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Provo City, Utah, President Wilford Woodruff Salt Lake City Utah Dear Bro— I received your letter of Sept 19 [18]91 in regard to my taking a mis sion to the United States. I can state that it was a surprize to me. The facts are these the matter was discussed some be tween me and the two Junior Presidents of the 45th qourum of Seventies of which I am a member and the matter was to be left with the President of the quoram Bro R. T. Thomas and he assured me that the matter

Pres Woodruff desired to say a few words on the subject of the Priesthood. Perhaps sometimes language was not used sufficiently clear in the ordination of persons to the Priesthood He referred to the last time the Prophet Joseph gave instructions to the twelve Apostles as a quorum. He bore record to the remarks of Pres Smith that they were true & correct. He counselled the Saints to make a little change in their way of doing as the time was drawing nigh for the Lord to cut His work short in the last days lest no flesh be saved He said the Home Missionaries should be called to labor in a similar way to the Elders who go abroad to the nations of the earth, that they should go from house to house & visit all who have a standing in the church He referred to the young & rising generation & what their duties were. He urged them all to refrain from the evil habits that prevailed amongst us & to learn to pray both in secret & in their families & for all to strive to fulfill our callings here on the earth

ber 1st, . -[REPORTED BY ARTHUR WINTER.]- I would like to talk a little to the Latter-day Saints who have assembled here this afternoon, if I can get the faith of the Saints and the Spirit of the Lord to assist me. This morning, before coming to meeting, I studied with a good deal of interest some paintings at Brother Moses Thatcher's—"Christ before Pilate," and "Christ on Calvary." I thought to myself, in looking at them, that the Savior, as Brother Joseph F. Smith bad said, certainly descended below all things. He came down here to earth, was born of woman, in a dispensation appointed of the Father, and tabernacled in the flesh. See him travel from the manger to the cross, onward through blood to the throne of grace appointed unto Him, in poverty and in affliction, never handling any money that we have any account of. Think for a few moments the short time that He labored in the flesh after His appointment by the Father— three years and a half. Look at the suffering that He went through, the labor He performed—the organization of the Church of God, the appointing of Twelve Apostles, of seventy Apos- tles, and a few disciples, who followed Him during that period. Then reflect that not only He himself was con- demned and crucified, shedding His blood for the redemption of the world, but every one of His Apostles was put to death for the word of God and testi- mony of Jesus Christ, excepting John the Revelator. They could not kill him, the Lord having appointed him to live; otherwise, he would have been slain with the rest. While looking at the Savior nailed to the cross—a Jew, through the loins of Abraham and David, condemned by the Jews as well as the Gentiles, I thought of our own condition in these mountains. We have passed through sixty years as a people, and why have you got the Presidency with you today? Why have you Apostles living in your midst, walking your streets in freedom, after sixty years? Why do you have upwards of two hundred thousand Latter-day Saints gathered together in these val- leys of the mountains, in the midst of a generation of sixty millions of peo- ple? These are questions which should be answered in the minds of the Lat- ter-day Saints. There is a meaning, brethren and sisters, to all these things. We live in a different dispensation, and under a different order of things, in one sense, to what the Savior and the Apostles did. That was a day of sacrifice. Those holy men who bore the Apostleship in that day were ready to lay down their lives with the Savior, and their lives were short compared with the history of the Church of God in our day. They were all slain, with one exception, and God took them to Himself. He also took the Priesthood from the earth, and it remained in the hands of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ until 1829. Long centuries passed away. Millions of human beings were born, dwelt on the earth, died, and went into the spirit world, and not one soul of them, so far as we have any knowledge, had power to go forth among mankind and administer in the ordinances of the Gospel of life and salvation. There were, doubtless, millions of good men, who acted up to the best light that they had. There were such men as John Wesley, Martin Luther, Wickliffe, Zwingli, Melanc- thon, and thousand of others, who came forth in their day and preached the Gospel according to the light which they possessed. But they did not have the power to administer in one ordi- nance which had any force after death. They did not hold the holy Priesthood. Now, in our day and generation, we have arrived at a point in the history of the world when this Priesthood is restored. The Lord raised up Joseph Smith. He came forth in the proper time. He organized a Church. Who was Joseph Smith? Was he a lawyer? Was he a doctor of divinity? Was he what is called a great man, a learned man? No, he was but a youth; the world would say an illiterate, ignorant youth. He was an unlearned youth in the things of the world. But he was a pure man. He came forth through the lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He was prophesied of by the ancient patriarchs and proph- ets. The Book of Mormon gives his name. Joseph Smith was moved upon by the Holy Ghost, and he was admin- istered unto, in answer to his prayers, by the Father and the Son; and the Father said to him, "This is my be- loved Son, hear ye Him." [Joseph Smith—History 1:17] He list- ened strictly to the words of Jesus Christ, and continued to do so until he, like the Savior, was put to death, though he was not crucified, because it was not the custom of the day. I may say that it seemed strange to me at that time why the Prophet and his brother Hyrum were permitted to be taken out of our midst. But Joseph Smith, by commandment of God and by the power and revelations of heaven, was ordained and laid the foundation of this great dispensation and fulness of times. He was brought into the world and ordained to organize this Church of Christ for the last time upon this earth, to prepare it for the coming of the Son of Man. After his death, on