Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 14 (1899)

Lt 252, 1899

Kellogg, Brother and Sister [J. H.]

April 27, 1899

Portions of this letter are published in 4Bio 416, 440.

Dear Brother and Sister Kellogg:

I sent a letter to you by the last mail to relieve your mind. I am much perplexed to understand how any letters I have written should leave the impression on your mind to lead you to write to me as you did. But although sorely grieved and so distressed, I have not been able to set myself to writing for days. Yet I have had all I could possibly do to advance the building supposed to be called a hospital. It will not bear that name. It will be something more than this; the plan was presented to me. Drs. Caro and Rand and Brother Reekie were on the allotment where the building was to go up. We had the plan made, but it was so located that the sun would shine brightly where it was not wanted, in the kitchen department, and the rooms the patients would occupy, dining room, parlor, and sleeping rooms would have almost no sun. 14LtMs, Lt 252, 1899, par. 1

Sara and I studied over the matter, and Sister Peck drew out the plan, changing it from the first plan. Then Willie was called to Sydney to arrange some matters there, and I do not know as yet just all that was done. We were so pressed financially we feared we could not keep our credit good. The workmen could not pay their grocery bills, and money must come from some source. When W. C. White returned, the situation was not relieved, and we thought the plan of building must be cut down. Four feet were cut out and a new plan laid, but a building was presented to me, tall and narrow and disproportionate. I asked what building that was. One came forward and said, “That is the structure that will appear if you take out four feet.” I said, “This must not be. Give the full size and merely enclose the building, finishing off [a] few rooms, but it must not be made smaller.” 14LtMs, Lt 252, 1899, par. 2

I have given more particulars in another letter which I will send you. I insisted upon having the building set in such a position that it would have the sunshine in sitting room, dining room, and bedrooms. This oversight cost us all two days’ work. I said, “It is to be called The Avondale Health Retreat.” Yesterday we were on the ground—Elder Haskell, Brother Palmer, W. C. White, and other members of the board—and there, seated on a newly felled trunk of a eucalyptus tree, we had a board meeting. Sara and myself were in our phaeton a portion of the time, and a portion of the time I was on a cushion on the ground. And there, kneeling beside the clean, newly cut logs, prayer was offered to our heavenly Father for special [grace] to be worked by the Holy Spirit. But I thought at first our plans were to be defeated in regard to locating the building. 14LtMs, Lt 252, 1899, par. 3

If it was not regular in position, the sunshine we must have. At noon, in the afternoon, all night I kept my heart uplifted to God for His guidance and for His Holy Spirit to lead our brethren to view things correctly. And the matter came out all right. The building will be blessed with plenty of sunshine. Then I felt impressed that the kitchen and dining room should be separate from the main building, that a building should be erected containing two good-sized rooms—one for cooking and the second room for dining room. Then there will be no rattling of dishes, no smell of food cooking, and there will be quietness for the sick. We had to use the money that came for the hospital to pay the workmen a portion of their wages and this has delayed us, but there is nothing now to hinder us from going ahead but the resources. 14LtMs, Lt 252, 1899, par. 4