After my grand-father was taken with his last illness, he told my parents that an angel appeared to him clothed in white, and told him he would not recover, for his sickness was unto death. Ten days later he died. To save ridicule, however, this vision was kept secret and only told me afterwards by my mother. The true church of Christ was not then on the earth (February, 1829), nor had such an occurrence been heard of by us at the time. Although the Father and the Son had appeared to Joseph Smith some years previously, we had not heard of the vision. The vision of my grand-father seemed so strange that my parents hardly knew whether to attribute it to imagination or a reality, as they could not question his sincerity, he having always been strictly reliable. I have never doubted, however, his having had the vision. He walked half a mile to bid my parents good by, although in poor health. On parting, my grand-father wept like a child, and said, "This is the last time I shall over visit you while I live." My father continued his researches of the scriptures, and found that everything he read confirmed his views. He never allowed a traveling minister to leave the neighborhood without an argument if he could avoid it, and his arguments were in no instance refuted. In the Spring of 1832, Elders Samuel H. Smith and Orson Hyde, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, came to our neighborhood and held a few meetings. Elder Smith read the 29th chapter of Isaiah at the first meeting and delineated the circumstances of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, of which he said he was a witness. He knew his brother Joseph had the plates, for the prophet had shown them to him, and he had handled them and seen the engravings thereon. His speech was more like a narrative than a sermon. Elder Hyde made a few closing remarks and appointed another meeting. At the close of the first meeting my father, as his custom was, sprung his usual question about the spiritual gifts and was quite surprised to hear Elder Smith say, "That is our doctrine, and we have those gifts in our Church."