One of the most notable versions appears in Spencer Condie's biography of Nelson. Condie writes:
Footnote 15 cites Russell M. Nelson, From Heart to Heart (Salt Lake City: Russell M. Nelson, 1979), 123; footnote 16 cites the same source and an "interview by author"; and footnote 17 cites pages 123-24 of From Heart to Heart.At age nineteen, when Russell might otherwise have been able to serve a mission, the nation was at war. He was in medical school, so there was no official mission for him. However, he has had some interesting missionary opportunities throughout his life. In 1951, during the Korean War, Russell worked closely with Jane S. Poole, a nurse at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She had closely observed Dr. Nelson's behavior, certain aspects of which differed from that of other surgeons. One day, she asked Dr. Nelson what the Mormons believe, giving him an opportunity to share the gospel.15
"She was like a sponge craving water," Russell recalled. "She wanted to know more and more, so I gradually introduced more of the doctrine and concepts of the Church and suggested reading materials for her. It wasn't long before she had converted herself and I had the privilege of baptizing her." Jane was a divorced mother with a young son, George, who later served a mission in Australia. Jane has remained true and faithful, periodically writing the Nelsons thank-you notes during the succeeding fifty years.16
Russell also became well acquainted with two professional colleagues at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Dr. Derwin Ashcraft and his wife, Beverly. One day, they asked Dr. Nelson about his religious beliefs, so he gave them a preliminary overview and loaned them his copy of the Book of Mormon. About a week later, they returned the book to him, saying, "Thanks a lot."
Rather assertively, Russell asked, "What do you mean, ‘Thanks a lot’? That is a totally inappropriate response for one who has read this book. You didn't read the book. Please take it back and read it; and then when you have read it, please return it to me."
Somewhat red-faced and embarrassed by this challenge and confrontation, the Ashcrafts retrieved the book, acknowledging that they had only thumbed through the pages. Three weeks later, they returned with tears in their eyes and said, "We have read the book. We know it is true. We want to learn more." Dr. Nelson said, "Now I know you've read the book."
In due course, Dr. Nelson baptized the grateful couple.
Not long thereafter, Dr. Ashcraft passed away and Russell lost contact with Sister Ashcraft. Twenty-six years later, in 1977, Beverly came up to Brother Nelson after he had addressed a Sunday School leadership meeting in Weston, Massachusetts, and asked, "Russell, do you remember me?"
He looked at her radiant countenance and replied, "Yes, Beverly, I do. Tell me what has happened to you in all these years."
She had married a wonderful man named Harold L. Zitting, and they had had several children. He had become a bishop, and they were happily and busily engaged in the work of the Lord. She assured Russell of her gratitude for his sharing the gospel with her so many years before.17
Source: Spencer J. Condie, Russell M. Nelson: Father, Surgeon, Apostle (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003).
In several versions of what appears to be the Ashcraft story (see the versions below labeled 2019, 2018a, 2018b, 2012, and 2010), it seems that Nelson conflates a story of meeting and baptizing a nurse and a story of meeting and baptizing a couple. The Truth and Transparency article notes that, according to Beverley Ashcraft's daughter and granddaughter, Ashcraft "was never a nurse, she never lived in Korea, and she didn’t know Nelson until her husband introduced her to him." However, Condie's biography and the version labeled 1984 below distinguish between the story of a nurse and the story of two other colleagues. What is more interesting to me, though, is the fact that Condie's account relates that Nelson and Beverley Ashcraft spoke after Nelson had given an address at a Sunday School leadership meeting in Massachusetts in 1977. (It bears noting again in this regard that Condie's account cites From Heart to Heart, published in 1979.) The versions labeled 2019 and 2012 below relate that Nelson and a woman he had baptized (identified as Beverley Ashcraft in the 2019 account) had an encounter during a stake conference meeting in Tennessee sometime after Nelson was ordained an apostle in 1984.
What are we we to make of the account of an encounter between Nelson and Ashcraft in Massachusetts in 1977?
2019:
Source: “You Didn’t Read it, Did You?,” LDS Living, March/April 2019, 44, https://mormonleaks.io/wiki/documents/4 ... id_You.pdf.Editor's Note: During the Korean War and one year shy of finishing his residency and earning his PhD, Dr: Nelson enlisted in the army and was transferred to active duty in Korea shortly after the birth of his and his first wife, Dantzel's, second daughter, Wendy. The following story occurred when he was part of a M.A.S.H. unit during that war.
