Lorenzo Snow's Vision of God and Jesus Christ

“I was baptized by Elder John Boynton, then one of the Twelve Apostles, June, 1836, in Kirtland, Ohio. Some two or three weeks after my baptism, I was one evening engaged in my studies, and felt a very uneasy, dissatisfied state of mind. I felt a desire to know whether the work I had embraced was true, or whether it was a delusion. I had been reading the Book of Mormon, and had been praying to the Lord to give me a testimony of the truth of the work, but had not received any. I walked out into the fields, and felt a very gloomy, disconsolate spirit. The heavens seemed like brass over my head. I felt as though I was left to myself, and that the Lord had forsaken me. I felt a spirit of darkness, and a desire to get away from the presence of everyone. I walked about for some time, and at length, realizing that the usual time had come for secret prayer, I concluded I would not forego my evening service, and, as a matter of formality, knelt as I was in the habit of doing, and in my accustomed retired place, but not feeling as I was wont to feel. I had no sooner opened my lips in an effort to pray, than I heard a sound, just above my head, like the rustling of silken robes, and immediately the Spirit of God descended upon me, completely enveloping my whole person, filling me, from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, and O, the joy and happiness I felt! No language can describe the almost instantaneous transition from a dense cloud of mental and spiritual darkness into a refulgence of light and knowledge, as it was at that time imparted to my understanding. I then received a perfect knowledge that God lives, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and of the restoration of the holy Priesthood, and the fulness of the Gospel. It was a complete baptism—a baptism and endowment of the Holy Ghost and of fire, and of power and revelation. The manifestation was repeated for several nights, and I felt that I could not be more satisfied, or more happy, if I were in the immediate presence of the Lord.”

— Lorenzo Snow, as recorded in Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow