England - Day 5 (Herefordshire Beacon, Lullington, Coton in the Elms, Tatenhill, Leicester, Darly Dale, Youlgreave, Mottram in Longendale

From the book "MEN WITH A MISSION - THE QUORUM OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES IN THE BRITISH ISLES," by James B. Allen, Ronald K. Esplin, and David J. Whittaker (pages 148-149): Converts poured in, however, and Wilford Woodruff continued to be humbled by it. Given to introspection anyway, he frequently retreated to the hights of the Malvern Hills to meditate and pray. On May 9 he hiked to the top of one of them and was awed at the grand panorama below; Worcester on the north, the village of Gloucester on the south, Ledbury and other villages to the west, and "a fine beautiful cultivated vale upon evry hand." As he stood there exulting in the view, clouds rolled in below him, thunder rumbled, and lightning danced through the clouds beneath his feet. To him it was a wondrous and awe-inspiring scene that provided "a grand survey of the works of nature & the power of God." Two days later, on May 11, he decided to hike to the top of Herefordshire Beacon, one of the most prominent of the Malvern Hills, for a time of solitary contemplation.  After preparing his mind "for a lonely walk & meditation" by reading Parley P. Pratt's remarks on the "eternal duration of matter," he began his climb. On the way he noted several entrenchments, which he surmised were artifacts of Roman activities more than a thousand years before. Standing atop the hill with its magnificent view of the surrounding countryside, he could not help but reflect upon where he stood, in time as well as in space, and what it all meant for him. He also knelt in a private prayer of thanksgiving. He wrote later in his journal:

"But I soon drew my thoughts from the busy rabit, sheep, & asses to the solumn reflections which the ravages of time presented before me. O! Malvern thy lofty Hill bares up my feet while mine eyes take a survey of thy deep intrenchments. Thy mighty bulwarks, which have trembled by the roar of cannon, the clash of arms, & din of war has reeched around thy brow & died away in the vale beneath, while the blood of many a roman & Englishman to, have washed thy brow & soaked thy soil while they have fallen to rise no more. They sleep in death & time has earth'd them all & they are forgotten & blotted from the history & memory of man. Nothwithstanding O! Malvern thou hast been the Ark or refuge for thousands in the time of trouble or war. Yet Willford is the ownly solitary soul that treads thy soil this day & he alone bends his knee upon [thee] on the highth of thy summer in the midst of the Clouds to offer up the gratitude of his heart unto that God who will soon level all hills exhalt all valies & redeem the earth from the curse of sin & prepare it for the abode of the Saints of the MOST HIGH. I retired from the hill into the vale reflecting upon the rise, progress, decline, & fall of the empires of the earth, & the revolutions which must still transpire before the winding up scene & the comeing of Christ."

On May 20 Wilford took his colleagues to the top of Herefordshire Beacon for quiet meditation, prayer, and counsel. There they felt inspired that it was God's will that Brigham Young should leave immediately for Manchester to work on publishing the Book of Mormon and the new hymnbook. Already they had collected a substantial amount of money toward publication, including 100 pounds from Thomas and Hannah Kington and 250 pounds from John and Jane Benbow. As soon as they hiked down from the hill, Brigham was on his way, carrying the precious funds with him. It was the end of one of his most memorable months as a missionary. "I shall never forget my little mision in that contry with Brother Woodruff and with Br Richards," he wrote back to Willard.

Needless to say, there was no quiet meditation going on this morning.  I can't help but think that the pioneers were laughing at us as we suffered for 30 minutes in the cold, rain, wind, and hail......and then returned to the heated car.  I even asked the hotel manager to put our wet pants in her dryer for a few minutes when we got back.  :)

I want to include a few things from my great-great-great grandpa, George Goddard.  He, his wife (Elizabeth), and his mother were all born in Leicester.

Example of George Goddard’s humor (excerpt from “Review of an Active Life,” serialized article in the Church’s Juvenile Instructor from January to July, 1882): In the year 1839, at 24 years of age, he wrote:

“I very much needed a helpmeet.  Bachelor life was very inconvenient, and not being an expert in domestic economy, the rooms I ate and slept in soon represented a very untidy appearance. . . . she [Elizabeth, his wife-to-be] became an eyewitness to the wretched condition of my bachelor life, and we were both sensibly convinced that it was not good for man to be alone.” (p. 28).

