| Show IN OLD VIRGINIA WOODS cross road gloucester co virginia may aist 1897 since I 1 left my home in the beautiful town of providence cache county utah november ath 1895 I 1 have been engaged as a traveling elder in the old dominion state during which time lyex my experience peri ence has been of a varied character for the first nine months my labors were confined to the countess Couite ss of bruns wick and nilson nelson making a house to house canvas with elder ezra bingham of ogden meeting with many friends and assisting in allaying much prejudice that seemed to be poisoning the minds of the people immediately after con clerence le rence which was held at haran county july 11 and 12 where we received many valuable instructions from our worthy president E S kimball I 1 was assigned to continue my labors in nelson county in connection with elder elde r joseph i of mill creek salt sal t lake county we left le tt for our field of labor july adyth 1896 light hearted and determined to fulfil fulfill the commandments of god by traveling without purse or scrip notwithstanding the scorching sun and rugged roads we reached our field of labor after a five days walk on the first ol of august when we commenced our pleasant labors among the saints holding a lew few days meet ng we continued to canvas the remaining portion of nelson county which was among the mountain people meeting with much su success c cess and holding a great many meetings the people as a rule rue were kind and hospitable although at times their we re poor fleas and ticks were plentiful but we were welcome to what they had I 1 during our stay in nelson we had the pleasure of baptizing five honest souls into the fuld of christ one of which I 1 would mention in particular was grandma fitzgerald of eighty one summers bummers who being old and feeble we carried rie I 1 her on a cnair chair laced to two sticks with hickory bark down the mountain to a little creek on the head waters of the tie river where we peri performed ormed the holy ordinance and enjoyed a spiritual feast east f our labots labors in nelson were shor but pleasantly spent I 1 was then noti notified fidd by our worthy president J degray dixon to meet elder H B crouch of morgan county at louisa court house and travel as a meteoric elder in the county of culpeper bidding saints and friends good bye we made our way to louisa court house meeting my companion on the appointed day we at once set out for our field of labor arriving in culpeper october irth we began our labors by visiting trie toe trustees and succeeded in gaining access to the school houses in in the salem district we at once began our series of lectures oar friends were sere few at first but soon our fame spread abroad and people come from lar far and near to hear the mormon boys and thus by the aid of god we marched on with success from village to village holding eight to ten lectures in each school house which were crowded with attentive listeners each night and during the beautiful moonlight nights of october our audience increased so we were compelled to throw wide the doors so the who stood on the outside could hear the gospel sound our labors were crowned with success and god was with us our stammering tongues were loosened and we were enabled by his power to unfold to large congregations the doctrine of jesus christ during our sojourn of four months we held meetings all of which were public and on leaving the county we represented presented with a pair of shoes and escorted ten miles on our journey in a fine top buggy from thence we were assigned to labor in gloucester county in passing through king and queen counties we were compelled to preach the funeral of sister philips the only saint we have in the county who died true to her covenant leaving a husband to mourn her loss arriving in gloucester county on the ii nth i th of march we visited the saints and began our labors we met with marked success notwithstanding the slander from the pulpit by the supposed minis teri of christ we have succeeded in gaining many friends and earnest investigators vesti gators one of which is captain W W 1 i hompson ghompson who deserves a great deal of credit for the efforts he has made in behalf of the elders for they found a home when other doors were closed my labors labor have been most pleasant yet not always strewn with roses my testimony is that all those who will travel without purse or scrip shall not want for the necessaries of life for fok I 1 can say as did the apostles ot old 1 I lack for nothing your valuable paper is is a yv welcome elcome visitor and its pages are perused with much interest WALLACE |
