“When I awoke that morning I was a man, although only a boy. But in this vision I pressed my hand up against the Prophet, and I saw a smile cross his countenance. … “ I was alone on a mat, away up in the mountains of Hawaii-no one was with me. My mother was there, and she sat with a child in her lap and I could name over as many as I remember of their names, who sat there, who seemed to be among the chosen, among the exalted. … I looked as if it were across this valley, and it seemed to be filled with a vast multitude of people, but on the stage were all the people that I had known.

I knew him, and when I entered I saw my father, and Brigham and Heber, and Willard, and other good men that I had known, standing in a row. I felt his hand just as tangible as I ever felt the hand of man. “He clasped my hand and drew me in, then closed the great door. He looked at me a little reprovingly, and the first words he said: ‘Joseph, you are late.’ Yet I took confidence and replied: I knocked and the door opened, and the man who stood there was the Prophet Joseph Smith. Then I rushed to what appeared to be a great opening, or door. But my garments were clean, and I put them on. I opened up this little bundle that I had, and there was a pair of white, clean garments, a thing I had not seen for a long time, because the people I was with did not think very much of making things exceedingly clean. As I passed towards it, as fast as I could, I saw a notice, ‘Bath.’ I turned aside quickly and went into the bath and washed myself clean. … I thought I knew that was my destination. I did not realize just what it was, when I was hurrying as fast as I could but finally I came to a wonderful mansion. I rushed on my way as fast as I possibly could, and I was only conscious of having just a little bundle, a handkerchief with a small bundle wrapped in it. “While in that condition I dreamed that I was on a journey, and I was impressed that I ought to hurry-hurry with all my might, for fear I might be too late. I felt as if I was so debased in my condition of poverty, lack of intelligence and knowledge, just a boy, that I hardly dared look a … man in the face. I was almost naked and entirely friendless, except the friendship of a poor, benighted … people. “I was very much oppressed, once, on a mission. I give you this as background for the dream which he had when he was serving there as a very young man. He never lost his love for the Hawaiian people, nor did they for him. He learned to speak their language and to love them. They were, for the most part, poor but generous with what they had. It was peopled largely by the native Hawaiians. He made his way to San Francisco and there worked in a shingle mill to earn enough money to get to the islands. At the age of 15, he was called on a mission to Hawaii. What a sobering and terrible experience that was for a little boy.Īt the age of 9 this fatherless lad drove an ox team with his mother across the plains to this valley. It was a horseman to tell his mother that her husband had been killed at Carthage that afternoon. As a boy not yet six years of age, he heard a knock on the window of his mother’s home in Nauvoo. His father was killed in Carthage Jail at the time the Prophet Joseph was murdered. When the Saints were driven out of Missouri he was brought to Illinois as an infant. He was born at Far West, Missouri, on 13 November 1838. He was the son of Hyrum Smith, who was the brother of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He served from 1901 to 1918, a period of 17 years. Smith was the sixth President of the Church. I wish to begin this evening by reading a dream which President Joseph F. If you wish to read it, it will be in the May issue of the Ensign magazine. They need to know what you’ve told us.” Well, I’m not going to tell you quite the same thing. A number of those in attendance and particularly the girls said, “We wish you would tell the boys the same thing. It was the annual Young Women conference of the Church, and I was asked to speak. I hope each of us treasures that which we have.Ī week ago tonight, this Tabernacle was filled with beautiful and bright young women. We are a vast congregation of hundreds of thousands-yes, of millions, bound together in a great brotherhood.

Where else in all the world can men and boys, each ordained to the holy priesthood, meet together as we do tonight. I hope that each of us has gained much from what we have heard.

Clean hands and a pure heart lds