- “During the time Elder Smith was in England, very few of the people there accepted the message of the restored gospel. In his two years of service, “he did not make one convert, did not have opportunity to perform one baptism, although he did confirm one convert.” Unable to see many results of his labors, he found comfort in knowing that he was doing the Lord’s will and that he was helping prepare people who might receive the gospel later in their lives. For about two weeks of his mission, Elder Smith was confined in a hospital with four other missionaries. The five elders had been exposed to smallpox, so they were quarantined to prevent the illness from spreading. Although Elder Smith referred to their stay as an “imprisonment,” he and his companions made the best of it. They even shared the gospel with the hospital staff. At the end of the confinement, Elder Smith wrote the following report in his journal: “We have made friends with the nurses and others who visited us during our imprisonment. Many times we have had talks with them about the gospel; also left with them books to read. When we left the hospital we sang a hymn or two, which among other things impressed those who listened, for we left them with tears in their eyes. I think we have made an impression at the hospital for good, especially with the nurses, who confess that we are not the people they thought we were and [that] they will now defend us at all times.” Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Fielding Smith, (2013), 262–72