John Elias' worked as a Weaver (1792)
Elias was desperate to have fellowship with religious people, so he asked his parents if he could apply for a position as a farm hand with a Methodist preacher who was a farmer. His parents reluctantly allowed him to apply and he got the job. Pen-y-morfa was 14 miles away and he lived there under the care of the Methodist family. They would often talk on religious matters and would ask him why he was not in a church, but they never pressed him. One day in September 1793 they told Elias that they were going to the society meeting and he could come if he wanted to. He decided to go and followed them “weeping and trembling” to the society at Hendre Howell. “I was afraid the preachers would examine me very minutely, and that upon finding my experiences unsatisfactory, they would not receive me among them: but they, to my great astonishment, were very kind to me; I was received into the society, for which I longed for many years; and had often feared I should never obtain a place in the house of God!” For some time he feared that he would backslide and cause a terrible scandal, but slowly these fears subsided until eventually they disappeared.