Wilford Woodruff Journal 1: Healed in an Alligator Swamp by Prayer After Being Left Alone and Lame (1835)

In 1835, while on his mission to Arkansas and Tennessee — traveling without purse or scrip through some of the most dangerous wilderness in the American South — Wilford Woodruff was suddenly struck with a severe lameness that left him unable to continue.

He was in the middle of a swamp in the Arkansas wilderness, a region he described as infested with alligators, 170 miles from the nearest settlement, wading through mud knee-deep at a pace of up to forty miles a day. His companion left to find help. Wilford was alone.

In his own account from *Leaves from My Journal*, Woodruff described the situation plainly: he was left alone in an alligator swamp, lame, and with no way to continue. His only recourse was prayer. He knelt in the swamp and called upon God.

He was healed in answer to prayer. The lameness lifted. He continued his journey, eventually arriving at Memphis where — still in his mud-caked missionary clothes, looking utterly bedraggled — he was compelled by an audience of townspeople to preach. He wrote that when he rose to speak, powerful aid came from the Spirit, and the words that came were not what the audience expected from a man who looked as he did.

This healing was one of many in Woodruff's early missions. He later summarized his first mission to the Southern States (1834–1836) by writing that in one year of preaching he had traveled across Arkansas and Tennessee, baptized dozens, and was preserved on multiple occasions through what he was convinced was divine intervention. He described being confronted by a bear (which passed by harmlessly), being surrounded by wolves, getting lost in darkness, crossing swollen rivers, and wading for days through swamps — all while trusting that God would preserve him to complete his mission.