Young Lieutenant Nelson performed many operations in less-than-optimal conditions. One day a nurse named Beverly Ashcraft approached him at the end of an operation in which she had assisted him. "What makes you different from all the other surgeons I work with?" she asked, likely assuming that he would have a straightforward answer.
Dr. Nelson thought for a moment and responded much differently than she expected: "Well, I don't know that I'm different, but if I am, it's because I know the Book of Mormon is true!"
Not only was Beverly not expecting that answer, she was not impressed with it. It was only out of a sense of duty that she accepted Dr. Nelson's offer to borrow the one and only copy of the Book of Mormon he had at the time. Her husband, Derwin, was a fellow surgeon, and a few days later he returned the book, tossed it to Russell, and muttered a feeble "thanks."
"That is a totally inappropriate answer for someone who has read the Book of Mormon," Lieutenant Nelson responded. "You didn't read it, did you? I'm asking you and Beverly to read it, and when you have, then I want my book back."
The Ashcrafts did read the book, and, over a period of time, Lieutenant Nelson taught them the gospel. In 1951, he baptized them, and then he lost track of the Ashcrafts.
Fast-forward 30 years to when Russell Nelson had become Elder Nelson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who had just been asked to take a last-minute assignment to fill in for Elder Neal A. Maxwell at a stake conference in Tennessee. Elder Nelson headed for Tennessee, arriving at the airport where members greeted him with "Welcome to Tennessee, Elder Maxwell" signs.
During the Sunday morning session of the conference, Elder Nelson was drawn to a woman wearing a large hat and sitting on the left-hand side of the chapel. He asked the stake president who she was; the president didn't know but managed to learn that her name was Beverly Zitting. When Elder Nelson went to the pulpit, he felt prompted to call this woman to join him. "How long have you been a member of the Church?" he asked her with the congregation looking on.
"Thirty years," she responded.
"Who baptized you?" he then asked.
After a brief pause, she answered, "You did, in 1951!'
"What is your name again?"
She explained that when Elder Nelson had baptized her, her name had been Beverly Ashcraft and her husband's name Derwin. After he died, she had remarried, and now she had a large family who were active in the Church.
"Beverly, how many people connected with you have come into the Church since I baptized you?" Elder Nelson asked.
"You won't believe this;' she told him and the congregation, "but two nights ago I had a dream that Elder Maxwell would ask me that very question."
So she had come prepared, and she pulled out of her purse a paper with the names of all the people who had come into the Church as a result of her baptism. The number was 80.
During subsequent years, Beverly would visit Elder Nelson in his office at Church headquarters at least twice. On the last visit, she was accompanied by children and grandchildren wishing to thank Elder Nelson for baptizing their mother and grandmotl1er. By that time, the number of those who had joined the Church as a result of her baptism was 300. And counting.
2018a:
Source: Sarah Jane Weaver, “President Nelson shares 5 lessons ‘life has taught me’ with 49,000 in Safeco Field,” Church News, Sep. 16, 2018, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/chu ... d?lang=eng.During the Korean War, President Nelson was a surgeon in the Army and was asked by his surgical nurse why he was different from other surgeons. I responded: "If I am different from other surgeons, it is because I know the Book of Mormon is true."
He invited the nurse and her surgeon husband to read the book and loaned them his only copy. “When her husband returned my precious Book of Mormon to me, he casually tossed it to me and said, ‘Thanks a lot.’
"Thanks a lot?’ I said. ’That is a totally inappropriate answer for one who has read the Book of Mormon. You didn’t read it, did you?’"
The couple took the book back, read it and asked to know more. President Nelson subsequently taught and baptized both of them.
2018b:
Source: Jason Swensen, “President Nelson treasures stake conference gathering: ‘We’re all in this together,’” Church News, Feb. 8, 2018, https://www.thechurchnews.com/lds-churc ... ther-13588.In their separate remarks, the Nelsons recounted a question that was once posed by a nurse to Dr. Russell M. Nelson after he performed a difficult surgery: "Why are you not like other surgeons?"
