| 273 to say or do anything to discourage you from going if you think it best to do so. We know, in part, how you are situated. Out of the church you have few or no friends, and very little or no society-in it you have both.
So far as going West is concerned I have thought it a wise move indeed I could see no other, and though the journey is long and attended with toil, yet a bright future has been seen in the distance if right counsels are given and a departure in no way from the original faith, in no instance, countenanced. Of what that doctrine and faith are and were I ought to know, and further it does not become me now to speak.
May 7, Elder William Nelson wrote from Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands, giving the information that he had returned to the islands, and that he found the Saints doing as well as could be expected; that Bro. David Brown was receiving the Herald regularly, which Bro. Nelson read to them in their own language.
Some time in May Elder Glaud Rodger arrived at San Francisco, returning from his long mission to Australia. On May 21 he wrote from San Francisco that he had visited Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, and Watsonville. On the 22d he started for Decatur County, Iowa, his family having removed to that point from California during his absence. On June 6 he wrote to the Herald Office from Decatur County, Iowa, mentioning his arrival and that J. W. Gillen had left the same place on June 4 for Australia. He stated: "I have left the colonies clear of any incumbrance [encumbrance]; no debt for my successor to meet; a good little library, and many friends both in and out of the church."
On May 25, 1879, Elder D. S. Mills was ordained a high priest at Oakland, California, by H. P. Brown, according to direction of General Conference.
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