T. B. H. Stenhouse

 

Thomas Stenhouse would join the Church in England during the 1840’s. He would become a great missionary for the Church converting hundreds to the gospel. It’s interesting that Lorenzo Snow handpicked him to go to Italy with him to introduce the gospel and then again in Switzerland. Stenhouse would later apostatize from the Church during the 1870’s. What’s interesting about Stenhouse is his name. He was actually born Thomas Brown Stenhouse. It would be Stenhouse that would change his name later to include “Holmes.” Why did he do this?

a.      It was the last name of his maternal grandmother who he idolized

b.      It was the last name of the missionary that converted him to the gospel

c.       It was the last name of his first convert

d.      It was the first name of the first baby that he gave a name and blessing to

Yesterday’s answer:

b.   A towel and a loaf of bread

The following story is told about the Joseph Glanvil family:

   Joseph was sent on a mission leaving a wife and a large family in Salt Lake City. Sister Glanvil did all she could to help with expenses, including baking bread to sell. One day as this mother had the bread cooling under a kitchen towel; she discovered someone had stolen from the window sill one loaf of the bread and the kitchen towel.

   A letter soon came from Elder Glanvil that described how he had found himself without funds and without food, exhausted and ill. He crawled under a bush for protection from the wind and rain, and in a prayer of desperation asked for not only food, but also assurance that he was truly on the Lord’s errand. As he finished his prayer, a loaf of warm bread wrapped in a kitchen towel that he recognized appeared beside him.

   When the letter was received by his faithful wife and family telling of this experience, they were assured that the Lord loved them and that their husband and father was on a mission that was the will of the Lord. From then on, it mattered not what hardship followed; they knew the Lord would be there to help them through it.

   The red and white kitchen towel accompanied this father for the rest of his mission, and today it has a sacred place among the posterity of the Glanvil family.

   Joseph Glanvil wrote, “What is impossible to all humanity may be possible to the metaphysics and physiology of angels.”

Lucille Johnson, Enjoy the Journey (American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications, Inc., 1996), 173-74.