| Show THE GOSPEL IN TEXAS rockwall rock wall texas feb 5 last september when the texas conference was divided eight of the elders were assigned to labor miles north from austin which district was designated as the north texas conference elder joseph coulam of salt lake city was chosen as president elder eider levi J JT i taylor aylor and myself were assigned to labor in rockwall county the smallest in the state being twelve miles square upon entering the county we dedicated our labors to the lord and asked him to prepare the way before us we were given a cold reception at the first village it seemed that satan well knew that there were many honest souls in there so he wanted to keep us out it if possible our third meeting was disturbed by the hurling of ah n egg into the house but nothing beyond that one little evidence of goda watchful care was manifested while at this place we were without money andrad and had no stamps our tracts were about gone and we needed a tamp stamp to send after more we were considering what would be best to do and went into a house and conversed awhile on the gospel As an we were leaving we picked up a two cent cop fg per piece which we took to the post poet office and traded for a stamp and sen sent off for our tracts thanking the great we continued to visit from house to house bouse and hold meetings in the school houses we found the people many times prejudiced and sometimes suspicious pi cious sometimes we could hardly make people believe we were real mormons cormons Mor mons many would express themselves in this way they preach good doctrine but they are mormons cormons Mor mons just think of lt it Mor on anthe the 3rd ard of november we came to this city which Is the county seat rockwall to is a 9 city of about 1500 1 people and to Is a model town no saloons no fighting on the streets no rowdy boys to make the stranger feel uncomfortable for table we entered the city tasting fasting and praying resolving not to break our fast till we had done all in our power to get a place in which to preach we first filst went to the mayor who told us to go ahead and make ourselves at home we next had interviews with the county clerk city marshal and the sheriff the sheriff gave us the u use e of the court room for our meetings we now felt entitled to our supper so went down to the house of a friend by the name of irvine whom we had met before and partook of a good supper next day we commenced our labors by visiting all the business houses we were treated with great respect by all the leading men being asked by the proprietor of the hotel to call on him we ate with the superintendent of city schools the county attorney and the pastor of the christian church the newspaper men were gentlemen and the editor of the success gave us advertisement an and made a few remarks in regard to the objat object of our Inlo sioni doni atter holding forth three nights in the court room the christian church was opened to us the deed to the land on which the church stands was given to the church by brother boydstun Boyd atun who died a mormon there is a clause inthe deed which states that the house shall be open for the mormons cormons to preach in we held four meetings in this church and visited every house in town we also held many meetings in private houses we enjoyed our labors in the city and made many friends and have countless invitations to call again one well educated minister made some ungentlemanly remarks about us in one of his meetings and we called on him a few days after and he was ashamed to look us in the face he hardly knew what to think about those two honest unassuming boys he expected we had come to quarrel with him after our public meetings were closed we stayed a a while to gather the fruits when an elder sees the seeds of truth spring up and put forth fruit then his heart swells within him and he feels like ake his labors axe are not in vain we rejoiced in having the privilege of baptizing some honest hearted people who had been drifting along waiting for the lord to send them the truth on nov lath the writers elder taylor and I 1 were separated through the arrival of two new elders elder taylor took rider elder hyrum 0 pack and went into Kaut naan county while elder francis Bp ancis A wadsworth and myself remained her tp to finish this county several families axe are now investigating the gospel and we have hopes of several more births of the water and the spirit soon there are sixteen elders in this conference at present elder coulam visits us frequently and we are stimulated by the spirit of zeal that he always imparts unto us elder wadsworth and I 1 came to the a in which to preach but found the people were opposed to us we then resolved to lay the matter before the lord which we did by fasting and praying for two am days on monday morning we set our faces toward the town resolving to tract it and hold private meetings it if we could do no better As we walked along we were wondering how we were going to send off our reports as we had no envelopes and no stamps we oame came to the post office and while we waiting for our mail an old gentleman came up to us and put 60 50 cents in elder wads hand and as we thanked him and shook hands the tears came to his eyes and our hearts swelled with gratitude to our heavenly father above we bought stamps paper and envelopes and then started in to tract ing we were led in a certain direction c and found a man who offered to furnish lamps if we would hold meeting the school house we then went to the trustees again and they gave us the use of the house which we were very thankful to get we had three public and several private meetings and found several families of honest investigators ti the elders in this conference all seem to be enjoying the spirit of love and we look forward to a great harvest of souls this year your brethren J L WORKMAN and F A WADSWORTH |
