I was immensely pleased the Elder Jorge T. Becerra used my painting of Brigham’s Dream to illustrate a great principle during his talk at General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A fine man commissioned me to paint this scene. During my research I found Brigham Young’s description in the Journal of Discourses 18:245-246.

Shortly after settling in the Salt Lake Valley and many people wanting to go to California for gold Brigham expressed much concern, thought, reflection and prayer about what he should do about the people after all the trouble and effort they had made coming so far.

About that time Brigham had a dream. He had a few sheep north of the city and he wanted to get some goats to go with the flock. In the dream he had gone north of the city of Salt Lake to check on his sheep and he meets brother Joseph Smith first LDS Prophet who had died a few years before. Joseph was on a wagon and behind the wagon Brigham saw and heard a great flock of sheep and there were some goats among them. He noticed many different kinds of sheep and goats. Some with large white beautiful fleeces looking so lovely and pure. Others of moderate size also pure and white. Sheep and goats of all sizes and kinds and colors, some clean and some dirty and inferior.

Joseph stopped the wagon and the sheep kept rushing along until there was an immense herd. Brigham looked Joseph in the eye, and laughed, just as he had many times when Joseph was alive. “Joseph, you have got the darnedest flock of sheep I ever saw in my life; what are you going to do with them, what on earth are they for?”

Joseph looked cunningly out of his eyes, just as he used to at times and said, “They are all good in their places!”

When Brigham woke up the next morning he said, “If they want to go to California, let them go , and we will do all we can to save them; I have no more fault to find, the sheep and the goats will run together. As Joseph says, “They are all good in their places.”