"Elder Taylor: 'Well Brother Woodruff, if you think it best for me to go, I will accompany you.'
"Elder Woodruff: 'But where will you get the money?'
"Elder Taylor: 'Oh, there will be no difficulty about that. Go and take a passage for me on your vessel, and I will furnish you the means.'
"A Brother Theodore Turley, hearing the above conversation, and thinking that Elder Taylor had resources unknown to himself or Brother Woodruff, said: 'I wish I could go with you, I would do your cooking and wait on you.'
"The passage to be secured was in the steerage—these missionaries were not going on flowery beds of ease—hence the necessity of such service as Brother Turley proposed rendering. In answer to this appeal, Elder Taylor told Brother Woodruff to take a passage for Brother Turley also.
"At the time of making these arrangements Elder Taylor had no money, but the Spirit had whispered to him that means would be forthcoming, and when had that still, small voice failed him! In that he trusted, and he did not trust in vain. Although he did not ask for a penny of anyone, from various persons in voluntary donations he received money enough to meet his engagements for the passage of himself and Brother Turley, but no more."
CHAPTER IV.
LEAVING HOME THE JOURNEY.
One of the first trying experiences a missionary has to endure is that of tearing himself away from his family. The expression "tearing himself away" is not describing too strongly the painful feelings of such an ordeal, for to many this is no trifling experience: it is like tearing one's heartstrings to undergo it, and he feels almost as though he were purposelessly inflicting most cruel torture upon his loved ones regardless of their appeals for mercy. But feeling that it is a call from the Lord that prompts him to do this, he is strengthened to endure the severe but fortunately short trial. One can perhaps imagine to some extent how painful was such a parting as the one described by the late President Heber C. Kimball. It occurred about the same time as the incident related in the previous chapter in the experience of President John Taylor when called to fill a mission to England. Apostle Kimball was called to the same mission. It was but a short time after the Saints first settled in Nauvoo, Illinois, and they were poor and destitute, and owing to exposure and an unhealthy place of refuge these missionaries and their families were in poor health. Elder Kimball depicts his leave-taking as follows: