Portraits of the past: Downham, Great Britain

On his first mission to Great Britain, Elder Heber C. Kimball served in

the region of Preston and the Ribble Valley. __IMAGE1__Following the initial

baptisms in Preston, the seven missionaries divided into smaller

companionships. Elder Kimball and Joseph Fielding, who served together

in the Ribble area, had heard discouraging reports with regard to any

chance of success in the little towns, including Chatburn and Downham.

But they were blessed to experience remarkable success at those sites.

LDS researcher Peter Fagg of Chorley, Lancashire, has written that

during the time they served as Mormon missionaries in that region, Elders Kimball and Fielding

baptized and confirmed some 110 persons in a five-day period. Over the

next several months, "there was hardly a village in this region that

was not influenced by their message." Downham, one of those villages,

has seemingly experienced little change as time has passed.