In the first issue of Zion's Trumpet in 1855, Dan Jones declares that he was beginning the year "with greater desire and confidence" than ever before. Despite expressions of frustration and disappointment throughout the 1855 volume, there are many segments in which Dan Jones's unflagging optimism still appears. Jones's accounts have particular significance in providing a glimpse into a segment of his life not recorded elsewhere. For example, Jones went to Nauvoo in 1843 and made personal acquaintance with the Prophet Joseph Smith, with whom he formed a friendship that would take him to carthage to become the recipient of Joseph's final prophecy in mortality—that Jones would survive the events of the next few days and return to Wales to fulfill the mission to which he had been previously called. As with the English translation of the seven preceding volumes of Zion's Trumpte, this 1855 volume is published in a "facsimile translation" format to provide the reader with something of the appearance and flavor of the original Welsh publication.