"And have you faith to travel to St. George, over three hundred miles distant, to do the work for seven dead persons?"
Thomas told him he had, and seemed surprised at his asking, for it had not occurred to him that it required a great amount of faith to do so.
"Well, the Lord bless you for your faith!" said President Young. "Go to St. George, and have the work done for those whose names you have. Travel comfortably and independently, making your own camp and sleeping in or under your wagon. Put the people along the way and in St. George to as little trouble as possible. If you require hay, bread or other supplies, pay for them. Then all the honor will be yours. You shall be blessed on the trip, and you shall never want for names of the dead to work for as long as you live."
He and Brother Tuttle secured their recommends to admit them to the Temple and commenced preparations for the journey. He also called upon Mrs. Ann Ashdown, the sister whom he had seen in his dream, and told her he was going to St. George, and asked if she would like to go along and become his wife and a mother to his children. He advised her to think about it, and give him a reply the next day.
The following day she gave her consent, and he told her to prepare for the journey. He then went to his son Ephraim and announced that he intended to marry, but didn't suppose that anyone could guess who his prospective bride was.
The son replied that he knew who his mother had said he would sometime marry, and named Sister Ashdown.
He then called upon his eldest daughter, Emma, and broke the news to her, as he had to his son. She too was prepared for it, and informed him that her mother, some time before her death, had predicted to her that Mrs. Ashdown would yet become her father's wife, either in time or eternity, as it had been made known to her in a vision. This was an additional evidence to Thomas that it was the Lord's will, for his wife had never even hinted to him that she ever had such an impression. She had, however, a short time before her death told him of two old maids with whom she had lived during her childhood, and who had sent her to school. She asked him to have the work done for them in the Temple, and to have them sealed to him.
Brother Tuttle and his daughter Emily, and Thomas and his daughter Emma, and prospective wife soon set out for St. George, where they arrived on the 24th of May, 1877.
They called upon Apostle Wilford Woodruff, who was then in charge of the Temple, the same day, and after he had endorsed their recommends, Thomas explained to him his condition, and asked whether he should keep the bandage on his leg or remove it. Brother Woodruff remained silent a few moments, as if communing with the Lord, and then told him to come to the Temple early the following morning and to remove the bandage.
Thomas recognized the Temple as soon as he saw it, as the building he had seen in his dream, and when he entered the Temple the scene was enacted that he had witnessed in the interior, although he had said nothing to anyone about the dream.