6 Feb 2021, Saturday

6 Feb 2021, Saturday

Prioritized Daily Task 

9 AM Legacy Center

I sent my son, Matthew, an email about why he is named James and also why and from whom he got the name Mattew. (Names after my father, me, and Matthew Cowley) I included a video link on YouTube, Matthew Cowley, Miracles  

A SACRED DREAM of JOHN MORGAN 

            When John Morgan decided to remain in Salt Lake City after his arrival on December 23, 1866, he lived at the boarding house of Serepta Heywood, first wife of Joseph L. Heywood, Bishop of the 17th ward.  At this point in his life he showed no interest in learning more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

One morning as he came to breakfast he told Mrs. Heywood about a dream he had had the night before.  In his dream he was in northern Georgia near the battlefield of Chickamauga and he was traveling on a road south between Chattanooga, Tennessee and Rome Georgia.  It was a road he was familiar with as he had used it often as a soldier in the Civil War.

            In the dream he came to a fork in the road and was trying to decide which way to go.  To his amazement President Brigham Young appeared at the fork in front of a large tree and told him the right fork went to Rome but if he took the left fork he would gain a lasting testimony of the divinity of the Book Mormon. 

He then asked Mrs. Heywood what she thought of his dream.  She told him that she thought he would join the church and then at some point be called on a mission to the Southern States and one day he would be on the road from his dream.  President Young would not be there but he should remember his instructions and take the left fork.

A year later John Morgan was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and ten years later he was a missionary in the Southern States.  

Shortly after his arrival he was traveling from Chattanooga to Rome and came to a fork in the road.  He was momentarily confused but then he remembered his dream.  The tree was there but President Young was not just as Mrs. Heywood had said.  He remembered President Young’s counsel from the dream and he took the left fork.  After an hour of walking he came to a beautiful valley he learned was the Heywood Valley where some 23 farm families lived.

 John Morgan called at the first house he came to in the Heywood Valley.  He was invited in and had a spiritual 3 hour discussion there.  At the conclusion of the discussion the family Bible was brought out by the head of the household and Elder Morgan found that many of the scriptures he had been discussing were marked.  When he commented on this he was told that about ten days before a kind, tidy, intelligent looking gentleman had come and asked if he could mark their Bible.  This kindly man said that someone would come in a few days and explain these scriptures to them in their fullness. 

During the next six weeks Elder Morgan contacted all of the families in the Heywood Valley.  At each house where he was successful in preaching and baptizing all of the Bibles had been marked by this kindly man who said someone would soon come and explain these scriptures to them.  No one knew where this man came from or where he went.  All but three families from this valley were baptized including a Methodist pastor.  He was made the Presiding Elder of the Heywood Branch and his meeting house became the meeting house for the Branch.

 John Morgan felt that he had been preceded in the Heywood Valley by one of the Three Nephites.

 Taken from The Life and Ministry of John Morgan by Arthur Richardson 1965 pages 119-122.