LEAVES FROM MY JOURNAL.

The answer I got was, that I should go to the south, for the
Lord had a great work for me to perform there, as many souls
were waiting for the word of the Lord.

CHAPTER XXIV.

MY JOURNEY TO HEREFORDSHIRE—INTERVIEW WITH JOHN
BENBOW—THE WORD OF THE LORD FULFILLED TO ME—
THE GREATEST GATHERING INTO THE CHURCH KNOWN
AMONG THE GENTILES SINCE THE ORGANIZATION OF THE
CHURCH IN THIS DISPENSATION—A CONSTABLE SENT TO
ARREST ME—I CONVERT AND BAPTIZE HIM—TWO
CLERKS SENT AS DETECTIVES TO HEAR ME PREACH, AND
BOTH EMBRACE THE TRUT—RECTORS PETITION TO
HAVE OUR PREACHING PROHIBITED—THE ARCHBISHOP'S
REPLY—BOOK OF MORMON AND HYMN BOOK PRINTED
—CASE OF HEALING.

ON the 3rd of March, 1840, in fulfillment of the word of
the Lord to me, I took coach and rode to Wolverhamp-
ton, twenty-six miles, and spent the night there.

On the morning of the 4th I again took coach, and rode
through Dudley, Stourbridge, Stourport and Worcester, and
then walked a number of miles to Mr. John Benbow's, Hill
Farm, Castle Frome, Ledbury, Herefordshire. This was a
farming country in the south of England, a region where no
Elder of the Latter-day Saints had visited.

I found Mr. Benbow to be a wealthy farmer, cultivating
three hundred acres of land, occupying a good mansion, and
having plenty of means. His wife, Jane, had no children.

I presented myself to him as a missionary from America,
an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
who had been sent to him by the commandment of God as a
messenger of salvation, to preach the gospel of life unto him
and his household, and the inhabitants of the land.

Mr. Benbow and his wife received me with glad hearts and
thanksgiving. It was in the evening when I arrived, having