The Guy Who Watched A Girl Resurrect, A Guy Who Saw the SLC Temple in A Dream, A 3 Nephite-ish Visitor...etc...etc
Oh boy I’ve got 7 good ones for you here. They are 7 stories
that don’t have much in common except for their little-known status and their
faith promoting possibilities. It also kind of shows that God will go after the
one.
But sometimes he will also go after the entire tribe:
"Ten years after the Bear River
Massacre of 1863, in which more than 300 Shoshone men, women, and children were
killed by U.S. troops, a Shoshone elder had a dream. Chief Sagwitch, a survivor
of the 1863 massacre, and other tribal elders felt the dream was inspired and
was instructing the tribe to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. After discussing the matter in great detail, the went looking for a
Latter-day Saint (“Mormon”) man whom they trusted, George Washington Hill, who
lived in Ogden, Utah.
"After
obtaining permission from Church president Brigham Young, Hill travelled to the
tribal lands and performed 102 baptisms and confirmations that day. Over the
next four years, nearly 1,200 more people were baptized from the Shoshone tribe
as well as other tribes in the Intermountain West. Most of these people
eventually settled in Washakie in Box Elder County, Utah, and learned to
cultivate the land and become independent. The U.S. government tried to force
the Native Americans to move to the reservation in Fort Hall, but Brigham Young
refused to let them be booted. Many of their descendant are still in the area.
Many descendants express gratitude to their ancestors for converting and
learning these techniques, claiming that their culture was preserved and their
freedoms protected by not being forced onto a reservation." (https://historyofmormonism.com/2009/08/27/native-americans/)
This one describes the early days of the Church in Mexico.
Lots of revelation going on in this paragraph:
2) Desideria Quintanar Dreamt of a Printing Press
“In
1880, Desideria Quintanar de Yañez was sixty. She lived in a small Hidalgo
village about 75 miles north of Mexico City. One night she dreamed of a
pamphlet being printed in Mexico City—Voz de amonestación (A Voice of
Warning). She sent her son, Jose Maria on what must have seemed like a
wild goose chase to find the men printing the pamphlet. After hunting “for a
long time” he found a Mormon elder correcting printer’s proofs for the pamphlet
and expecting him to arrive. Desideria would have to continue to wait for A
Voice of Warning, but the other pamphlets sent with Jose were enough
for the moment. She too knew he had been successful by revelation and
anticipated Jose’s return. She would become the first woman baptized a member
in the mission.” (https://www.fairmormon.org/conference/august-2017/restoring-the-tapestry)
Here's another one heavy on
revelation – a dream linking to a reader’s digest, of all things:
3) Anthony
Obinna Toured the SLC Temple in A Dream
“Anthony
Obinna was raised in a very traditional African family and had little knowledge
of Christianity. However, in early 1966, he had a dream in which he was visited
by a personage who took him to a beautiful building and showed him everything
in it.
“One day, he
picked up an old September 1958 copy of the Reader’s Digest. He
opened it and saw a picture of the same beautiful building he had been shown in
his dream. The heading was “The March of the Mormons.” He had never heard the
word “Mormons” before, but he started to read the story because of the picture
of the building. He discovered that the article was all about The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Brother Obinna stated: “From the time I
finished reading the story, I had no peace of mind any longer. My whole
attention was focused on my new discovery. I rushed out immediately to tell my
brothers, who were all astonished to hear the story.”” (https://africasoutheast.lds.org/beautiful-building-in-his-dream)
Not many people have an experience
seeing the Lord – awake or in a dream. Fewer put it to paper. Luckily, Robinson
had a quill, paper and time to write:
4) Joseph Lee Robinson Sees
Christ
“I remarked that I
had prayed earnestly to the Lord, and that I had received a testimony
that God would pour
out his Spirit and cause a reformation in this place, which came to
pass a few years
after. Also I saw the Lord in a bright vision soon after I was baptized
into the Church of
Jesus Christ. It seemed to be just as I knew Him as soon as I saw Him.
