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Show ISSlfllTES OF ENU FIELD Dear Editor: At: this time I am taking a few moments to drop you these few lines, to express my appreciation appre-ciation to you for supplying me with the News from home, which I have enjoved reading very much since I have been here in the mission field. To be advised each week of the happenings of my home town since I have been away is something which I am sure I have appreciated, and to me the Washington County News has certainly fulfilled its intended purpose. pur-pose. It may be of interest to you to know a little about this country and the existing conditions here, so in brief I will try to give you a little of my ideas about this country conditions. condi-tions. I have been laboring, for the past 16 months in the Leeds Conference (Yorkshire). It is a very densely populated section, the main industry being woolen manufacturing. The new and more modern machinery has been rapidly taking the place of the ancient and inefficient methods which have been used here for centuries, cen-turies, which is helping this industry very much. Yorkshire is a very beautiful country, coun-try, in spite of the smoke, which is very dense in most all of the industrial indust-rial centers. Smoke stacks are as common in Yorkshire as oil monuments monu-ments were two years ago south of St. George. The labor question here is a very vital problem, as it is all over England Eng-land at the present too many men and not enough work so as a result we find much unemployment which causes a great lot of misery. Many of the people are on half time, and many are out of work entirely. Those who are unfortunate in this regard re-gard have their wants taken care of by a contribution of a few shillings a week, from the government, and from those who are in work. The people of Yorkshire are very generous and good-hearted, and as a rule they are inclined to be quite religious, but as most of the people of England are satisfied with what they have, so we find them in regards to religion, in most cases. There is some prejudice here towards our church, and very much indifference. Our work in the Leeds Conference the last year has been very successful I think. Our Saints are very sincere and energetic workers, and through their efforts and the efforts expended by the missionaries from Zion we were able to double the achievements of 1923 over that of 1922, in baptisms, bap-tisms, etc. Through our work I think we are little by little gaining ground, and the prejudice is gradually disappearing. disappear-ing. We still have a lot of newspaper newspap-er and journal scandalizing reports to fight, but I think the people are getting get-ting tired of reading the kind of rubbish rub-bish that is published about the Mormons, and as a result these papers pap-ers don't have so many interested readers, so sensational writers are not so much in demand. The conception that some of the anti-Mormons have as to even the appearance ap-pearance of the Mormon Elders in many cases are not very plain, and as a result of their ignorance in this regard, re-gard, a mobbing which was intended the other day for two of our missionaries mission-aries fell on the back of one of their own Catholic fathers. Probably now we as Mormons will receive a little more sympathy from the heads of the churches here. The source of most of the prejudice prejud-ice here in England towards our people peo-ple is ignorance. Personal contact is our best way of breaking these false impressions down. When once we can open up a house for visiting, we find it is not long till the prejudice has vanished. Cottage meetings are one of our successful means of getting the Gospel Gos-pel message before the people, also our open-air work is very successful in some parts, but there is still places where we are not allowed to carry on our street work. I am laboring now in the Leicester Leices-ter branch of the Nottingham Conference. Confer-ence. This section is noted for its lace manufacturing, hosiery, and shoe manufacturing. We have a very good branch here, good Saints, and an excellent field of labor. Our tracting in the country places, with the aid of our bicycles, is very interesting and we come in contact with many fine people in these small towns. Our street work in this city of 240,000 people is very successful, and our meetings are always very well attended. We have made many friends through our street meetings, and we are always given fair play and a good hearing, we have also been quite successful at selling our books in the streets. To close without saying something about Englands noted climate would ardlv be fair, and to explain t, Im afraid that's impossible, so suffice it to eay on this subject, that we get all he win and fog we want or need and sunshine could in winter time be classed very well as one of England miraces. Statistics on the weathe here last year showed that out of the 3 65 days there were only 7 5 dxy one3 This will no doubt give you some kind of an idea on our weather conditions. Mv health has been very good since I have been in England, and I have enjoyed every moment of my time here in this country, which is very beautiful, and especially do I enjoy the English sunshine, (when we have it). I also have learned to care very much for the English peo- Pl The interesting feature of England this summer is the Great British Empire Em-pire exibition at Wembley, which will no doubt be wonderful, all English Eng-lish colonies being represented including in-cluding Canada, South Africa, Aus-triala, Aus-triala, India, and New Zeland. Arrangements have been made, at our mission headquarters so that all the missionaries if they wish will be able to attend the exhibition. In conclusion, I wish to convey to you my most hearty appreciation and thanks for the News the past IS months, also I wish to send my best regards to all my Dixie friends. To the success of the Washington County News, and Dixie. Rudger C. Atkin. 60, Bonsall St. Leicester, England. |