Annie C. Smith’s Visionary Dream of Baptism

“I was born in the year 1876, in the village of W—, in the county of Kent. My parents were members of the Church of England, and I was brought up in that faith. When I was about twenty-two years of age, the Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came to our village. I attended their meetings, and was much impressed with the doctrines they taught. I felt that they were true, but I had been taught that the 'Mormons' were a very wicked people, and I was afraid to believe their message. I read the tracts they gave me, and the more I read, the more I felt that they were teaching the truth as it was taught by the Savior and His Apostles. I was in a great state of mind, not knowing what to do. I prayed to the Lord to show me the way, and to let me know if the message the Elders brought was from Him. One night I had a dream. I thought I was standing on the shore of a large lake. On the other side was a door, and within, the light was bright and beautiful as the noonday sun. A crowd of people were passing in through this door, and I was anxious to go in with them, but could see no way of getting there, as the wide expanse of water stood between. Whilst looking anxiously towards the door, and wondering how I could get there, a man in flowing robes came and stood beside me, and to him I directed my enquiry. 'The only way to obtain an entrance through that door is to pass through this water,' replied the stranger. 'All the people you see yonder got there in that way.' That was testimony enough to me, and my mind was at once made up to be baptized. I was baptized in the year 1898, and I have never regretted the step I took.”

— Annie C. Smith, The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 67, No. 35