"After spending several days in Boston, holding meetings with the Saints, I walked to Providence, Rhode Island, preaching by the way. There I took steamer, and arrived in New York on the 18th of May, where I met Elder Orson Pratt, his family, Elijah Fordham and nearly one hundred Saints who had been baptized in the city of New York. I remained in New York three days, visiting the Saints and holding meetings; several new converts were baptized while I was there. Leaving New York, I traveled through New Jersey and returned to Farmington, Connecticut, to the residence of my father, where I arrived on the 12th of June. It was with peculiar sensations that I walked over my native land where I had spent my youth, and cast my eyes over the Farmington meadows and the hills and dales where I had roamed in my boyhood with my father, stepmother, brothers, and sister.
"On my arrival at my father's home, I had the happy privilege of again taking my parents and sister by the hand. I also met my uncle, Ozem Woodruff, who was among the number I had baptized the year before. After spending an hour in conversation, we sat down around father's table, supped together, and were refreshed. Then we bowed upon our knees in the family circle, and offered up the gratitude of our hearts to God for preserving our lives and reuniting us. I spent the next eighteen days in Farmington and Avon, visiting my father's household, my uncles, aunts, cousins, neighbors, and friends, preaching to them the gospel of Jesus Christ, and striving to bring them into the Kingdom of God.
"On the 1st of July, 1838, there occurred one of the most interesting events of my whole life in the ministry. When Father Joseph Smith gave me my patriarchal blessing, among the many wonderful things he promised me was that I should bring my father's household into the Kingdom of God; and I felt that if I ever obtained that blessing, the time therefor had come. By the help of God I preached the gospel faithfully to my father's household and to all who were with him, as well as to my other relatives, and I appointed a meeting at my father's home on Sunday, the 1st of July. My father was believing my testimony, as were all in his household; but upon this occasion it appeared as if the devil were determined to hinder the fulfillment of the promise of the patriarch to me. It seemed as if Lucifer, the son of the morning, had gathered together the hosts of hell, and was exerting his powers upon us all. Distress overwhelmed the whole household, and all were tempted to reject the work; and it seemed as if the same power would devour me. I had to take to my bed for an hour before the time of meeting. There I prayed to the Lord with my whole soul for deliverance; for I knew then that the power of the devil was exercised to hinder me from accomplishing what God had promised I should do. The Lord heard my prayer and answered my petition. When the hour of meeting came, I arose from my bed and could sing and shout for joy to think I had been delievered from the power of the evil one. Filled with the power of God, I stood in the midst of the congregation and preached unto the people in great plainness the gospel of Jesus Christ.
"At the close of the meeting we assembled on the banks of the Farmington River, 'because there was much water there,' and I led six of my friends into the river and baptized them for the remission of their sins. All of my father's household were included in this number, as the patriarch had promised, and all were relatives except Dwight Webster, who was a Methodist class-leader, and was boarding with my father's family. I organized the small number of nine persons, eight of whom were my relatives, into a branch of the Church, ordained Dwight Webster to the office of priest, and administered unto them the Sacrament. It was truly a day of joy to my soul. I had baptized my father, stepmother, and sister, and I afterwards added a number of other relatives. I felt that the work of this day alone amply repaid me for all my labors in the ministry.
"While upon Fox Islands I was impressed to visit my father's home. Now that the purpose of the mission had been accomplished I felt it my duty to return to the Islands. Monday, July 2, 1838, was the last day and night I spent at my father's home while upon this mission. At the setting of the sun I took with my sister the last walk I ever had with her in my native state. We walked by the canal, viewed the river and the fields, and conversed about the future. After evening prayer with the family, my father retired to rest, and I visited awhile with my stepmother, who had reared me from infancy. In conversation we felt sensibly the weight of the power of temptation out of which the Lord had delivered us. I also spent a short time with my sister Eunice, the only sister I ever was blessed with in my father's family. I had baptized her into the Church and Kingdom of God, and we mingled our sympathies, prayers, and tears together before the throne of grace.
"How truly the bonds of consanguinity and the blood of Christ unite the hearts of the Saints of God! 'How blessings brighten as they take their flight!' This being the last night I was to spend beneath my father's roof while upon this mission, I felt its importance, and my prayer was, 'O Lord, protect my father's house, and bring them to Zion!' My prayer was granted.
"On the morning of July 3rd, I took leave of my relatives and my native state, and started on my return to Maine. I arrived in Scarboro on the 16th, and on the 14th my first child, a daughter, was born, at Father Carter's house. We named her Sarah Emma. On the 30th of July I left my wife and child at Father Carter's, and started for Fox Islands.
"While holding meeting with the Saints at North Vinal Haven, on the 9th of August, I received a letter from Elder Thomas B. Marsh, who was then President of the Twelve Apostles, informing me that the Prophet Joseph Smith had received a revelation from the Lord, naming as persons to be chosen to fill the places of those of the Twelve who had fallen. Those named were John E. Page, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff and Willard Richards. In his letter President Marsh added: 'Know then, Brother Woodruff, by this, that you are appointed to fill the place of one of the Twelve Apostles, and that it is agreeable to the word of the Lord, given very lately, that you should come speedily to Far West, and, on the 26th of April next, take your leave of the Saints here and depart for others climes, across the mighty deep.' The substance of this letter had been revealed to me several weeks before, but I had not named it to any person."
It was on the 8th of July, just one week after Wilford's memorable experience at his father's home, that this humble, faithful, diligent elder was called by the voice of God, through His prophet, to be one of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb in this dispensation; and Wilford being at the time many hundreds of miles distant from the Prophet, the Lord then revealed to him the fact of that calling. Wilford had been true to the Lord as a teacher, priest, elder, and seventy in His Church, and thus was worthy of the higher call that had come, and to be trusted with its increased responsibility. He was prepared by the revelations of heaven to his own soul to be an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ; and his ordination and leave-taking of the Saints at the designated place, on the 26th of the succeeding April, under the circumstances then existing, were a manifestation of the miraculous power of God in witness of the prophetic office and gift that had been conferred from heaven upon Joseph Smith, the great Prophet of this dispensation.
"The time having come for me to prepare to leave Fox Islands," wrote Wilford, "I had a desire to take with me all the Saints I could get to go to Zion. Already there had been a line drawn between the Saints and those on the islands who had rejected the Gospel, and enemies were very bitter against me and against the work of God I had labored to establish. They threatened my life, but the Saints were willing to stand by me. I spent four days with the Saints, visiting them, holding meetings, and encouraging them, while the devil was raging upon every hand. I baptized into the Church and organized, while upon the islands, nearly one hundred persons; and there seemed a prospect of gathering with me about half of them, but the devil raged to such an extent that some of them were terrified.