165 years ago today - March 18, 1861

Monday the 18th I rode into Farwest & called upon John Whitmer one of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon who was cut off from the Church Some 22 years before he received me very kindly & apeared to be glad to see me I Spent 4 or 5 hours with him in conversation he still testefied that the Book of Mormon is true & that Joseph Smith was a Prophit of the Lord he also Said that he believed that the Elders Preached the Gospel Right when the[y] went out into the World & that Brigham Young was careying out the Doctren & sistom which which Joseph Smith taught but he (Whitmer) did not believe in a mans haveing more than one Wife & finely he said that he & his Brother David often talked about the affairs of the Church & it had been made known unto them that it was wisdom for them to Stay where they were & refered me to the case of the harlot Rahab who hid the Spyes &c I invited him to come to Salt Lake City & pay us a visit he said he would not say that he would not come he did not know
what he might do I bid him good by with a feeling of sorrow to think that a man who was once a Bright & shineing light in the kingdom of God should be so lost to his own interest & the wallfare of his family

[John Whitmer Interview with Jacob Gates, (Jacob Gates Journal, March 18, 1861, MS 1501, LDS Church History Library, Salt Lake City)]