Logan, Utah President Wilford Woodruff Salt L. City. Dear Brother: Please inform me, when you wish me to start on my mission to Germany. I enclose a letter from Brother Gibbs, in which I was informed to start in October, but inasmuch as I did not receive any further advice, I am still here. I understand that there is a Company

PRESIDENT WILFORD WOODRUFF Next arose and said as the funeral ser- vices on this occasion not only em- braced the death of Brother David Hoagland Cannon, whose tabernacle now laid before the congregation, but a great many other Elders who had yielded up their lives while preaching the Gospel to the nations of the earth, an endeavor had been made to publish these cases as far as they had come to the knowledge of the authorities, and Apostle Richards would therefore read to those assembled the list already furnished. After this Brother Grant would read one of the last letters written home from abroad by the late David H. Cannon.

President Wilford Woodruff Dear Brother Your favor of October 28 informing me that it was your desire that I should go on a mission to the Southern States, and that Dec 3rd was the date fixed up- on, for the departure of myself and others called to the same labor. While deeply impressed with my own week- ness to perform what is desired of me, I feel gratified that I am deemed worthy to be called to go abroad on a mission. I will therefore respond, and will shape my affairs, so as to be ready to go on the date named

PRESIDENT WILFORD WOODRUFF, After quoting the words, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth, yea saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labors and their works do follow them," [Revelation 14:13] said those present had already heard quite as good a sermon as he himself could preach in the letter just read from their departed brother whose taber- nacle was before them, and whose spirit had entered upon its mission on the other side of the veil. To Presi- dent George Q. Cannon, his family, and the relatives of all those dead ones whose names had just been read in their hearing, he would say, if the veil were removed and they could see their departed ones in the spirit world, they would rejoice with every senti- ment of their heart at having had the privilege of being the parents, brothers and sisters of those who had entered upon their labors and were at work therein today. He would not attempt on that occasion to ta[l]k about any of their brethren in particular who had left this sphere of action and entered upon their ministerial labors beyond. Those who died in the Lord hardly tasted of death. When the spirit left the body it entered into the presence of the righteous. There was a work on the other side of the veil belonging to this dispensation as well as to all others; and our Savior Himself spent but a very short time in the flesh—only three and a half years —after he began his ministry before He laid down His life, when He was cru- cified and His blood was shed for the redemption of the world. He then entered immediately upon His work, preaching to "the spirits in prison," and when His body was resurrected He ascended to His Father. The Savior's work had never ceased from that day until now. That was an en- sample to all men under heaven who had received the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who had received the Priest- hood and been called to labor for the salvation of the world. He (the speaker) had listened to the reading of several letters from their departed brother, one of which had been read that morning. Those to his father concerning his mission were deeply interesting to them all, as show- ing the position the deceased occupied, his great zeal, and his desire to [l]eave the souls of men. Brother Cannon's mission extend- ed over but a few months, from the time he entered the Master's vine- yard until his spirit left its tabernacle. But during that brief period he per- formed an excellent work; he opened a good many doors and brought souls into the Kingdom. The speaker thought that if those whose sons and daughters died in the Lord and were taken from among them could compre- hend the work laid out for them by our heavenly Father, they would feel thoroughly satisfied. There was a great amount of work to be done on the other side of the veil by those who lived in the flesh and labored in this great work upon the earth from the time of Joseph Smith down to the present. Temple work for the dead was an important duty in which a good many of the Latter-Day Saints were engaged, and more or less had to be done in this respect in every age when the Lord had a people on the earth. In these last days this same duty rested upon us. Our fathers who had died without a knowledge of the Gospel had gone into the spirit world, a[n]d we should labor for them here. This they would all learn when they, in their turn, reached the other side of the veil and the books were opened. A number of the Latter-day Saints were taken away in the prime of life, and some- times it seemed that the very best of our boys on earth were called to depart hence. He did not know that they were actually better than those who were left; but certainly they had remained faithful to the end. As to him whose tabernacle now laid before them, he felt that all was right. He was a good and faithful boy, a true Elder in Israel; he labored diligently in the Master's cause up to the last hour that he dwelt in the flesh, and he rejoiced today in the spirit world among the Lord's annointed, the righteous that dwelt there. He felt that Brother George Q. Cannon and his family, the brothers and sistere [sisters] of the deceased, and the relatives of all others who had been called to mourn the loss of their beloved ones, those who had died among the nations of the earth, had all cause to rejoice in that they continued faithful until called hence; and when the books were opened and we could understand these things aright, it would be seen that the hand of the Lord was in it and that what He had done was in accordance with His mind and will. In conclusion, President Woodruff prayed that the comforting influence of the Lord might rest down upon the sorrowing ones, until our bodies and spirits were reunited on the morning of the resurrection.