Portraits of the Past: Preston, England

Preston,

Lancashire, England, is a city of great historical significance in

Mormon history. __IMAGE1__The first Latter-day Saint missionaries, including

Elders Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde of the Quorum of the Twelve,

arrived there on July 22, 1837. Beginning in Preston, tens of thousands

of converts would come from the British Isles over the next

half-century.Researchers have written that Preston has the oldest

continuously functioning church unit in the world. Some believe that

the store, left, was there when the missionaries first labored there.

Future church president Gordon B. Hinckley served in Preston as a young

missionary in the 1930s. Years later, President Hinckley announced that

the Preston Temple would be built in nearby Chorley, and that temple

was dedicated by President Hinckley in 1998.