George J. Adams: From Methodist Preacher to Missionary—Conversion and the 1841 English Mission (1840–1844)

George Jones Adams (c.1811–1880), a former Methodist preacher and aspiring actor, was traveling from Boston to New York in February 1840 when he and his wife Caroline heard the preaching of Apostle Heber C. Kimball and were baptized the same week. Within a month he was ordained an elder, and he presided over the Brooklyn Branch in New York City. In 1841 he was called on a mission to England, where he labored for eighteen months and won numerous converts to the restored gospel. In October 1843 Joseph Smith asked him to travel with Apostle Orson Hyde as a missionary to Russia, and on June 7, 1844—just weeks before the Prophet's martyrdom—Smith set him apart 'to be an apostle and special witness… to the empire of Russia.' (Adams was later excommunicated in 1845 and eventually led a schismatic sect; his faithful early labors, however, brought many into the Church.)