| 134 have been almost an impossibility for us to have left this dear and affectionate people had we not had the most implicit confidence in the brethren who were appointed to preside over them in our absence; but knowing their faith and virtuous conversation, and that they had the confidence of the church, we felt assured that the affairs of the church would be conducted in righteousness; consequently we left them under different feelings than we otherwise could have done.
"Immediately after dismissing we met the official members, the number of whom were eighty, at a private house, and instructed them further in their duties, and dismissed them at one o'clock the next morning.
"This was certainly one of the most interesting conferences I ever attended. The services were calculated to convince the honest and give joy to saints, and will long be remembered by all those who attended, and I have no doubt was the means of great and lasting good.
"At this conference we were favored with the company of Elders Isaac Russell and Willard Richards. The latter had returned from the county of Bedford, where he had been proclaiming the gospel. In consequence of sickness his labors had not been so extensive as they otherwise would have been, and were confined within a short distance from the city of Bedford, where he raised up two small branches, which he set in order and ordained one elder and other officers. He labored under considerable difficulty in consequence of the conduct of Elder Goodson, who accompanied him on that mission, who taught many things which were not in wisdom, which proved a barrier to the spread of the truth in that region. Elder Russell had returned from a mission to the north, having been laboring in the county of Cumberland, near the borders of Scotland, where numbers of his friends resided. While he was there he met with considerable opposition, even from those of his own family as well as the ministers of the different denominations, who sought every opportunity to block up his way and to destroy his influence.
"However, notwithstanding the great opposition he was instrumental in bringing upwards of sixty souls into the
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