Amasa Lyman's Vision of Divine Guardianship in Nauvoo

During the final winter in Nauvoo before the Saints' exodus, Amasa Lyman experienced a remarkable open vision. Lying in his bed in broad daylight, fully awake, he saw the surroundings vanish and found himself standing near the Printing Office in Nauvoo, where he beheld a heavenly company led by Joseph Smith and his brothers Hyrum and Carlos, who had by then been martyred. Joseph turned and looked back at Lyman with a smile of recognition. Lyman described the vision as his assurance, at the commencement of the Saints' troubles there, of the guardianship surrounding them and the protection they were receiving from the hosts of heaven, declaring that 'the sequel of our history proves that it was no idle tale.' He recounted the experience in an 1857 discourse published in the Journal of Discourses.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

After I had commenced to recover my health, one morning, while lying in my bed in open day, as wakeful as I am at this moment, the surrounding objects which I could see when in my natural condition all in an instant disappeared, and I was in a moment in the presence of a company of individuals, and I was as perfectly conscious of their presence as I am of yours. At the head of the company were three personages clothed with robes of white, and they were as bright as the sun. They took their places with their faces directly west; and as they stopped, the individual in advance turned and looked over his shoulder to me with a smile of recognition. It was Joseph; and the others were his two brothers, Hyrum and Carlos. They were there, and I saw them as plainly as I see you. I saw them as they were in the flesh, only they were glorified. This was my assurance, in the commencement of our troubles there, that I received of the guardianship that was around us and the protection that we were receiving from the hosts of heaven. The sequel of our history proves that it was no idle tale.