“Another of the memorable occasions in the life of President Wood occurred in 1921. “Uncle" Henry L. Hinman, Stake Patriarch and last living personal witness of Joseph Smith the Prophet among the Canadian Saints, half-jokingly made an agreement with Edward Wood. The two men, while speaking of the spirit world, agreed that the first to die should return and tell the other about the work going on there. “Uncle" Henry died shortly thereafter.
President Wood later told of an incredible experience wherein Henry L. Hinman actually kept his promise and returned for a final visit with his friend. He woke up one night and saw Uncle Henry standing in the doorway of his bedroom. His first thought was that the departed Patriarch had come for him, so he got up and greeted his spirit visitor. President Wood recalled noticing his own body still in bed and wondered what his wife would think when she found out he had left his body. Mr. Wood asked Uncle Henry if he had seen his favorite Bible prophet, Elijah, yet. The answer was that he had been too busy
and had not had time to go where Elijah was. In explaining the nature of his busy life in the spirit world, he told President Wood that he was engaged in missionary work. He told of six men who had just been ca/led to assist in the work there. Three of the six were still living and acting on the Alberta Stake High Council. This puzzled President Wood very much, and he thought he had better try to write down the names of the three lest he forget them. He went to his bedside table and, although he remembered the names, he could not write them. This he said he could not understand, but as he turned to speak further with his visitor he
saw him pass through the door and leave. Upon 're- entering his body' he woke his wife and told her of his visitor, but he could not then remember which three of his High Council had been called.
Soon after this experience, the Stake President was called to administer to one of his High Councilmen, Willard G. Smith. Near the sick man’s bed he said he saw written the words “This is one of the men’. Mr. Smith said to him, 'You know all about this-that I am going to pass on-I want you to get my children together to finish my temple work.' He died the next day. Nearly two weeks later, as the Stake President entered the home of Ephraim Harker, another of his High Councilmen, he said he heard a voice say-- This is another of those three men. He died soon thereafter. Another week passed and President Wood went to the hospital to visit another High Councilman, John Heninger. He said he knew by inspiration that this man was the last of the three. President Wood hesitated as he was about to administer to him. Mr. Heninger said, 'I am going to leave right away and you already know it, don't you?' President Wood blessed him, but not that he would recover. He died during the same week. Said President Wood of these experiences, 'It is a wonderful vision and assurance of the identity of the spirit apart from the body.”
(Melvin S. Tagg, The Life of Edward James Wood also in Life Everlasting, pp 54-55 By Duane S. Crowther)
Several of the couples of the mission had been married for years and had never been blessed with children. I admonished them to join in this great movement (excursion to the temple ) and they would receive the blessing they had hoped for and prayed for. Two such couples were with the caravan. In one of the sessions in the temple, President Wood saw two spirits hovering over the congregation. He told a/i present that they were from the Spirit World and were anxious to come to the earth and take mortal bodies. He promised the sisters in the room who had come for that special blessing would have their hearts' desires granted. All had the experience of witnessing spirits from the unseen world come and stand in their very presence and even the angel’s choir sang with joy. In less than one year from that date, those two homes were blessed with babies. ( Life Everlasting p. 39)
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