One morning, while we were at
Winter Quarters, Brother Brigham Young said to me and the brethren that he had
a visitation the night previous from Joseph Smith. I asked him what he said to
him. He replied that Joseph had told him to tell the people to labor to obtain
the Spirit of God they that needed that to sustain them and to give them power
to go through their work on the earth.
Now I will give you a little of my
experience in this line. Joseph Smith visited me a great deal after his death,
and taught me many important principles. The first time he visited me was while
I was in a storm at sea. I was going on my last mission to preside in England.
My companions were Brother Leonard W. Hardy, Brother Milton Holmes, Brother Dan
Jones, and another brother, and my wife, and two other women .We had been
traveling three days and nights in a heavy gale and were being driven
backwards. Finally I asked my companions to come into the cabin with me, and I
told them to pray that the Lord would change the wind. I had no fears of being
lost; but I did not like the idea of being driven back to New York, as I wanted
to go on my journey. We all offered the same prayer, both men and women; and
when we got through we stepped on to the deck and in less than a minute it was
as though a man had taken a sword and cut the gale through, and you might have
thrown a muslin handkerchief out and it would not have moved it. The night
following this, Joseph and Hyrum moved it. The night following this, Joseph and
Hyrum visited me, and the Prophet laid before me a great many things. Among
other things he told me to get the Spirit of God; that all of us needed it. He
also told me what the Twelve Apostles would be called to go through on the
earth before the coming of the Son of Man, and what the reward of their labors
would be; but all that was taken from me for some reason. Nevertheless I know
it was most glorious although much would be required at our hands.
Joseph Smith continued visited
myself and others up to a certain time, and then it stopped. The last time I
saw him was in heaven. In the night vision I saw him at the door of the temple
in heaven. He came and spoke to me. He said he would not stop to talk with me.
He said he could not stop to talk with me because he was in a hurry. The next
man I met was Father Smith; he could not talk with me because he was in a
hurry. I met a half a dozen brethren who held high positions on earth and none
of them would stop to talk with me because they were in a hurry. I was much
astonished. By and by I saw the Prophet again, and I got the privilege to ask
him a question. “Now,” said I, “I want to know why you are in a hurry. I have
been in a hurry all through my life but I expected my hurry would be over when
I got into the kingdom of heaven, if I ever did.” Joseph said, “I will tell you,
Brother Woodruff, every dispensation that has had the Priesthood on the earth
and has gone into the celestial kingdom, has had a certain amount of work to do
to prepare to go to the earth with the Savior when He goes to reign on the
earth. Each dispensation has had ample time to do this work. We have not. We
are the last dispensation, and so much work has to be done and we need to be in
a hurry in order to accomplish it.” Of course, that was satisfactory with me,
but it was new doctrine to me. (Wilford Woodruff, The Deseret Weekly 53,
no. 1 [November 7, 1896]: 642-43, as cited in Ronald Vern Jackson, The Seer
Joseph Smith [3d ed.; Salt Lake City: Hawkes Publishing Inc., 1977],
213-15)
