| Dreams and Visions: Wilford Woodruff |
| Many first-generation Mormons considered dreams and visions means through which the Divine communicated to mortal beings. In this regard, they were not unusual for the time. Wilford Woodruff recorded many dreams that seemed to foretell events or offer metaphorical interpretations. Additional dreams and visions will be added to this page as they are encountered in research for other topics. | ||||
| Baptizing Uncle Ozem | ||||
| July
12, 1837 Dream of baptizing uncle |
—12.—I preached in a school house in West Avon to an attentive congregation; after meeting I baptized my uncle, Ozem Woodruff, his wife and son, John, in fulfillment of a dream which I had at ten years of age. | Wilford Woodruff (h2) | ||
| Vision of baptizing uncle | 12th And during the night at 2 oclock AM. uncle Ozem Woodruff & his houshold believed the fullness of the everlasting gospel & I led them fourth at the same hour of the night and baptized them for the remission of their sins, being three of them viz. Ozem Woodruff, Hannah Woodruff, & John Woodruff, their Son Glory to God in the Highest for this blessing. The Lord hath given me the desires of my heart in this thing which is in fulfillment of a vision given me in 1818. All is now fulfilled. | WWJ 1:163. | ||
| Joseph and Emma | ||||
| October
12, 1844 Brother Whitmore prays for a dream of Joseph Joseph: Emma not worthy |
[Boston] I had Conversation with Br Whitmore. He related A dream to me as follows: He had prayed to God to let him see Joseph in a dream. And he fell asleep And dreamed that he saw the heavens opened and deheld some of the things of eternity. He saw a personage arise out of the earth, and An Elder informed him that it was Joseph Smith. Joseph did not speak to him but droped some slips of paper to the ground from whence he rose. Br Whitmore picked up one of them & read the following words: (Emma is not worthy of me.) He wished to read the others but the person with him picked them up & put them in his pocket & did not let him read them. | WWJ 2:473. | ||
| Snakes | ||||
| February 1835 | I dreamed the night before, that we were required to walk in a straight, narrow path; and while following the path, it led to the door of a house, which was placed in a high wall that we could not get around. As I opened the door to go through, I saw the room was filled with large serpents. I entered, and they all coiled up to jump at me; as they made a spring to bite me, they all fell dead at my feet, turned black, swelled up, burst open, took fire, and were consumed before my eyes. |
before: presumably
before Alexander, a hostile apostate, unexpectedly drops dead. |
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| October 14, 1844 | [Lowell, Massachusetts.] I spent the night at Br Phelps, And dreamed of being in the midst of rattle snakes. I had power to kill them. A few nights previous I saw a monster of a serpent. Tried to kill me but had no power. |
October 15, 1844:
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| March 2, 1845 | I dreamed last night of seeing two
large snakes coming out of a large tree. Their object seemed to be to bite
me. Soon a third one appeared, but I thought they had no power to harm me.
Soon I met another one which I draged with my foot a long distance in the
road. He tried to bite me. I soon trod on his neck. He run his tongue out,
but I killed him. |
The previous day Wilford had learned that John Greenhow was trying to obtain the copyright to the Doctrine and Covenants in England, which "certainly is a bold move for an apostate or apostates to undertake to Print the works of the Church & rob them out of it." WWJ 2:519. | ||
| Joseph and Hyrum relics | ||||
| December 30, 1844 | I was in dreams nearly all of last night. Saw A large fire, A field of green corn, repaird old tubs to hold water, ground grain for the Saints Among other things I had an interview with the Patriarch Hyrum Smith who was martered. He wished me to get a plain gold ring made of fine gold set a stone in it & put some of his hair in it & wear it, & also some of Joseph Hair. … | WWJ 2:491. | ||
| A dream on the night of the 30th Dec 1844 | WWJ 2:492. | |||
| Hyrum objects to Sidney in council | Behold and lo in a dream I was in Council with the Martered Prophet & Patriarch & the quorum of the Twelve Apostles in America. I thought we had all got to be ordained for some purpose. I was called upon by Br Young & another person to assist in administering the ordinances. In the midst of the Council, Sidney Rigdon Came in & was objected to by Hyrum Smith. | |||
| John E. Page prevented from speaking | I awoke & again fell asleep & dreamed of being in council with the Twelve & others. I made an address to them. John E. Page (h) arose to address the meeting but was stoped by some female & was followed by Elder Willard Snow | |||
| Always dream on ship, pay little attention | I have recorded this dream yet I Pay but little attention to dreams that I have on ship board for I am nearly all the while in some dream while asleep on board of the ship. | |||
| Joseph and Hyrum visitation | ||||
| Joseph's last visitation to Wilford | ¶ | … Joseph Smith visited me a
great deal after his death, and taught me many important principles. The
last time he visited me 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. |
The
Deseret Weekly 53:21 qtd. in "Revelations in Addition to Those
Found in the LDS Edition of the D&C," New
Mormon Studies. Also, "The
Administration of Angels," in Collected
Discourses 5:237–238. another brother: Hiram Clark. WWJ 2:488. Elder Clark, who served several missions, disgraced himself as president of the Sandwich Islands mission in 1850 by taking liberties with Hawaiian women. other women: Wives of Hiram Clark and Dan Joes. WWJ 2:488. |
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| Prayer stills heavy gale | 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 that gale through, and you might have thrown a muslin handkerchief out and it would not have moved it. | |||
| Joseph:
get the Spirit Trials of the apostles |
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. | Wilford does report this visitation in his journal during the voyage (November 7, 1844 to January 3, 1845), though he does record his dreams of December 30 (above). | ||
| Joseph in a hurry to complete work for last dispensation | ¶ | Joseph Smith continued visiting 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 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 half a dozen brethren who had held high positions on earth, and none of them could could 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 couse, that was satisfactory to me, but it was new doctrine to me." | ||||
|
History
of Wilford Woodruff (1) |
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