Another excerpt from the above article poignantly summarizes their difficult life but the happiness they maintained through severe trials:

“Twenty years had now passed away since my wife and I were baptized into the Church; and had the rapid and momentous circumstances we experienced been shown us one day prior to our baptism, I fear we would both have shrunk from accepting the gospel on any such terms; but the future being so wisely and completely hidden from our eyes, we knew not what was coming until our faith became strong and confiding enough to meet it, and acknowledge the hand of the Lord therein.

“At the time of our baptism, I was doing a good, safe, ready-money business . . . but by publicly preaching in the market-place, my business rapidly collapsed, my financial hopes were blighted, my home was broken up, my furniture disposed of, and I left with a wife and seven small children on my hands and no means of supporting them.  Then followed the refusal of help from my father and the payment of fifty pounds by my brother to get rid of us, and afterwards my trip to Liverpool, a perfect stranger, to raise means for the purchase of supplies for our journey across the ocean, to a country where, to use the words of my father, it would be impossible for me to earn ‘salt for my porridge.’  A few weeks’ successful efforts, in Liverpool and Manchester, and then adieu to parents, relatives, and country, my wife leaving an only mother, and I both father and mother, all of whom were so passionately fond of our children, that to tear them away forever seemed like severing their very heart strings.  Then followed the trying experience of a birth and burial on the ocean; the sudden expectation of a watery grave by contact with a snag on the Mississippi; the death of another child at Memphis; arrival at St. Louis in midwinter, without means; the death of another child there; successful peddling through the streets of St. Louis . . . ; the death of two more children; the journey, mostly on foot, of one thousand miles across the plains, and the safe arrival in Salt Lake City of myself, wife, and three children.

“All this for the gospel’s sake!  If the kind hand of our Heavenly Father had not been with us, and also His Holy Spirit, to cheer and comfort and enlighten our minds, we never could have passed through such an ordeal” (p.92).

“One of the great lessons I learned while passing through this experience was, that the possession and enjoyment of the Spirit of God inspires cheerfulness and contentment irrespective of adverse circumstances” (p.75).

Can you imagine going through all that and keeping such a positive attitude?  Living the gospel really does bring happiness.

And here’s another example of why this particular relative is so impressive:

“In the summer of the year 1881, President Young was anxious to have a paper mill started.  In order to do so he wished to have the Saints instructed to save the fragments of cotton cloth to make paper with.  He sent for me, and gave me a mission to gather paper rags from house to house.  A more humiliating task could not be required of an Englishman.  But it was my duty as a servant of God to obey, and as such I undertook it, to assist in laying the foundation of an important home enterprise, which is now growing to mammoth proportions.  No person could have been more abundantly blessed of the Lord than I was during the three years I was thus engaged.  The Spirit of the Lord made me cheerful and happy, and the feeling of humiliation was removed.  The first lot of paper ever made at the paper mill was on the 24^th and 25^th of July, 1861.  It consisted of six hundred and eighty pounds of brown paper for boards and wrapping paper.  Brother Thomas Howard put the mill up, had sole charge of it, and made all the paper from July 24^th, 1861, to January 16^th, 1862; during this period there were twenty-eight thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven pounds manufactured.

“I traveled through the settlements as far north as Cache Valley and south as far as Sanpete, to gather rags.  I shall never forget the respect and consideration that were shown towards me by the leading authorities of every settlement.  I can truly say that the Lord inspired me with His Holy Spirit to deliver rag sermons, as much as if I was preaching upon the subject of baptism, or any other principle of the gospel.  I have devoted space to this subject on account of its involving a great gospel principle.  Jesus, our Elder Brother, descended below all things that He might be exalted above all things.  And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.  Therefore, let no one feel that by responding to the calls of the Priesthood, however humiliating the duty imposed may be to natural pride, the luster of their respectability will not be dimmed or their usefulness curtailed thereby.  Let us stoop to conquer.”

I love that last line!  Let us stoop to conquer.  That last story is so good for me because I was recently called to be the Stake Single Adult Representative and I had the same reaction as Grandpa Goddard - how humiliating!  I don't even want to BE a single adult, much less represent them!  But wow, after reading the above account, I am humbled.  There really is no insignificant or unimportant calling.  We can learn, serve, and grow through any calling we humbly magnify.

This is the church where George and Elizabeth were baptized when they were born.

And this is just an example of the places we have been driving through.  So pretty, even on rainy days like today.

Yep, we're having fun driving all over this place.