Description

I Saw Three Strangers

Marie Madaline Cardon was born July 6, 1834, at St Bartholomew, Italy. She was a descendant
of the Vaudois or Waldensians; a mountain people who had existed and suffered for centuries
high up in the Alps for the sake of their religion. When Marie was about six years-old she
received a very remarkable manifestation that would change not only her life, but also that of her
family for generations. These are her words.

I was upstairs in bed. A strange feeling came over me. It appeared that I was a young
woman instead of a mere child. I thought I was on a small strip of meadow close to our
vineyard, keeping my father’s milk cows from the vineyard. It seemed that I was sitting on
the grass reading a Sunday School book. I looked up and saw three strangers in front of me.
As I looked into their faces I dropped my eyes instantly, being very much frightened.
Suddenly the thought came to me that I must look at them that I might remember them in
the future. I raised my eyes and looked them straight in the face. One of them, seeing that I
was afraid, said: “Fear not for we are the servants of God and have come from afar to
preach unto the world the everlasting Gospel, which has been restored to the earth in these
last days, for the redemption of mankind.” They told me that God had spoken from the
heavens and had revealed His everlasting Gospel to the young boy Joseph Smith. That it
should never more be taken away again; but that His kingdom would be set up and that all
the honest in heart would be gathered together. They told me that I would be the means of
bringing my parents and family into this great gathering. Moreover, the day was not far off
when we would leave our homes and cross the great ocean. We would travel across the
wilderness and go to Zion where we could serve God according to the dictates of our
conscience. When they had finished their message to me they said they would return soon
and visit us. They took some small books from their pockets and gave them to me, saying:
“Read these and learn”. They then disappeared, instantly.

Marie shared the dream with her family who believed her. Then in 1850, word reached the
family of three Latter-day Saint elders preaching in a neighboring town. Greatly excited, her
father dressed in his Sunday best and went to find them. He listened to them preach and then
asked them to come home with him. On the way, he told them of Marie’s dream. When they
entered the house, Marie was not there. She said,

When the elders reached our home that Sunday evening they inquired for me, being
interested in what my father had told them concerning me. I was not at the house at the
time, but I was out on a small strip of meadow land. It seemed to be the identical spot I had
seen in that vision of childhood so many years before. I was sitting on the grass reading a
Sunday School book. I did not hear them until my father said to the elders, “This is my
daughter who had the vision or dream concerning the strangers, who told me to “Fear not
for they were the servants of God.” Upon being introduced I shook hands with each of
them. They took some tracts or small books from their pockets and spoke the very same
words I heard in the dream or vision.

Not long after, Marie and the members of her family were baptized, notwithstanding the fierce
opposition and persecution by mobbers and ministers. One Sabbath as they gathered for worship a
mob surrounded the house “yelling and shrieking most hideously.” They demanded the elders and the girl who was helping them be turned over. Marie, with Bible in hand walked out and faced the
mob. She relates:

It became evident that they were on the verge of pouncing upon the elders. I raised my right
hand in which I held my bible and commanded them to depart. I told them that the elders
were under my protection and that they could not harm one hair of their heads. All stood
aghast…. God was with me. He placed those words in my mouth, or I could not have
spoken them. All was calm, instantly. That strong ferocious body of men stood helpless
before a weak, trembling, yet fearless girl. The ministers turned and asked the mob to leave
and they dispersed with sullen faces, in fear and in shame, broken in pride and remorsed in
spirit…. Soon all was quiet, we had met and vanquished the enemy and were permitted to
finish our meeting in peace.

Marie and her family came to Zion in 1854. She married Charles Guild in 1855 and lived out her
days in Piedmont, Wyoming—a mighty woman in Zion with a noble posterity.

Marie wrote the following in her biography:

This account is written for the benefit of you, my children, in order to show you that our
Heavenly Father has had great love for His children upon the whole earth, in revealing the
fullness of the Gospel to the prophet Joseph Smith…. I bear my testimony unto you and
unto the whole world that God has spoken to His prophet Joseph Smith and has revealed
unto him the fullness of the Gospel.

Source:

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/KWJY-L56