During these times the river banks along Nauvoo presented busy scenes. The city was full of activity and was constantly enlarging by reason of the emigration from abroad. On the 12th and 13th of March steamboats landed at Nauvoo bringing 480 Saints, 250 of these wintered in St. Louis. Parley P. Pratt and Dr. Levi Richards were among the returning elders. Many of the Saints were old acquaintances of President Woodruff who hailed them with delight and they in turn were happy to meet again the man who had first brought the gospel to them. They were made welcome by the authorities and the Saints in Nauvoo. The day after their arrival, they were addressed in public assembly by the Prophet. About this time word came that Elder Lorenzo Barnes, then a missionary of the Church, had died in a foreign land. Speaking of the death of Elder Barnes, the prophet, in a discourse delivered on the 16th of April in reference to Elder Barnes, said: "I should have been more reconciled to the death of Elder Barnes could his body have been laid in the grave in Nauvoo or among the Saints. I have very peculiar feelings in the matter of receiving an honorable burial with my fathers. The ancient Saints were very particular about their burial places. Joseph, before his death, made his kindred promise to carry his bones to the land of Canaan, and they did so. They embalmed his body and buried him with his fathers. There is a blessing in such a privilege which many do not comprehend; still it is true that in the resurrection the Saints will all rise to meet the Lord and they will all be brought together though their bodies be scattered on the face of the whole earth. {174} "I wish the Saints to be comforted by the thought of the victory they will gain through the resurrection. The thought is sufficient to encourage the Saints to overcome obstacles in the midst of their trial, trouble, and tribulation. Though the thunders roar and the earthquakes roar or bellow; though lightnings flash and war be on every hand, suffer not a joint to tremble nor let your hearts faint for the great Eloheim will deliver you. If you are not delivered before the resurrection, you will be set free by it from all those things and from pain, sorrow, and death. "I have labored hard and endeavored in every way to prepare this people to comprehend the things which God is unfolding to me. He hath given me a vision of the resurrection of the dead and I saw the graves open, and the Saints, as they rose, took each other by the hand and great joy and glory rested upon them." On the 19th of that month Elder Woodruff with Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Orson Pratt, and William Smith were appointed to missions in the East for the purpose of holding conferences and gathering funds for the completion of the Temple. Others were appointed to missions in England, and Addison Pratt, with three others, was called to carry the gospel to the Sandwich Islands.