Church History Tour with the Missionaries

We take every group of missionaries on the same Church History Tour we enjoyed with the Brimhalls yesterday. Today was the day. A coach carried all 25 of us to the various spots.
We start in Preston at the Oblisk and then go to the Wilfred Street Apartment where Heber C. Kimball and the other missionaries encountered evil spirits trying to stop the work before the first baptisms took place. These and other locations I will show in later posts.
We then walk down to Avenham Park through which the River Ribble runs. This is the spot of the first baptisms in England, really the first baptisms outside fo the U.S.
This plaque has been put up in Avenham Park telling the story. There were 7,000-9,000 people in the park who had come to see these "baptizers."
As the plaque says, George D. Watt won the race across the bridge and was the first to be baptized. He later became the secretary to Brigham Young.


Our walk through Avenham Park by the River Ribble. The bridge in the distance is the bridge they raced over. Actually the original bridge was wood and was swept away in an ice storm. This replica is metal and concrete.