Some surgeons, the nurse knew well, could be short-tempered and profane as they performed their pressure-filled duties. Dr. Nelson’s reply?: "Because I know the Book of Mormon is true."
That answer prompted the nurse and her own surgeon-husband to study the Book of Mormon. President Nelson later baptized the nurse.
Decades passed and President Nelson lost contact with the couple. The husband later died and his wife eventually remarried. While presiding over a stake conference in Tennessee shortly after being called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, President Nelson enjoyed an unexpected reunion with the nurse who, years earlier, had asked why he was not like some of his colleagues.
That woman’s conversion, brought about by the influence of the Book of Mormon, brought about the conversion of 80 more people, said President Nelson.
2012:
Source: R. Scott Lloyd, “Finishing the story of the impact of the Book of Mormon,” Church News, Jan. 14, 2012, https://www.thechurchnews.com/archives/ ... rmon-53815.Some Church members are acquainted with the incident Elder Russell M. Nelson has shared about lending his copy of the Book of Mormon to a couple and refusing to accept its return until he was certain they had read it.
He shared the rest of the story Jan. 10 at a dinner greeting to departing Missionary Training Center directors, Church visitors’ center directors and their wives.
Elder Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve is chairman of the Missionary Executive Council. He addressed the departing couples at the annual seminar, which transpired in Provo and Salt Lake City Jan. 10-12. Other proceedings of the seminar will be reported in next week’s Church News edition.
Introducing Elder Nelson, Elder David F. Evans of the Seventy, who is executive director of the Missionary Department, retold Elder Nelson’s story.
At October 2010 general conference, Elder Nelson himself related it in these words:
"Many years ago two colleagues of mine — a nurse and her doctor husband — asked me why I lived the way I did. I answered, ‘Because I know the Book of Mormon is true.’ I let them borrow my copy of the book, inviting them to read it. A week later they returned my book with a polite ‘thanks a lot.’
‘I responded, ‘What do you mean, thanks a lot? That’s a totally inappropriate response for one who has read this book. You didn’t read it, did you? Please take it back and read it; then I would like my book back.’
"Admitting that they had only turned its pages, they accepted my invitation. When they returned, they said tearfully, ‘We have read the Book of Mormon. We know it is true! We want to know more.’ They learned more, and it was my privilege to baptize both of them."
Speaking to the couples at the seminar dinner, Elder Nelson gave this follow-up to the story.
After his call to the Twelve, he was on assignment at a stake conference in Tennessee, filling in for Elder Neal A. Maxwell, who had another assignment from the First Presidency.
He saw a woman on the left side of the chapel and asked the stake president who she was. The stake president found out her name but added to Elder Nelson, "If you’re thinking of calling on her, I wouldn’t recommend it."
But as Elder Nelson was giving his final address, the irresistible prompting came.
"I overruled the stake president and I asked her to come on up. I said, ‘How long have you been a member of the Church?’
“She said, ‘Thirty years.’
“I said, ‘Who baptized you?’
“She said, ‘You did.’ ”
It was this woman and her husband to whom he had lent his copy of the Book of Mormon.
"The reason I didn’t recognize her name was that her husband later lost his life," he explained. "We were all on military duty. She was an army nurse; he was an army doctor and I was an army doctor. That’s why I had to lend her my copy of the Book of Mormon. I couldn’t give it to her; it was my one-and-only, and I was lucky to have that in a wartime situation."
She had remarried and had a family.
At the end of the dialogue at the pulpit, he asked her how many people had come into the Church through connections to her and her husband.
The number was 80, including all members of her family, her husband’s family, her second husband’s family, their children and the number of converts their children had taught on missions. "That’s a pretty good harvest for a surgeon who said, ‘You didn’t read the book, did you?’" Elder Nelson remarked.
That was in 1984. At Christmas of 2010, Elder Nelson received a letter from her to which was attached more than 50 pages of personal testimony from people who had come into the Church. She said the number of converts has now grown to 309.
2010:
Source: Russell M. Nelson, “Be Thou an Example of the Believers,” Ensign, Nov. 2010, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... s?lang=eng.Many years ago two colleagues of mine—a nurse and her doctor husband—asked me why I lived the way I did. I answered, “Because I know the Book of Mormon is true.” I let them borrow my copy of the book, inviting them to read it. A week later they returned my book with a polite “thanks a lot.”
