Wilford Woodruff Journal 1: Father Mason's Prophecy — An Old Prophet Foretold the Restoration Before He Died (c. 1830)

Before Wilford Woodruff even heard of the Church, he was prepared for it by an extraordinary figure he recorded in his journals: an elderly man known as 'Father Mason' — a devout seeker who had received his own spiritual witness that a great restoration of the gospel was coming.

Woodruff recorded in his journals and in *Leaves from My Journal* the account of this old prophet who lived in Connecticut, where Woodruff grew up. Mason was known as a man of profound faith who, despite belonging to no organized church, had received remarkable spiritual manifestations.

According to Woodruff, Father Mason had received a vision or revelation that God was going to raise up a new church in his day — that the ancient gospel with all its gifts and powers would be restored to the earth, and that a young man would come to his community to preach it. He prophesied specifically about what he had seen.

When Woodruff later joined the Church and visited Mason, the old man was on his deathbed. Woodruff brought him the message of the Restoration. Mason listened, and with great feeling said that what Woodruff was describing was exactly what he had seen in vision — this was the very work he had been waiting for.

Mason died without being baptized, but Woodruff never forgot him. He recorded this preparatory prophet as evidence that God had been readying hearts for the Restoration across the American landscape, even before the missionaries arrived.

Woodruff later had vicarious temple work performed for Father Mason, fulfilling the sealing keys given to the living on behalf of the dead.