Wilford Woodruff, Fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: History of His Life and Labors, as Recorded in His Daily JournalsWoodruff, Wilford
Religion
Wilford Woodruff, Fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: History of His Life and Labors, as Recorded in His Daily Journals
Woodruff, Wilford
Woodruff, Wilford, 1807-1898
"The ministers and rectors of the south of England called a convention
and sent a petition to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to request
Parliament to pass a law prohibiting the Mormons from preaching in the
British dominions. In this petition the rectors stated that one Mormon
missionary had baptized fifteen hundred {119} persons, mostly members
of the English Church, during the past seven months. But the Archbishop
and council, knowing well that the laws of England afforded toleration
to all religions under the British flag, sent word to the petitioners
that if they had the worth of souls at heart as much as they valued
ground where hares, foxes, and hounds ran, they would not lose so many
of their flock.
"I continued to preach and baptize daily. On the 21st day of March I
baptized Elder Thomas Kington. He was superintendent of both preachers
and members of the United Brethren. The first thirty days after my
arrival in Herefordshire, I had baptized forty-five preachers and one
hundred and sixty members of the United Brethren, who put into my hands
one chapel and forty-five houses, which were licensed according to
law to preach in. This opened a wide field for labor, and enabled me
to bring into the Church, through the blessings of God, over eighteen
hundred souls during eight months, including all of the six hundred
United Brethren except one person. In this number there were also some
two hundred preachers of various denominations. This field of labor
embraced Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, and Worcestershire, and formed
the conferences of Garway, Gadfield Elm, and Frome's Hill. During this
time I was visited by President Young and Dr. Richards."
On the 14th of April, 1840, Elder Woodruff records the ordination of
Willard Richards to the apostleship. Two days later the Twelve, in
council, voted to publish a Church periodical in Great Britain. Elder
Woodruff proposed that it be called the Millennial Star, and it was so
named.
"Brother John Benbow furnished us with £300 to print the first edition
of the Book of Mormon that was published in England," wrote Elder
Woodruff; "and on the 20th of May, 1840, Brigham Young, Willard
Richards, and I held a council on top of Malvern Hill, and there
decided that Brigham Young should go direct to Manchester and publish
three thousand copies of the Book of Mormon and the Hymn Book.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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