The short time we were in New York was spent very agreeably with the Saints, who were indeed a kind and affectionate people. The next day we bade adieu to the brethren and commenced our journey to Kirtland by steamboat and railroad, and arrived there on the twenty-second day of May, A. D 1838, having been absent eleven months and nine days.
CHAPTER X.
REMOVAL TO MISSOURI—SICKNESS—KINDNESS OF THE SAINTS AT FAR WEST—BUILD A HOUSE, AND THEN HAVE TO ABANDON IT—BATTLE OF CROOKED RIVER—DEATH AND FINAL TESTIMONY OF APOSTLE DAVID W. PATTEN—CORNER STONE OF TEMPLE AT FAR WEST LAID—REMOVAL TO ILLINOIS.
I found my family in good health, and as comfortably situated as I could expect; and our joy was mutual. The Saints in Kirtland also received us with joy and welcomed us home.
But my journey was not yet ended. Soon after my arrival in Kirtland, I had to make preparation to move to the State of Missouri, where the greater part of the Church had already gone. One great cause of their removal to the west, was the persecutions to which they were subject in Kirtland. The brethren who yet resided there, although very kind and affectionate, were weak in the faith in consequence of trials and temptations. This caused us to grieve exceedingly, and we resolved to cheer them up as much as we possibly could.
Being solicited to preach in the house or the Lord, we did so, and after preaching a few times, and recounting our travels and the great success which had attended our labors, and also the marvelous work which the Lord had commenced and was still carrying on in the old country, they began to take courage, their confidence increased, and their faith was strengthened, and they again realized the blessings of Jehovah.
As soon as our circumstances would permit, we commenced our journey to the State of Missouri, by water, a distance of nearly eighteen hundred miles. After enduring considerable fatigue, we arrived safely at Far West, on the 25th of July. We had the pleasure of beholding the faces of numbers of our friends and brethren, some of whom were so glad to see us that tears started in their eyes when we took them by the hand.
There is indeed something peculiarly pleasing to the Saint, who, after a long separation, beholds the friends to whom he is united in bonds the most sacred, and with whom he has probably traveled to preach the gospel, and with them passed through many scenes of sorrow and affliction. At that time every pleasing association is revived, and memory fondly clings to those scenes, the contemplation of which affords pleasure, while every thing of an opposite nature is forgotten and buried in oblivion.
During our journey from Kirtland to Missouri, the weather was remarkably warm, in consequence of which I suffered very much, and my body was broken down by sickness, and I continued very feeble for a considerable length of time.