Brother Grant Smith of the La Crosse Ward shares this wonderful story of the conversion of Brother Don Magnuson. Though for years he was not a member of the church, he financially supported countless missionaries who left from the La Crosse Ward. He was very generous in many other church projects including buying three sets of home canning equipment for the Rochester Minnesota Stake. We are sad to say that brother Magnuson has passed away. Before his passing away, the High Priest group would often travel there to have a Sunday Priesthood lesson. Even then, he and his wife Ruth were generous in providing refreshments. The La Crosse Ward was so blessed to have Don Magnuson in our lives. The following was shared at his funeral in 2016 and is recorded in the 2016 Rochester Stake History. This introduction is by Brother Art Peek of the La Crosse Ward.
“A few years ago, I (Grant Smith) got a call from the Mormon Missionaries. They asked if I would accompany them to a missionary lesson with Don Magnuson. I almost said, “Would you guys just give it up? Don has been through countless sets of missionaries and he is never going to consent to be baptized.” But because I rarely passed up an opportunity to visit with Don, I agreed and I met the elders at Ruth and Don’s home…. In the course of the lesson, the missionaries asked Don what he had learned from reading the Book of Mormon. Don gave thoughtful and articulate answers. He clearly had read his assignment and he had processed what he had read. And then the missionaries asked, “Brother Magnuson, if you feel these things are true, will you agree to be baptized?” At this point, I am not quite certain how things went down. Perhaps Don was just worn out from Ruth’s 20 plus years of insistence that Don join the Mormon Church. Perhaps Don was impressed by the elder’s genuine spirit. Or maybe Don saw an advantage and he took it, because he said, “I’ll get baptized if Grant will do it.” But I didn’t miss a beat. I said, “Well then it has to be next week because I am leaving in ten days to go hiking in Idaho.” And so a week later, I baptized Don a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After the baptism, while Don and I were putting on dry clothes in the changing room, I bluntly asked Don, “Okay Don, what happened? After all of these years of listening to the missionaries, all of these years of faithfully attending church with Ruth and suffering through multiple Sunday School and priesthood lessons, why did you finally decide to get baptized?” Don’s response was simple and yet vintage Don Magnuson. He said, “It just made sense to me. It seemed right to me. I agreed with what the missionaries taught and what I read…and most of what you (Grant Smith was a teacher in the High Priest Group) taught in priesthood meetings, so I decided to get baptized.”