1912-05-Improvement Era-President Ray S Kent

Improvement Era, v15 n7, May 1912, pp. 653-654.

President Ray S. Kent, of the Rhode Island Conference, reorganized by President Ben E. Rich, March 1, 1909, says that baptisms for the first two years were only five in number. These were converted by the labor of an average of thirteen elders, working two years. To convert these people, the cost reaches nearly $9,000, in actual expenditure, not to mention the loss of the elders' wages, which would amount to another $9,000. But we cannot reckon God's work in dollars and cents. The spiritual uplift, the thousands of comforting testimonies, and the gospel seeds planted in good ground, are to be considered of first value. During 1911, an effective work was carried on by Presidents John T. Barrett, Joseph Richardson, Ray S. Kent, and eleven elders working in the conference. They distributed 169 Books of Mormon, 3,090 small books, 51,335 tracts; visited 25,387 families; spent 4,050 hours in tracting; held 250 meetings; blessed three children; and baptized fifteen people. President Ben E. Rich, on a recent visit there, held two spirited public meetings, at which many strangers were present, and heard the gospel for the first time. "One gentleman, who had visited our meetings only once before, told me that he had prayed for this doctrine for twelve years, and thanked God that he had at last heard it. We have a nice branch of fifteen Saints in New Haven, most of them new in the field, and all trying to do their part. Our Providence branch is prospering." The names of the elders and lady missionaries are: First row, left to right: Ambrose B. Kessler and wife, Beaver City; Mission President Ben E. Rich; Conference President Ray S. Kent and wife, Lewiston, Utah. Second row: Louis E. Langie, Pawtucket (local elder); Albert E. Sargent, Providence, R. I., (local elder); Heber C. Tippetts, Lovell, Wyoming; John H. Bridge, Magrath, Canada; Richard L. Pilling, Cardston, Canada; George W. Sellers, Manassa, Colorado; Thomas E. Moore, Pawtucket, R. I., (local elder). Back row: Edward H. Kemp, Lewiston, Utah; Guy C. Fullmer, Blackfoot, Idaho; Adelbert H. Henderson, Clifton, Idaho; Edwin N. Allred, Afton, Wyoming.