Soon after this, namely, on the 15th day of May, 1829, Oliver Cowdery himself became a witness to the ministration of an angel, for it was upon that date that John the Baptist appeared to him and Joseph Smith while they were engaged in prayer in the woods, near Harmony. John ordained them to the Aaronic priesthood and instructed them upon the subject of baptism, a full account of which is given in _New Witnesses for God_, vol. I. [5] Subsequently he, with Joseph, received another visitation of angels some time in the month of June following, when Peter, James and John conferred upon them the Melchizedek priesthood on the banks of the Susquehanna river, a full account of which is also given in vol. I, of _New Witnesses for God_. [6] Meantime Oliver was writing his friend, David Whitmer, his findings as to the truth of the Prophet Joseph having the plates. He wrote soon after his arrival in Harmony that he was convinced that Joseph Smith had the records. [7] Shortly after this, doubtless immediately after Joseph received the revelation in which the secret meditations and prayers of Oliver respecting the work before he saw the Prophet were made known, Oliver wrote a second letter to David, in which he enclosed a few lines of what had been translated, and assured him that he knew of a surety that Joseph Smith had a record of a people that inhabited the American continents in the ancient times: and that the plates they were translating gave a history of these people; he moreover assured David that he had "revealed knowledge" concerning the truth of what he affirmed. These letters young Whitmer showed to his parents, and to his brothers and sisters. Mr. Joseph Knight, Sen., of Colesville, Broome county, New York, several times brought the young men provisions--food--which enabled them to continue the work of translation without interruption. But for this timely assistance the work of translation must have been relinquished from time to time in order to secure supplies. Mr. Knight knew the Smith family and had called upon them a number of times at their home in Manchester. He evidently had considerable faith in the claims of Joseph concerning the Book of Mormon; for on the occasion of his visit to him in May, 1829, he desired to know what his duty was with reference to the work that the Lord was about to bring forth. The prophet inquired of the Lord and, as in the case of Oliver Cowdery, after declaring that a great and marvelous work was about to come forth, the revelation said: Keep my commandments, and seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion. Behold, I speak unto you, and also to all those who have desires to bring forth and establish this work; and no one can assist in this work, except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope and charity, being temperate in all things whatsoever shall be entrusted in his care. [8]