Wilford Woodruff's Conversion Fulfilled Robert Mason's Prophetic Vision

For years, the devout Connecticut farmer Robert Mason had taught a young Wilford Woodruff to believe in prophets, apostles, dreams, visions, and revelations — principles Mason was ridiculed for in his Presbyterian community. Around 1800, Mason received a vision that the true Church did not exist in his day but would be restored in the next generation, and that Woodruff himself would become a 'conspicuous actor' in that kingdom.

In 1830, Mason shared this vision with Woodruff for the very first time — the same spring the Church of Jesus Christ was organized. Three years later, in the winter of 1833, Woodruff heard an LDS Elder preach in a schoolhouse in Oswego County, New York. The Spirit bore witness, and Woodruff was baptized — among the first in the county. He recognized immediately that Robert Mason's words had been fulfilled.

Woodruff wrote to Mason to tell him the Church had been found. Mason, aged and near death, received the letter and read it repeatedly — handling it as he had handled the fruit in his vision — but died without receiving the ordinances himself. Wilford Woodruff was later baptized for him by proxy, in fulfillment of the revealed doctrine of baptism for the dead.