| Show A LETTER FROM NEW YORK BOX 82 steuben county march 1897 I 1 left my home at syracuse utah october xyth irth 1895 and traveled in company with elder newell K brown of lehi our journey to brooklyn N Y the headquarters of the eastern states mission was pleasant I 1 asked myself the question whether I 1 was prepared to preach the gospel of christ and defend the principles of truth as I 1 ought to do I 1 could but answer no for I 1 remembered how I 1 had let the golden opportunities tuni ties pass by not heeding beeding the adai advice e of the servants of god to store my mind with useful knowledge but like a great many others white while at home I 1 contented myself by thinking I 1 would not be called on a mission since that time I 1 have been placed in positions where I 1 wished I 1 hid had followed the counsel given and my advice to the youth of zion would be to listen to what the servants of god say I 1 spent three weeks after arriving va iki brooklyn in viewing some of the sights of new york and and brooklyn I 1 was then appointed to labor in western new york in in company with elder martin R mcfarland with whom I 1 labor labored edat at or near cohocton Coh octon steuben county N Y till april 1896 we held meetings during the winter and through the bless ings of god were permitted to baptize seventeen into the fold of christ in april elder james B woolsey sod and william D shaw arrived from utah t W labor with us brother shaw and I 1 have labored together since making our headquarters here although doing most of stir our labors of tr trading acting and holding some few meetings in the surrounding country south and west of he here extending our travels into troga otte r and mckean counties pa As a rule the people are very much prejudiced against us as a people but it is because they have heard our enemies side of the story only and when we can get them to listen to our side they bey invariably feel better towards us by this means we have made a number of friends although as a rule they do not want much to do with our doctrine they feelis feeling ig perfectly satisfied with the faith of cuir their fathers but I 1 trust that we may through the blessings of god bring some to a knowle knowledge oge of the truth we have been treated well only being ordered out of one house there are still a lew few of the early day saints scattered through this part of the country for some seme cause or other they failed to gather but those we have found are firm in the faith I 1 am satisfied we will be able to hold bold a great many more meetings the coming summer than we have in the past about three months ago there arrived at leon lake near the town of cohoe ton a missionary of the reorganized church named F M irom from boston mass while there he attended one of the meetings of the saints from what the elders and saints told me after meeting he commenced to abuse the people by throwing out all manner of slurs and insults bringing up the old stories of the mountain meadow massacre and blood atonement claiming that brigham young and other leading men in the church publicly preached the latter that it was a doctrine of our church of course we know his statements to be untrue before closing I 1 wish to say to the saints in utah that if they have any friends or relatives living in this vicinity and desue desire us to call upon them we will be only too pleased to do so if they will forward their names and addresses I 1 can say that I 1 am enjoying my labors in connection with brother shaw and we are striving in in our weak way to bring the gospel before the people and as soon as I 1 recover from the rheumatism which I 1 have been bothered with for the past four or five weeks we intend to try and do more in the the future than we have done in the past ast DANIEL H |
