A Friend in America and Pork and Beans

The missionaries came back and gradually took over the responsibilities of visiting the branches and preaching, etc. and our meetings became more interesting. My cousin, Ernest Capel, came to England on a mission. I think he was in the Sheffield area, I'm not sure. He attended one of our Bristol conferences. It must have been after his release to go home. My father loved the Capel family. Aunt Jessie was his oldest sister and took care of them after their mother died. Aunt Jessie and her family, that is those that were left here, emigrated to America just before the outbreak of war.

Many years passed since the end of the war and my brother, Walter, and his wife and son emigrated to Australia. He had been out of work for some time and the government offered to pay the fare of all who would go to Australia and colonize the uninhabited places. They had to have so much money on them as a guarantee for support until they were able to make a profitable living. I had been saving for some time in the hopes that I could emigrate to America (Zion) so I loaned Walter the necessary money instead. This was one of many times I had tried to save to go to Zion. Each time something happened to discourage me so I gave up the attempt, thinking that perhaps the Lord wanted me to stay where I was for a purpose. I made up my mind to be content and let the Lord direct my life which He surely did.



Ernest Joseph

Van Camp's Pork and Beans label

I was corresponding with a missionary from Beaver, Utah. I enjoyed his friendship very much. He was in Bristol from about 1921 to 1923. Now he was married and had a little daughter. His name was Ernest Joseph. A year or two after his return home I received a letter from him which he had written one evening while out on the range with a bachelor friend. They were in a bunkhouse and had finished their evening meal and Ernest wrote his letter on the back of a label from a can of pork and beans. At that time I had never heard of canned pork and beans. He persuaded his friend to write to me just for fun, which he did, and it was the most humorous letter I had ever received. I took it to work the next day and let the girls read it and it caused quite a sensation. The girls insisted that I answer it right away. I did and we corresponded back and forth for about a year, then I lost interest and that was the end of that.