To & ,

Dearly beloved in the Kingdom & patience of Jesus Christ. I should have been extremely happy to have seen you at the in July, and fondly anticipated meeting you there on my arrival from , but was disappointed being a day or two, too late. The council you left for me to come here and endeavour to open a field of labor, was as at first somwhat repugnant to my feelings, for I was then in a widely extended field of labour, and during the last four months of my labour I about fifty, and the prospect <​was​> brightening daily, and should I leave that field of labour in the fall, I felt quite anxious to return to , for various reasons, not among the least of which was the priveledge of attending the school, I also hang a little on what Joseph told me when I left , advising me not to return within a year, but notwithstanding my prospects and desires I could but think that yours was the council of the wise, and I resolved at any sacrafice to act accordingly, if my mind could be fully satisfied that it was my duty and that God would prosper me on this missions; and in answer to my prayers he gave me the witness of the Holy Spirit, but afterward like Gideon I tried him a second time, and in a singular way such as I never did before or since; (dont laugh when I tell you:) I followed the example of Jonah’s shipmates and the eleven when they chose Matthias to the apostleship; and after praying sincerely that [p. [1]]