Judging from the report that spread from that meeting, Elder T. preached as good a discourse then as at any time since, and probably with greater satisfaction to himself.
From that time forward he never failed to do his part in our labors, and I have no doubt that he looks back upon that achievement as one of the greatest of a very eventful and useful life.
Elder J. D. H. McAllister traveled with me in Arkansas, and for the first two months of our labors, when called upon to talk, would not occupy above five minutes, and often not half that time. It would then occur to him that the audience would rather hear some one else than him, after which he would not possess courage to try to talk longer, and would take his seat.
He would often say that he could not account for his being called on a mission. "What can I do? I do not even know that this latter-day work is true. My father has often borne testimony that he knew this work to be true. He is a good man and I believe his testimony; but I do not know it to be true for myself."
However, an opportunity occurred that dispelled all these doubts, and planted in the place thereof, facts and certainties.
I had taken a severe cold, and was so hoarse that I could not talk. A meeting was to be held, and at that meeting some one would have to preach.
The only alternative was for him to attend and do the preaching. To do this he had to travel five or six miles across the "slashes," face a large congregation composed almost entirely of strangers, and do all the preaching, and that, too, alone.
I never, while in that country, heard the last of the praises heaped upon him by the people for the "best sermon" they had ever listened to. He had no difficulty in testifying to the divinity of the great latter-day work. The Holy Spirit rested upon him, and he could not keep back this testimony, which was as new to him as it was to those that heard him.
That day's work is no doubt remembered by him with the greatest pleasure of any event of his life, and will prove as profitable as any in his future career.
Elder H. K. Coray was the most bashful of all the young Elders I ever traveled with, and it was more than a year before he overcame this fault. I had almost despaired of his ever making a success as a missionary. But I am proud to say he did finally succeed, and during the last year of our labors together, through the blessings of the Holy Spirit, he became an able speaker, and our hearers listened to him in rapt attention.