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Show AN EPXSTLE IS WRITTEN - A TRACT IS BORN Elder John Morgan completed his first mission in the Southern States , and started west via the railroad with a:pproxtmately ninety converts on t]le ZOth day of November, 1877. He located them. in the San Luis Valley of Colorado and pioneered the settlements ol Manassa, Ephraim, Colorado. ln the following . . spring, he was called by the First P re~idency to return to the South to organize the Southern States Mission more completely and establish mission headquarters at Nashville, 'fenne ssee. On March 31", 1878, he arrive~t in tha~ city anQ a £ew days later proceeded $OUth into northern Georgia and Alabama. v1here he visited among the Saints. On April lZ, 1878, he wrote i.n his journal, nx feel well in getting back to my former field of labor, and l truat that the spirit of God will enlighte11 my mind ' . . so l may be able . to do much good. '' On April 16, 1878, with a nu.mbel' of the Saints residing at Dalton, Georgia, he went to some nearby woods and dedicated a beautiful spot as a sacred place of prayer. There was much rejoicing am.ong the saints on the return of Elder Morgan to their midst. They had missed greatly the inspiration of hi's presence and es-pec: ially his teachings which had motivated their conversion to the gospel. Realizing that he could not, of necessity, remain with them long as his field of labor was large, they urged that he redu~e to writing the great truths concerning the plan of salvation which he had so convincingly portrayed to them in his ;sern1ons to the end that, in his abse~ce, they might study and meditate upon it. |
