Welsh Festival Honors Early Missionary

In Provo, Utah, a two-day festival of Welsh pioneer heritage recently spotlighted an early missionary sent to Wales and also included an address by President Gordon B. Hinckley, First Counselor in the First Presidency, a performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the presentation of a painting commissioned by the Sons of Utah Pioneers.

The March festival, sponsored by the SUP, celebrated the spiritual and cultural contributions early Welsh converts made to the Church.

Many of those converts can link their conversion to missions served by Dan Jones, who was with Joseph Smith in Carthage Jail the night before the Prophet was killed. “The entire Church needs to be told of the stocky little Welshman who, in terms of the number of converts, must certainly be included in the half dozen or so most productive missionaries in the history of the Church,” observed President Hinckley. He spoke at the unveiling of the painting at the Missionary Training Center, as well as at the festival finale in the Marriott Center on the Brigham Young University campus.

“Tens of thousands in this church today, now residing across the land and bearing great responsibilities, are descended from those whom he and his associates taught and baptized. …

“As a shepherd, he brought his people from the valleys of Wales to the valleys of Utah, from the hills of Cambria to the mountains of the West. I add my testimony of the greatness of his contribution and of its everlasting consequences in the lives of generations of our people.”

The painting, done by Wyoming artist Clark Kelley Price and donated to the Church, shows Elder Jones preaching in a Welsh village. The artwork will be kept in the Provo Missionary Training Center lobby to inspire missionaries.

Welsh converts were well known in Utah for their love of and experience with music. John Parry, a Welsh convert who emigrated from Wales to Utah around 1850, was asked by President Brigham Young to organize a choir to sing at a conference. That choir was the nucleus of what would someday become the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which is now known worldwide. The choir performed at the festival finale. Selections included a few solos and verses sung in Welsh.