From the time of this occurrence the work prospered as it had never done before. Our chapel was literally packed, and some citizens even took out every window on one side, brought their own trussel and planks and built a platform the entire length of the building. On one occasion we went out after the evening meeting and baptized seventeen persons, and the conversions during the whole time were quite numerous.
One evening some rowdies came intending to mob us. I sat on the stand carefully watching every movement of the assembly. Finally I leaned over and whispered to Brother William Foster (who now sings in the Tabernacle choir) to sing us something. He started the hymn "Praise to the man." The Holy Spirit rested upon the choir and the peace of God was upon the congregation, and the quietness of the meeting was recalled to my memory by a brother on the side-walk a few days since.
During the time the cholera raged in England, in 1852, I never entered a house where it was, or administered to a person who had it but what it instantly left. One rainy night I was called to go and visit a lady who had been taken with this terrible disease. It was mid-night when I reached the house and was met at the door with the statement that two doctors had just left who said that the afflicted one must die. I entered the room, walked to the bedside and commanded the person in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by virtue of the Priesthood to rise up sound and whole. In fifteen minutes she was eating supper and she sang several songs before I left.
I wish here to bear testimony of the kindness, obedience and love of the Saints at the Norwich conference. They were like my children and I was their father. In their poverty they gave to me liberally, and what I received I spent freely in helping the poor and the sick, and for the work of God. Up to the time they presented me with means to return home I had not saved five shillings. After my return home, the first two hundred and seventy-five dollars I obtained I took to President Young with the request that he send it to the poorest of the poor of Norwich conference. He remarked as he took it, "Brother Spencer, you are the first returned missionary that ever did the like."
Brother Neslen, who is now usually called "Father Neslen," was president of the Lowestoft branch during my presidency of the Norwich conference. He was in good circumstances and had a nice house, but during my first visits to the branch he never invited me to his house, and after late meetings used to take me away quite a distance to sleep. On one of my visits, as we were walking on the "Esplanade," I turned to him and said, "Brother Neslen, you may think it rather strange manners, but I feel impressed to ask you the reason why you never invite me to your house?" He replied that none of his family belonged to the Church and he was afraid if he did my feelings would be hurt. (His family consisted of a wife and nine children.)
I turned to him and said, "Brother Neslen, you are president of this branch, and as foreign as it may be to Gentile manners I must do my duty. I want you to invite me to your house; if you do so I promise you in the name of the Lord that every one of your family shall embrace the gospel, and everyone shall live to go to Zion; if you do not, and have not faith to stand up in your place as the head of your own family you are not fit to stand as president of the branch; and more than that, you will apostatize and none of you be saved in the kingdom of God."
The next time I visited Lowestoft he took me to his home: his wife was kind as a mother in her treatment and in a few months the ten souls where baptized and all lived to reach Zion in safety.
I left the Norwich conference in the beginning of 1853. It then numbered one thousand and fifty-nine people—one hundred and fifty having been baptized during the last six months. I brought home with me to Zion ninety-five souls, thus fulfilling the words of my blessing that I should return to Zion bringing many sheaves with me. The great majority that came have abode in the faith and they have increased and multiplied in Israel, until they now number more than those who were left back in the conference.
In writing this short sketch I have omitted to praise individuals whose works in those days will make me love them while life lasts. But I wish here to gratefully acknowledge the kindness of Elder George B. Wallace.
My health in that land was very poor. I suffered from a grievous and dispiriting affliction all the time I was in England. After I had been there some months I met Bro. Orson Pratt; his first exclamation was, "What is the matter with you?" He told me I could go home. I said I had no money, to which he replied, "I have, and you can go comfortably."