Show IN ALABAMA AND FLORIDA LOANGO covington co ala august 1896 the experiences ot of a missionary are varied in some localities he is received and treated kindly people feeling unable to do enough for him and in other places he meets with prejudice which is always the result of ignorance the place from which we write might be classed among these prejudiced regions although the people of course declare to the contrary when we entered this place they said those fellows who have turned the world upside down have come hither also they had heard of us and knew that we ha had been holding many meetings in the southern part ot of the county although we meet with much opposition yet we are constantly adding to the little stone owing to the heat beat we have not been as active as we otherwise would have been yet we have been instant in in season and out ol of season and have tried to make it a point to convert our visit to every house into a meeting in the past three weeks we have held forty eight meetings blessed sixteen children and baptized and confirmed fourteen persons as members of the church sometimes we get somewhat discouraged and feel that we are not doing our duty but considering we feel that we are doing fairly well and that the lord is blessing our efforts and crowning them with success since our conference we have traveled without purse and scrip and our testimony is that we have had bad tar better success than previous to our entering into this plan we are trying to fully realize the great importance of obeying this rule the lord commands that we carry no money or anything of a kindred nature and has said you shall not go hungry neither athirst we have reaped the blessings promised the just in proportion to our obeying this command this county is very thinly settled one traves traveis for five or six miles in some places without passing a house this renders it impossible to compete with the labors ot of the brethren of more thickly inhabited places on the 23 alt we visited pensacola florida the old seaport town many interesting sights were to be seen among those most worthy of mention were the larger steam and sail vessels many were sunken and some washed inland by the terrific storm which oc cured on july we also visited the navy yard and lighthouse light honse department the former is about gone to ruin there being her a few old fashioned guns lett left while bile in the old city we met a man who was once an inhabitant of jackson co missouri he said he knew many of the mormons cormons well among them was david whitmer one ot of the three witnesses of the book ot of mormon he spoke ol of him in the high highest st terms he added mr thomas I 1 know more about the mormons cormons than you can tell me and further said that for their religion etc they were not expelled but tor for stealing cattle A little cross examination however proved his information to be somewhat limited more so than he be had realized and being unable to carry his point he would try to take sides with me in the southern part of escambia county we met some of brethren who treated us well bell we held two meetings in their church and have a standing invitation to preach there whenever we choose we spent one forenoon in explaining the succession that it fell upon the twelve and not the seed of the prophet Prop hei to lead the church one man told of an incident which oc cured soon after the civil war there being an organization in this section some one would speak in tongues and another someone would give the interpretation and the party addressed dared not offer any refutation or they would charge him with rejecting the spirit he has for five years belonged to this church I 1 think ere long some of them will see their error and come in at the right door realizing the value of your space we will close thanking you for paper which reaches us regularly and is always a welcome guest D HADLOND T THOMAS HOMAS JOHN H PACE |