Show missionaries IN ILLINOIS WOODLAWN illinois july 12 1897 hav ng seen but little in your valuable paper fiona aiom the southern illinois conference we thought a few lines from this field would be of interest to your many readers we have just returned from an extended trip having visited all the elders of this conference in their different fieles fields of labor we found them all enjoying the best of health and the spirit of their missions leaving this place on may ath we arrived in johnson county on the and were cordially welcomed by elders M J ballard and john A coon whom we met at the hospitable home of brother W W betts belts this being our old field of labor we can assure you that the three weeks spent there among the saints and many friends were ones long to be remembered while there we assisted our co laborers in holding fourteen well attended meetings also were rt requested quested to hold services in the aeme i tery on decoration day which we did and were greeted by an audience ot of about three hundred people who had gathered OR on this occasion the work in this field is progressing 1 rapidly we have now a regular or branch three sunday schools a meeting house in course of erection and a membership of about sixt sixty y five our next visit was with eld elders ers J W francom and P F durfee whom we assisted in holding a weeks open air meetings which were all well attended and much interest shown june found us v elder D A lowry in xenia clay county who is alone at present after spencina spen cing a few pleasant days there we wended bended our way to effingham effingham county where we found elders W E abbott and D M guest while there we applied for the court house in which to hold meet ings but owing to the existing prejudice we were met with an emphatic refusal we were also denied the privilege of holding a lew few street meetings not to be outdone we went out in the country for two miles where we held two good meetings owing to the excessive heat we concluded conclude a to travel by night to our next point vandalia Vand vandalia alil fay ette etie county the old state capital it t was there that we spent independence day n company with elders E S sheets and SL bunnell leaving there on the ath dinst we reached greenville bond county the same day where we met elder george A hill who took us out in the country ten miles where elder E had just finished a series of meetings there we remained a few days ing the many friends the elders had made since opening up this county last winter july ath found us once more at our headquarters in woodlawn we having wa i ked a distance of miles in view of the tact that the five last named fields are comparatively new no elders having been in them pi previous ivious to last wimer finier we think that the following report for june is quite encouraging families visited revisited re visited tracts distributed books sold ig 19 beez meetings zings held children cn ildren blessed 3 baptisms 7 gospel conversations too much cannot be said of the hospitality pita lity shown the elders by the people in ger general eral throughout southern illinois and the prejudice that exists against our people is fast disappearing considering the progress that has been made by our little band of energetic and zealous workers woric ers during the vase pasc gw few months it is but a question of a very short time when our brethren on the sunny side of the mason and dixon line will aill have to look to their laurels V E CANDLAND president of conference C E DiN dinwoodey WOODRY clerk |