"On the first of April, I was notified to take my family and go back to the fort. We got as far as Navajo Springs where I met Captain Haskell. He told me the mission was broken up by the fort. I was given an honorable release. We returned home to Pine Valley and I took my oxen and went to logging. Our daughter Frona was born the twentieth of May, 1876. I worked steady with the oxen until the fall of 1879 hauling logs for the saw mill.
I would like to relate a beautiful, awesome experience on one of my trips to St. George with a load of lumber from my father's mill.
(I may have shared this story before but I believe it is worth repeating.)
I was driving four oxen, and oxen are slow and stubborn, so when I got to the foot of the grade we had to climb, the oxen refused to budge. No amount of nice talk would faze them, so I had to use some strong cuss words and the whip. Finally they started up the hill. We finally made it to the top, and I allowed them to rest a spell. When I started up, I discovered a man walking beside me and he was all dressed up, had on a gray suit, and hat, and his hair was gray. I was startled to say the least, because we were miles from St. George or any other place and I couldn't imagine how he had gotten there. There was no kind of conveyance in sight. He started to talk to me. He said, "I see you had a lot of trouble at the bottom of the hill." "Yes," I said, "and I had a lot of help." "Who," he asked? "I had the devil and all is imps," I said. "Yes," he said, "and that's what I want to talk to you about. Young fellow, you must change your ways and go to the Temple and have your children and wife sealed to you, for the Lord has a big work for you to do." This aroused my curiosity and I had so many questions to ask.
About this time the oxen were getting lazy again so I turned to touch them with the whip, and when I turned back the man was nowhere to be seen. I looked all around, stopped the oxen, climbed up on the lumber and looked in all directions. The place where I was was quite flat country and I could see a long distance, but there was no sign of him. Well, this really gave me food for thought. I really thought and wondered. I could hardly wait until I could get back to Pine Valley. But I did have to get to St. George, unload, let the oxen eat and rest, so I couldn't leave until morning.
As soon as I got home I went directly to my dad (William Burgess, Sr.) and asked him what it all meant. He said, "He is a messenger from our Father in Heaven, and I'm sure he is one of the Nephite Prophets." The next day I went to my mother's father, (Zerah Pulsipher) who was a patriarch. I repeated the story and he said the same, that he was a messenger and was one of the Nephite Prophets. Believe me, I changed my ways. My wife and I went to the temple and we were married for time and eternity and had our children sealed to us. Also the twins we lost.
Years later when I was fulfilling my calling, I always walked to and from the temple. I was on the east side of the temple about ready to go in when this same man joined me and said he was very glad to see me working in the temple. Again I was going to ask some questions, but he disappeared right before my eyes.
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