"Before reaching Salt Lake City, I had heard much of the Mormons, but nothing favorable, so naturally I was determined not to tarry among them. But being left stranded in Salt Lake City by the second party, I had no choice. I accepted work from one good Mormon brother who needed some teams taken to Palmyra where a group of Saints were struggling to begin a new community. While waiting for a chance to return, I took board and lodgings with a good sister who taught me the Gospel by the way she lived it. Under her influence my steeled heart softened, and favorable impressions of the Mormons and their teachings crept in, despite my resolves—though you may be sure I took elaborate care to let no one know of it.

"One night I went with them to a cottage meeting, more to please the good lady than because I was interested, and feeling sure my prejudice against the Mormons would never let them ’get me.’ I listened to the talks indifferently, passive and undisturbed until one brother arose, took my attention, just as Patriarch Holt took it and yours a few Sundays ago, by speaking in tongues, a strange language. The peculiar thing about it was that I understood him. I knew from the very beginning that he was speaking to me and telling me in a language that no one else seemed to understand, that I must not deny the voice trying to speak to me, nor be deaf to what it was trying to say. The plan of salvation was being shown to me, he said, and a way was being opened for me to accept it, and if I did I would be the means of taking the Gospel to my mother and be a savior to her.

"The idea shook me, and left my so disturbed I was not aware of his closing. Not until the hush and quiet that followed could no longer be ignored. Then I came to with a start. The brother was asking who in the room had the interpretation to the sermon in tongues I had listened to. I was amazed that no one answered. I was sure they must know what I knew and that they were keeping still just to see what I’d do.

"When he pointedly asked me if I didn’t have the interpretation I kept still, too, shaking my head vigorously, as much to convince myself that I had not understood as to deny I had. When the meeting broke up without any interpretation being given, I left the meeting feeling that every eye was boring me in the back, and that they were all wondering why I had denied something I knew to be true. The uncomfortable remembrance of it kept me awake that night, and tossing me about in my bed as I tried to make up my mind what to do. Not until I’d acknowledged the testimony and firm conviction that had come to me did I find rest. Then I went to sleep so soundly that I did not waken until the noise of the family assembling for breakfast awoke me.

"I then satisfied my conscience by a confession I had formulated during the night, and my heart rejoiced with the spirit of peace therein, and for the conviction that my search was over, that the thing for which I had left my home had been found, and that it was something far more precious than the gold I started out to find.

"I fulfilled the promise made to me and became the savior of my mother’s soul. She followed met to Utah, with Lem Redd’s wagon hauling her from the Mississippi River to my home in Panguitch. She was living with me when she died, a firm believer in the principles of the Gospel I had explained to her. She was a happy recipient of the ordinances that insured her salvation in the worlds to come. Amen."

From that day on George made a careful and prayerful study of the Mormon teachings, and became a baptized member and a sincere follower of the doctrines, being baptized by Stephen Markham on May 3, 1853.