I responded, “What do you mean, thanks a lot? That’s a totally inappropriate response for one who has read this book. You didn’t read it, did you! Please take it back and read it; then I would like my book back.”
Admitting that they had only turned its pages, they accepted my invitation. When they returned, they said tearfully, “We have read the Book of Mormon. We know it is true! We want to know more.” They learned more, and it was my privilege to baptize both of them.
2003:
Source: Spencer J. Condie, Russell M. Nelson: Father, Surgeon, Apostle (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003).At age nineteen, when Russell might otherwise have been able to serve a mission, the nation was at war. He was in medical school, so there was no official mission for him. However, he has had some interesting missionary opportunities throughout his life. In 1951, during the Korean War, Russell worked closely with Jane S. Poole, a nurse at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She had closely observed Dr. Nelson's behavior, certain aspects of which differed from that of other surgeons. One day, she asked Dr. Nelson what the Mormons believe, giving him an opportunity to share the gospel.
"She was like a sponge craving water," Russell recalled. "She wanted to know more and more, so I gradually introduced more of the doctrine and concepts of the Church and suggested reading materials for her. It wasn't long before she had converted herself and I had the privilege of baptizing her." Jane was a divorced mother with a young son, George, who later served a mission in Australia. Jane has remained true and faithful, periodically writing the Nelsons thank-you notes during the succeeding fifty years.
Russell also became well acquainted with two professional colleagues at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Dr. Derwin Ashcraft and his wife, Beverly. One day, they asked Dr. Nelson about his religious beliefs, so he gave them a preliminary overview and loaned them his copy of the Book of Mormon. About a week later, they returned the book to him, saying, "Thanks a lot."
Rather assertively, Russell asked, "What do you mean, ‘Thanks a lot’? That is a totally inappropriate response for one who has read this book. You didn't read the book. Please take it back and read it; and then when you have read it, please return it to me."
Somewhat red-faced and embarrassed by this challenge and confrontation, the Ashcrafts retrieved the book, acknowledging that they had only thumbed through the pages. Three weeks later, they returned with tears in their eyes and said, "We have read the book. We know it is true. We want to learn more." Dr. Nelson said, "Now I know you've read the book."
In due course, Dr. Nelson baptized the grateful couple.
Not long thereafter, Dr. Ashcraft passed away and Russell lost contact with Sister Ashcraft. Twenty-six years later, in 1977, Beverly came up to Brother Nelson after he had addressed a Sunday School leadership meeting in Weston, Massachusetts, and asked, "Russell, do you remember me?"
He looked at her radiant countenance and replied, "Yes, Beverly, I do. Tell me what has happened to you in all these years."
She had married a wonderful man named Harold L. Zitting, and they had had several children. He had become a bishop, and they were happily and busily engaged in the work of the Lord. She assured Russell of her gratitude for his sharing the gospel with her so many years before.
1984:
Source: Marvin K. Gardner, “Elder Russell M. Nelson: Applying Divine Laws,” Ensign, June 1984, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... s?lang=eng; see also https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/pro ... n?lang=eng.Through years of Church service, Elder Nelson has consistently given his best. He didn’t have the opportunity for full-time missionary service when he was nineteen, because the United States was at war. But since then, he has found many opportunities to be a missionary. When a nurse asked him what made him different from the other surgeons, he introduced her to the Church. It wasn’t long before he baptized her; later, her son served a mission.
When two other colleagues—a husband and wife—showed interest in the Church, he explained some of the principles and loaned them a copy of the Book of Mormon. A week later they returned it with a polite thank-you.
“What do you mean, ‘Thanks a lot’?” he asked his two friends. “That is a totally inappropriate response for one who has read this book. You didn’t read it. Please take it back and read it, and then return it to me with a much more appropriate reply.”
Admitting they had only thumbed through it, they accepted his challenge. Three weeks later they returned with tears in their eyes. “We know this book is true,” they said. “How can we learn more?”
Smiling, the young doctor said, “Now I know you’ve read the book. Now we can proceed.” He eventually baptized them.