Wilford Woodruff Baptizes Five Converts in a Shower of Stones at Haw Cross, England (April 9, 1840)

During the great Herefordshire harvest of 1840, Wilford Woodruff held a meeting at Haw Cross attended by such a vast assembly that the house, yard, and street were crowded — and a hostile mob gathered as well. Five investigators came forward for baptism. The mob surrounded the baptismal pool armed with stones, and the crowd remained on the ground until midnight; still the candidates were anxious to be baptized. Woodruff went down into the water and baptized five in the midst of a shower of stones. The water was all in a foam for a rod around him, yet none of those he baptized was hit, and Woodruff himself was struck only twice — once on the hip and once on the head, the blow raising a large bump which went away while he was confirming the new members. He afterward recorded that many of the mob were subsequently baptized.