[MUSIC PLAYING] In the archives of the Church Historian's office, there are some seven thousand pages of the journals of Wilfred Woodruff. The record he kept was invaluable for himself, his family, and the whole Church. Though in 1856, Elder Woodruff was called as a Church historian, yet from the beginning of his time in the Church, he felt that he had a special stewardship to record the important events of the Restoration. Whenever I heard Joseph Smith preach, or teach, or prophesy, I always felt it my duty to write it. I felt uneasy and could not eat, or drink, or sleep until I did write. And my mind has been so exercised upon this subject that when I heard Joseph Smith teach and had no pencil or paper, I would go home, and sit down, and write the whole sermon almost word for word and sentence by sentence as it was delivered. And when I had written it, it was taken from me. I remembered it no more. This was the gift of God to me. Later in his life, Elder Woodruff described the joy in having kept such detailed journals. Some of the most glorious gospel sermons, truths, and revelations that were given from God to this people, through the mouth of the prophets Joseph, Brigham, Heber, and the Twelve, could not be found upon the earth on record, only in my journals. And they are compiled in the Church history and transmitted to the Saints of God in all future generations. Does not this pay me for my trouble? It does.

In his journal entry for July 5, 1877, he testified: God has inspired me to keep a journal and a history of this Church. And I warn the future historians to give credence to my history of this Church and kingdom, for my testimony is true and the truth of its record will be manifest in the world to come.