William Hyde Is Called by the Spirit of Prophecy and Ordained at Nauvoo Conference

In October 1839, William Hyde attended a conference in Nauvoo, Illinois, where the Saints were gathering after their expulsion from Missouri. He recorded in his *Private Journal* a remarkable event: he was called — not by any presiding officer planning the ordination in advance — but by the Spirit of prophecy itself, and was ordained to the office of Elder on the 7th of October and commissioned to preach the gospel.

His journal reads:

"I then went to Nauvoo, where the Saints were then gathering, for the purpose of attending a conference, and the 7th inst. was called by the Spirit of prophecy and ordained to the office of an Elder and commissioned to preach the Gospel."

This spontaneous, spiritually-directed call — where the Spirit moved upon the presiding authorities in the moment to call and ordain a man who had simply come to attend — was characteristic of the early Nauvoo period, and Hyde himself understood it as a direct divine commission. He set out on his first mission just weeks later, on November 6, 1839, traveling through Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan without purse or scrip.