Oliver Cowdery had been excommunicated by the action of a High Council of the Church some ten years before, and it was held by some that he could only be restored by the action of a High Council. [10] Such a council was therefore called. In the course of its proceedings Oliver said: Brethren, for a number of years I have been separated from you. I now desire to come back. I wish to come humbly and to be one in your midst. I seek no station. I only wish to be identified with you. I am out of the Church. I am not a member of the Church, but I wish to become a member of it. I wish to come in at the door. I know the door. I have not come here to seek precedence, I come humbly, and throw myself upon the decisions of this body, knowing, as I do, that its decisions are right, and should be obeyed. [11] On motion of Elder Orson Hyde, Oliver Cowdery was received into the Church by baptism. It was the intention of this Witness of the Book of Mormon to go with the body of the Church to the Salt Lake Valley, but while visiting with his fellow witness, David Whitmer, at Richmond, Missouri, he was taken ill and died, March 3, 1850. Previous to going to Richmond, for the purpose of meeting David Whitmer, his wife's brother, Oliver was detained by snow storms some two weeks at the temporary home of Samuel W. Richards--just then returned from his first mission to the British Isles. Of his interesting association with Oliver, during this time, Elder Richards says: To hear him describe in his pleasant but earnest manner the personality of those heavenly messengers, with whom he and the Prophet had so freely had converse, was enchanting to my soul. Their heavenly appearance, clothed in robes of purity, the influence of their presence so lovely and serene; their eyes that seemed to penetrate to the very depths of the soul, together with the color of the eyes that gazed upon them, were all so beautifully related as to almost make one feel that they were then present: and as I placed my hands upon his head where these angels had placed theirs, a divine influence filled the soul to that degree that one could truly feel to be in the presence of something that was more than earthly; and from that day to this--almost fifty years ago--the interest of those glorious truths upon the mind has never been lost, but as a beacon light ever guiding to the home of their glory for a like inheritance. But before taking his departure he wrote and left with the writer of this the following statement, which we believe to be his last living testimony, though oft repeated, of the wonderful manifestations which brought the authority of God to men on earth: TESTIMONY