Kirtland, April 1834, Joseph's first mention of the saints heading to the Rocky Mountains.

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kirtland r.m.
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Kirtland, April 1834, Joseph's first mention of the saints heading to the Rocky Mountains.

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Wilford Woodruff reported the earliest account of Joseph's teaching on the west. He recorded one of his own addresses on 5 October 1884: Pardon the early American spelling.

spok 10 M, & gave an Account of the first testimony of the Prophet Joseph in kirtland Aprail 1834 of filling the Rocky Mountains with the Saints of God.Wilford Woodruff, Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 9 vols., ed., Scott G. Kenny (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1985), 8:279. ISBN 0941214133.

More interesting information on Wilford Woodruff and this subject.

Wilford was very active as a child and throughout all his life. He once said, "I have been in a hurry all my life." (Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, p. 289.) With all his energy, he seemed to have a knack for having accidents.

Later he reported that on 27 distinct occasions he had been saved from dangers which threatened his life." (Cowley, Wilford Woodruff, p. 6.) At age 3 he fell into a cauldron of scalding water; once he fell from a beam inside a barn onto the bare floor; he fell down stairs and broke one of his arms; he very narrowly missed being gored by a bull; he was almost smothered by a full load of hay; he barely escaped drowning; he nearly froze to death; he was bitten by a mad dog; he fell from a porch and broke his other arm; he was poisoned; he split the instep of his foot open with an ax; while climbing an elm tree he fell about 15 feet to the ground and was knocked unconscious; he fell from a horse and dislocated his ankles and broke his leg in two places.

By the age of 20 he had broken nearly every bone in his body and narrowly escaped death many times. Elder Woodruff felt that these misfortunes could be attributed to a destructive power that sought to stop his mission in this life. (Cowley, Wilford Woodruff, p. 477.) He knew that it was by God's mercy and protection he had been preserved.

Young Wilford was a student of the scriptures. He searched and prayed and pondered the scriptures. At age 14 he took up residence with a local farmer and attended school during the winter, working on the farm in the summer. With some friends he attended prayer meetings among the Presbyterians, they being the only religious group in town at the time. He later recalled that preaching he heard at those meetings created more darkness than light, more misery than happiness, and it did not enlighten the mind. Wilford labored hard to obtain religion but felt that he had not yet obtained any special light at that time in his life.

One person who recognized the destiny of young Wilford was a visionary man named Robert Mason. He had a vision that a latter-day work was about to begin. In his vision he was carried away to an orchard with a large number of trees that had no fruit. All of them fell to the ground and almost immediately shoots began coming up as new, healthy trees. Blossoms and fruit followed. He stepped forward to pick some of the fruit, but the vision closed and he was not allowed to eat.

The Lord revealed to him the meaning of the vision. It was that Christ's true Church would be established on the earth again, that he would be alive when the restoration began, but he would not live to fully participate in it. From his vision he also learned that Wilford Woodruff would play an important role in that restoration.

In 1830, he related the vision to Wilford. It was about three years later that Wilford would be baptized into the Church. Robert Mason did not have the privilege of joining the Church. This concerned Wilford. Elder Woodruff stated, "The first opportunity I had after the truth of baptism for the dead was revealed, I went forth and was baptized for him in the temple font at Nauvoo." (Cowley, Wilford Woodruff, p. 18.)

Wilford Woodruff first learned of the Church at the age of 26 through a newspaper article that ridiculed the Church. He was impressed by the article and wanted to meet the Mormons. An opportunity came a year later when two elders of the Church held a meeting in the town schoolhouse. He skipped dinner that night and ran to the schoolhouse. While running he prayed that he might know if the missionaries were true servants of God. Wilford received that witness and was baptized on December 31, 1833. He tells of that day: "The snow was about three feet deep, the day was cold, and the water was mixed with ice and snow, yet I did not feel the cold." (Nibley, The Presidents of the Church, p. 135.)

When in the western country, many years ago, before we came to the Rocky Mountains, I had a dream. I dreamed of being in these mountains, and of seeing a large fine looking temple erected in one of these valleys which was built of cut granite stone, I saw that temple dedicated, and I attended the dedicatory services, and I saw a good many men that are living today in the midst of this people. Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses 21:299.

For Wilford Woodruff, president of the church, dedication of the Salt Lake temple was one of the most important experiences of his life, an event for which he believed the Lord had protected and preserved him, and over which he had been foreordained to officiate. Woodruff's experiences regarding the temple began with a vision he received while the Saints were still in Nauvoo, Illinois, following the martyrdom of Joseph Smith in 1844. During dedication services in Salt Lake City, Woodruff "related his vision he had in Boston some 50 years ago. How the Lord showed him the Saints would move to the Rocky Mountains and build this Temple, and [that] he would be called upon to open it to the people and dedicate it to the Lord."2 "I anticipated the dedication of that Temple for fifty years," he proclaimed shortly after the dedication, "for I attended the dedication of that Temple fifty years ago in a vision, and when I got through that work, I felt that I had arrived at the end of my work in the flesh."3 Another time he recounted that "I was ordained to dedicate Lake Temple fifty years before it was dedicated. I knew I should live to dedicate that Temple. I did live to do it.".2. Francis Asbury Hammond Journal, 10 Apr. 1893, archives, Historical Department,Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah (hereafter LDS archives),spelling and punctuation corrected.3. Discourse delivered 13 Dec. 1893, Collected Discourses, 3:421.4. Wilford Woodruff, 7 Apr. 1898, Sixty-eighth Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1898), 2

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