Wilford Woodruff Journal 2: He Recorded Zion's Camp Vision of the Ancient Prophet Zelph and the Lamanite History in Revelation (1834)

In 1836, while Wilford Woodruff was still a young missionary in the Southern States, he recorded a pivotal spiritual experience that had occurred two years earlier during Zion's Camp (1834) but which he continued to reflect upon and document.

On April 19, 1836, while visiting fellow Elder A. O. Smoot in Tennessee, Smoot gave Woodruff news from Elder David W. Patten — an account of the endowment ceremonies in the newly dedicated Kirtland Temple. Woodruff recorded:

'The heavens were opened unto them; angels and Jesus Christ were seen of them sitting at the right hand of the Father.'

This account deeply moved Woodruff. He wrote in his journal his own prayer and aspiration:

'O Lord, if it be Thy will, give me the privilege of recording in this year's journal great blessings, pronounced upon my head from mine anointing and from under the hands of the Patriarch Joseph, and an account of great visions, and the opening of the heavens, and the revelation of Jesus Christ unto me, that I may be a special witness of Thee, O Lord, and may I also have the administering of Holy Angels, that I may be taught of the eternal things of the Priesthood.'

This prayer — written in 1836 by a young missionary — was answered in full across the next 62 years. Woodruff did receive visions, did see the heavens opened, did have angels administer to him, did become a special witness of Jesus Christ, and did receive the confirmation from those beyond the veil that his mission was accepted of God.

The journal entry stands as one of the most poignant examples of a man asking God for spiritual gifts in faith — and having every request answered.