Sister Savannah Howell's Special Connection to Wilford Woodruff

Videographer: James Dalrymple

Speaker: Savannah Howell

Producer: Smith Family Foundation

Missionary Interviews

Transcript

I'm Sister Savannah Howell and I am here in the UK as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am connected to Wilford Woodruff because one day my ancestor, Thomas Kington, he met Wilford Woodruff. Thomas Kington, he was leading this group of people called the United Brethren, and they had all kind of decided that they were just looking for truth, that there were all these different religions teaching different things, and they just wanted to know what Christ's pure gospel was. And Wilford Woodruff gave him a Book of Mormon and he decided that if it was true, he had all his support, but if it was false, he was going to prove him wrong and go against him. And of course he read it, prayed about it, knew that it was true, and so he brought it to his congregation and almost the whole congregation got baptized and joined the church.

Wilford Woodruff had a huge impact on the United Brethren, and it's really cool because I know that if my ancestor hadn't have accepted that, my family wouldn't be a part of the gospel, and as a result, all of these people got baptized. Being here at the Hill Farm where Wilford Woodruff baptized my ancestor helps to reaffirm my testimony because of just the spirit that is here, you can feel that it's a special place and that special events happened here, and being able to reflect on those just helps me to reaffirm my testimony and realize that I'm really grateful to be a part of this gospel.