Dan Jones Heals a Blind Man Who Sees a Candle After Baptism and Administration

A blind man, persuaded by sign-seekers to be baptized, was baptized by Elder Dan Jones. After the baptism, Jones confirmed the man and anointed and laid hands on him, at which point the man shouted for joy and testified that he could see the candle in the candlestick on the table. However, sign-seekers later pressured the man to claim it was 'conjuring,' causing him to return to his former state of blindness.

The event took place on July 7, 1846, at the River Teifi in Llanybydder, Carmarthenshire. The blind man, whose name was Daniel Jones, had previously admitted to others that he intended to act as a "prepared Judas" to test the missionaries, hoping to expose them as frauds when the baptism did not restore his sight. Elder Dan Jones conducted the baptism, and the subsequent confirmation occurred at the nearby farmhouse of Thomas Jeremy, a recent convert. Following the anointing by Elder Abel Evans, Dan Jones prayed that the man would receive his sight only if it were pleasing to God and according to the man's faith. After the man claimed he could see a candle, he later publicly turned against the Saints, prompting Dan Jones to write the pamphlet "Haman" yn hongian ar ei grogbren ei hun! (Haman Hanging from His Own Gallows!) to refute the man's anti-Mormon publication "Y drych cywir" (The Correct Image).

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

A certain blind man, who had been blind for many years, and who had been a preacher among the Baptists, came to me, and requested to be baptized, saying that he had been told in a dream that he must be baptized by me for the remission of his sins, and that he should receive his sight. I told him that I could not promise him his sight, but if he would repent and be baptized, he should receive the remission of his sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, if he was faithful. He was baptized by me in the river Teifi, on the 7th of July, 1846. After he came out of the water, I confirmed him, and anointed his eyes with oil, and prayed for him, in the name of Jesus Christ. He then exclaimed, 'I can see! I can see the candle on the table!' and he appeared to be filled with joy. But, alas! the enemy of all righteousness was at work. Some of the priests and others, who were opposed to the truth, got hold of him, and persuaded him that it was all a delusion—that it was the power of the devil, and not of God; and they so worked upon his mind, that he soon began to doubt, and finally denied that he had ever received his sight, and turned against the truth, and became a bitter enemy to the Saints.