Jesse Wentworth Crosby - Vision and Assurance at Age 16 of Gospel Truth Yet to Come

“I was born in the town of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Nov. 25, 1820. My parents were Joshua and Hannah Crosby. In the year 1827, my father moved his family to the state of New York, Chautauqua County. I was then in my seventh year. I was raised to believe in God and to pray, and I have often felt the influence of his spirit upon me from my earliest childhood. My prayers were heard and answered, but I was not satisfied. I attended churches of different persuasions with a prayerful heart, but there was an aching void still. I retired day after day to the woods and there, where no human eye could behold, poured out my prayers and supplications to Almighty God that he would send some kind messenger, called and ordained of him to guide my footsteps in the paths of truth. In answer to repeated supplications, I received the assurance that calmed my mind and gave me to understand that the truth in its fulness should be unfolded to me. None of the excitements of the day moved me. My feelings were known to God and to him alone, for I told them to no one on earth. In the summer of 1838, two elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came into my father's neighborhood. I heard them preach, and I immediately recognized in their message the answer to my youthful prayers. I knew that they were the messengers I had prayed for, and I was baptized into the Church.”

— Jesse Wentworth Crosby, Autobiography of Jesse Wentworth Crosby