It is right darn close to Christmas, so what are we doing. What was Wm. Jones of Nortonville doing at Christmas time in 1894! Well, his diary doesn't show a lot of shopping at the mall.

Wm. Jones of Nortonville, Juab County, Utah, USA, was called on a LDS mission, just as he was in the middle of bring cattle off Mt. Nebo. As good Mormons do, he accepted the call, and told to go back to Wales and England, where his father came from at Pioneer time. They went without purse and script and told to seek food and shelter from the family members that stayed behind in 1847. Nowadays the LDS officials mainly call young people to serve, but in those days, they called everybody, even this Jones boy. He left his pregnant wife behind and hoped she could manage the farm with help from the other family and friends in Nortonville. We have a few excerpts from his journal but they are a little difficult to read, so I have may a sad attempt to type them out.