continued to labor against much opposition in Bedford and the region round about, until the 7th of March, 1838, when he returned to , leaving about 40 members in charge of elder James Lavender.

Elder Russell continued to labor at Alston, Brampton, &c., and returned to near the same time, leaving about 60 members in the care of Jacob Peart.

At Christmas, 1837, was elder, and several were ordained , &c., at ; and in March, 1838, the had extended from to Penwortham, Longton, Southport. Eccleston, Whittle, Huntershill, Chorley, and the intermediate region through the labors of elders , , and , and the members amounted to several hundred in the region of and Clithero.

During this month, elders and were diligently engaged organizing the different ; and on the 1st of April, a general was called at , when the organization of the churches was completed, and many were ordained; among whom were elders , , and , to the , and set apart by elders and to preside over all the churches in .

On the 9th, elders , , and Russell, took leave of the Saints in , and went to , where they were visited by elders , , , and others, and on the 20th of April sailed for , on board the Garrick, the same ship they came out on to

When elders and had returned to Longton, they found a pamphlet purporting to be by the Rev. Richard Livesey, a Methodist minister, who had spent some time on a mission to the , as he says, and having nothing more important to attend to during his mission, it appears that he spent his time in gathering up a heap of lies and filth from the American papers, and imported them to on his return; and finding that the work of God had commenced in his native land, and was likely to destroy his craft, set himself at work to condemn his heterogeneous mass of transatlantic lies, and form the wonderful production of the Rev. Richard Livesey’s tract against the Latter Day Saints, it being the first thing of the kind that the enemy of all righteousness had found means to export from , and circulate in , but since which he has found servants in abundance, to assist in this nefarious merchandize of his heart’s delight.

The church at this time, was in its infancy, and needed much instruction, which necessarily occupied the attention of the presiding elders to a great extent, and as there were few laborers in the field, the spread of the work was not very rapid for some time.

Sister Alice Hodgin died at on the 2d of September, 1838, and it was such a wonderful thing for a Latter Day Saint to die in , that was arraigned before the Mayor’s court at , on the 3d of October, charged with ”killing and slaying” the said Alice, with a “black stick,” &c., but was discharged without being permitted to make his defence, as soon as it was discovered that the iniquity of his accusers was about to be made manifest.

October 19, 1838, gave himself wholly to the work, and soon after commenced preaching and baptizing in ; and from thence the work spread into Stockport, and other places in the neighborhood, through the labors of elders , , John Moon, and [David] Wilding. A small church had previously sprung up in Bolton, through the labors of elder Wilding, and was continued by elder . In the summer of 1839 elders , , and J. Moon labored in Burslem with some success, and a small church was planted in Burnley by elder [p. 883]