The discovery of coal and iron ore in the vicinity of Cedar City awakened in the Latter-day Saints a special desire to establish iron foundries. Men had been called to this work as a mission. Among the one hundred, there were perhaps thirty who were discontented. Part of them desired to return to Salt Lake City to get their families, and others to abandon the mission at Cedar {346} entirely. Apostle Woodruff records the following words of President Young to these men: "If you were now on a mission to France or England or to any other part of the earth, you would not sit down and counsel together about going to get your families, or about going home till your mission was ended. This is of quite as much importance as preaching the Gospel. The time is now come when it is required of us to make the wilderness blossom as the rose. Our mission is now to build up stakes of Zion and fill these mountains with cities, and when your mission is ended you are at liberty to go. Only do what is right. When I go on a mission, I leave my affairs in the hand of God. If my house, flocks, or fields are lost in my absence; if my wife or children die, I say, Amen, to it. If they live, I say, Amen, to that and thank the Lord." The words of President Young removed much of the discontent and most of them remained to fill their mission in honor. In speaking at this time of the Indians in that section the President said: "These Indians are the descendants of the Gadianton robbers who infested these mountains for more than a thousand years." At the conclusion of this visit, the party returned to Salt Lake City which they reached on the 24th of May, 1851. Elder Woodruff's journal contains many of the discourses preached by President Young in those days on subjects of practical religion, home industry, prayer, financial integrity, farming, tithing, and kindred subjects. His talks contained just such subject matter as one would expect to hear from a leader whose mission it was to make the desert blossom as the rose. Elder Woodruff, here and there, used stenographic characters in making notes in his journal. He was not a stenographer, however, but he was so accustomed to writing the sermons in long hand that his memory was trained for the work, and a large measure of accuracy was given to these journalistic efforts. To this work he had been called by President Young soon after the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum. The day would come when the details of that early history would be in great demand among those who would love to know the beginning of the work of God in this dispensation. "Some day," said President {347} Young, "I shall look to you for my journal." This work was so carefully done, and the devotion of Elder Woodruff was so great towards his brethren that one is impressed by the splendid fidelity with which he honored the call.