-- Sep 8, 1843
[Apostle Wilford Woodruff Journal] ... I had a dream concerning the Saints there. I thought I was in a field of wheat that was stacked up & we had got to draw it into the barn. Come to open the stack the bundle would all fall to peices & it was filled with clusters of Rats & mice, who had been eating up the grain. I thought these Rats & mice were the Elders & official members who had been in & lain on the Church, lived on the wheat eaten them up instead of building up New Churches. So that when the Twelve came along they could not get any thing for the Temple or Nauvoo House, or Hardly a place to stay. The rats had eat up the wheat so & we had to go to the world for a home to stay while we were their.... (1)
-- Jan 5, 1844
[Joseph Smith] Joseph dreams of "2 serpents swallowing each other tail foremost." During the cold night some people had built a fire on the shore opposite Stake President William Marks's house. Marks swears before the city council that the fire was a warning against his life. It is charged that Joseph's statement about a "Judas" was a signal to the forty special policemen to take certain action against traitorist brothers. Thirty policemen swear that they were never given any special or private instructions. After many testimonies, Wilson Law says, "I am Joseph's friend: he has no better friend in the world: I am ready to lay down my life for him." Joseph records his own thoughts: "What can be the matter with these men? Is it that . . . hit pigeons always flutter, that drowning men catch at straws, or that Presidents Law and Marks are absolutely traitors to the Church, that my remarks should produce such an excitement in their minds. Can it be possible that the traitor whom P
orter Rockwellreports to me as being in correspondence with my Missouri enemies, is one of my quorum?" (2)
-- Feb 2, 1844
[Apostle Wilford Woodruff Journal] ...Brother & Sister Wm. W Phelps Received their 2d Anointing & sealing.
/Feb 3d 1844 I walked into President Joseph Smith Store or office over the store & spent a few moments in conversing with Elders W Richards And Wm. W. Phelps & President Joseph Smith Came into the room & Said he had a dream & related it to us which was as follows:
+ I was standing on a peninsula in the midst of a vast body of water whare their appears to be a large harbor or a peer built out for boats to Come into. I was surrounded by my friends & while looking at this harbor I saw a Steem boat approaching the harbour. Their was bridges on the peer for persons to cross & there came up a wind & drove the steem boat under one of the bridges & upset it. I run up to the boat expecting the persons would all drowne. And wishing to do sumthing to assist them I put my hand against the side of the boat & with one surge I shoved it under the bridge & righted it up & then [I] told them to take care of themselves. But it was not long before I saw them starting out into the channel or main body of the water again. The storms were raging & the waters rough. I said to my friends that if they did not understand the signs of the times & the spirit of Prophecy they would be apted to be lost. It was but a few moments after when we saw the waves break ov
er the boat & she soon founderd & went down with all on board & perished.
The storm & waters were still vary rough. Yet I told my friends around me that I believed I could stem those waves & storm & swim in the waters better than the steem boat did & at any rate I was determined to try it. But my friends laughed at me & told me I Could not stand the storm at all but should be drouned. The waters looked Clear & beautiful though exeeding rough, & I said I believed I could swim & I would try it anyhow. They said I would drown. I said I would have a frolic in the water first if I did & I dove of into the raging waves.
I had swum but a short distance when a towering wave overwhelmed me for a time but I soon found myself on the top of it & soon I met the second wave in the same way & for awhile I struggled hard to live in the midst of the storm & waves. But I soon found I gained upon evry wave & stemmed the torrent better & better & I soon had power to swim with my head out of water so the waves did not break over me at all & I found I had swam a great distance & in looking about me I saw Br Samuel by my side. I asked him how he liked it. He said first rate & I thought so to. I was soon enabled to swim with my head & Sholdiers out of water & I Could swim as fast as any steem Boat, & in a little time it becaim calm & I Could rush through the water & ownly go in to my loins & so[n?] I ownly went in to my knees & finally could tread on the top of the water & went almost with the speed of an arrow & I said to Samuel see how swift I can go & I thought it was great sport & pleasure to travel with
such speed & I awoke.
What the interpetation of the foregoing dream was the spirit of God or time must determin.
[ ]
In the evening of this day the quorum met at Joseph store. Brothers Wm. W Clayton & Joseph Young met with them But I was not present. Elder Kington Came after me with a waggon to go to his house & hold a meeting so I took my family & rode 6 miles across the prarie in the storm & spent the night at his house. Joseph Young & wife & Wm. Clayton Received their 2d Endowments &c. 6 mils. (1)
Footnotes:
1 - Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993
2 - Conklin, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology
Mormon Timeline: Dreams
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
