Joseph Smith, Sir:— In order that an individual case may not engross too much of your valuable time, I take the liberty of using this method to acquaint you with the state of my feelings regarding religion.

The words you were kind enough to bestow on me last evening have made a deep and, I trust, lasting impression. The way of salvation has been pointed out to me in a manner perfectly plain and comprehensible, while what sectarians term “mysterious truths,” have been made as clear and intelligible as if written out with a sunbeam. Although I may still be in ignorance, as regards many of the minor points and technicalities of the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, yet, by the blessing of God, I feel that light has been shed upon me sufficient to enable me (by employing the means) to save my immortal soul, and obtain an inheritance with the saints in glory. That light, as was to be expected, has had the effect to render me deeply anxious and solicitious to become united with the brethren of this church in the bonds of the new faith; to the end that I may be permitted to drink the water of life in a state as pure and undefiled as was the original fount, and not coagulated and gross with all the impurities the stream has gathered in traversing countries teeming with paganism and an age dark with the night of barbarism.

I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and have repented in all sincerity, of my sins, which in magnitude are like unto a great mountain with a weight sufficient to crush a nation, but from the “large bounty of indulgent heaven,” I look for forgivness. In the mean time I wait with trembling anxiety the ceremony of baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and all the train of blessings that follow. My ambition is to become a good and useful member of the church, as far as the little strength God has given me will allow, and I have for some time had a presentment, that ere I am gathered to my fathers, it will be my exceeding good fortune to do the Latter Day Saints some signal service, whether it be in the field, the sacred desk, or some more humble walk, I am unable to conjecture. But if such a presentment, (or, if you please, idea,) I cannot divert myself. From the manner in which God revealed his will unto me, I feel a conviction that he has endowed me with some quality or talent, that in some great crisis in the career of the saints, will be called forth unto their good, and unto his glory.

With many sentiments of respect and esteem,