This was the first time Wilford Woodruff had met Parley P. Pratt, to whose instructions he listened with great interest and attention, and says he was greatly edified by what he had to say. Elder Pratt informed him that it was his duty to prepare himself to go up to the land of Zion. He accordingly settled up his business affairs, and bade good-bye to his brother and kinsfolk in Richland. On April 11th Wilford took Harry Brown and Warren Ingles in his wagon and started with them for Kirtland, Ohio. On the way he met for the first time Elders Orson Pratt and John Murdock. They all arrived in Kirtland April 25th, 1834. Before he left Richland, many of his friends and neighbors warned him not to go, and declared that if he did go, he would be killed. He replied that the Lord had commanded him, and that he would go; that he had no fears of any evil consequences as long as he obeyed the Lord. He gives an account of his first meeting with the Prophet {39} as follows: "Here for the first time in my life I met and had an interview with our beloved Prophet Joseph Smith, the man whom God had chosen to bring forth His revelations in these last days. My first introduction was not of a kind to satisfy the preconceived notions of the sectarian mind as to what a prophet ought to be, and how he should appear. It might have shocked the faith of some men. I found him and his brother Hyrum out shooting at a mark with a brace of pistols. When they stopped shooting, I was introduced to Brother Joseph, and he shook hands with me most heartily. He invited me to make his habitation my home while I tarried in Kirtland. This invitation I most eagerly accepted, and was greatly edified and blest during my stay with him. He asked me to help him tan a wolfskin which he said he wished to use upon the seat of his wagon on the way to Missouri. I pulled off my coat, stretched the skin across the back of a chair, and soon had it tanned--although I had to smile at my first experience with the Prophet. "That night we had a most enjoyable and profitable time in his home. In conversation, he smote his hand upon his breast and said, 'I would to God I could unbosom my feelings in the house of my friends.' He said in relation to Zion's Camp, 'Brethren, don't be discouraged about our not having means. The Lord will provide, and He will put it into the heart of somebody to send me some money.' The very next day he received a letter from Sister Vose, containing one hundred and fifty dollars. When he opened the letter and took out the money, he held it up and exclaimed: 'See here, did I not tell you the Lord would send me some money to help us on our journey? Here it is.' I felt satisfied that Joseph was a Prophet of God in very deed."