| Show i FROM MAYHEW mississippi mayhew miss sept 13 1897 when elder wm N dye and arrived in meridian miss on nov 17 1896 we were met by president pomeroy and elder S H jones who escorted us to the hotel where we spent the few remaining hours upon the peaceful arm of slumber the day following found me sick not from any ailment of the body but from a disease commonly called homesickness and indeed it was homesickness I 1 was appointed to labor with elder R F jardine and we started out in the hot sun and walked six sit miles I 1 began to think we were never going to get to our destination but we kept pushing on and a joy unspeakable came to me when my companion told me we were there but when supper came or even breakfast I 1 could hardly devour my meals because the diet consisted of corn bread and ba bacon conand and of course I 1 had never seen any corn bread before of course elder jardine had a good laugh and would smile every meal time and that just gave me fresh courage and in two or three weeks I 1 got used to eating cornbread now 1 am a strong advocate for cornbread and in fact can vouch for nearly all the elders preferring it in place of the flour bread As soon as my taste was adapted to cornbread my labors became interesting and have been increasing from time to time and in our weak way we tried to do our duty april 10 elder geo A macdonald of mesa city arizona and myself ia labored in county until may 29 99 when conference was held then elder elder wm N eyre and myself labored in the same game county until june 24 when elder thos R condie arrived from his home in morgan county and we resumed the work and finished the county we were then appointed to labor in lowndes county this we did by entering the same on the ath of august and dedicating it unto the lord we canvassed two neighborhoods and met some nice people and made good friends soon we received word that elders cox and holmes would meet us at mayhew where we would separate elders condie and cox staying ing in lowndes county while elder holmes and myself were to go to clay county but we failed to be there and when elders cox and holmes came into mayhew of course we were not there so elder cox went into columbus where we were staying and elder holmes had to go back west four miles of mayhew to fill an appointment we met elder cox in columbus and indeed we were glad to see him after conversing a short while I 1 bade them goodbye good bye as I 1 wanted to get out eighteen miles in the country where elder holmes was to help him with his meetings and it was a hard parting and caused me to think our parting is done with tears of sorrow borrow but our meeting with tears of joy joi the thought makes its appearance on such occasions as this what joy and satisfaction we have in our labors and it can not be realized except by those who have the actual experience in the missionary field where louwill you will find a humble band of elders united heart and soul by love and friendship tor for the advancement of gods work on my way to meet elder holmes I 1 rode ten miles in different wagons and walked the other eight and gotto the school house just as elder holmes was having his opening prayer and when he said amen I 1 walked in and lie be stared at me which made me think he did not like it me coming in in the middle of the service but when he saw who I 1 was of course he winked the other eye and we had a hearty hand shake when we retired to our room for rest we sat up until an early hour we had so much to talk about so it is we have the bitter and sweet but the sweet overbalances over balances thet the bitter and makes our missionary travels the happiest part of our lives or at least it is so with us LEON B HAMPTON WM R HOLMES |