He turned and came to
the house. He was a man as he was when He was upon the
earth. He was a
beautiful, heavenly man. He had a new book, white and clean. He held
some argument with
some of the family. His appearance, questions and answers were
well worthy the Son
of God. After He had been there awhile, I met Him in the door and
embraced and kissed
Him. He did me also. I asked Him some questions. He answered
them very wisely and
then He was gone. I was the only one that knew Him, but I knew I
had seen my Saviour,
Jesus, and I was glad I defended the truth which they called Mor-
monism boldly and
manfully and was faithful and very much devoted to the cause of
This one I really like, but then I have
a soft spot for mysterious, out of nowhere, visitor stories. Stories like these
ones. It fits in perfectly:
5) Gustavus Adolphus Perry Had A Strange Visitor
“Elder [L. Tom] Perry’s great-great-grandfather,
Gustavus Adolphus Perry, and his family shared in a wonderful experience while
living in Lewis Essex, New York, in 1830, which ultimately prepared them for
the coming of two Mormon missionaries two years later. In the Perry family
history is written:
““The front door
opened and they heard someone coming through the house toward the kitchen where
the family was assembled. When he entered they saw that it was an old man with
a white flowing beard. Although it was a stormy night there were no signs of
raindrops on his clothes. He said, ‘God bless you’ and asked for food and if he
could spend the night with them. Although they were poor and had little bread
they gave him food and shelter. When he came in he had a knapsack on his back
with a little pup which he gave to the children to play with. During the
evening he took from his pocket a book from which he read to them, telling them
it was soon to come forth and telling them to get one at their first
opportunity. As he was leaving them the next morning he promised them that they
would never want for bread, which promise was literally fulfilled. That very
day a man who owed them some money asked if they would take wheat for the debt.
““Sometime after the
visit of the old gentleman two elders came with a Book of Mormon and the family
obtained one. In reading the book they recognized passages of scripture the
stranger had read to them on the night of his visit. In the year 1832, the
family joined the LDS Church.”” (https://latterdaysaintmag.com/when-an-unusual-messenger-brought-news-of-the-book-of-mormon/)
This next one is different from the
rest. It is a Near Death Experience – kind of like these ones.
I
wish I could say who experienced it, but I can’t. Google’s not helping there. I
can tell you where I found it though – click the link at the end of this
section. There are a bunch more like this listed. Although I don’t know who
this was, It has a strong, strong Latter-Day Saint theme.
Pardon my loose transcription:
6) A Fascinating NDE
“…I saw all manners or modes of transportation
crossing the darkened sky, from walking to horses to carriages, stagecoaches,
cars, boats, ships and all sorts of aircraft including a rocket. The rocket was
the fastest of them all. Others went slower but no two of them were going at
the same rate. I also noticed while they were going in the same direction,
almost all of them were stopping or slowing to a crawl along the way. Some went
hardly any distance at all. Others went farther. A few went a great distance,
but only the rocket went all the way from one horizon to the other.
“The angel explained to me that just
like these modes of travel, so we that go to various churches that contain portions
of God's truth travel the spiritual pathway leading to our ultimate heavenly
home. Some of us go rapidly and some of us go slowly. Some go great distances
and others not so far, but our speed and distance are determined by the amount
of God's truth in the church we choose to join. The more of God's truth in the
church we unite ourselves with, and the more we personally adhere to that truth
the faster and farther we will go, and only Christ's perfected church, represented
by the rocket that I had seen, could take us to the highest heavenly realm in
the shortest amount of time. I was told that it was not the right church, but
rather it was a perfect Church which is part of heaven and had been created
there. It was designated as perfect because it was composed of the perfect
organizational structure and taught as saving doctrines and ordinances the
perfect or complete truth known by God the Father and his beloved Son.
“In its perfected state Christ's Church have
been brought to earth and given to mortals, however it did not take long for us
to begin to change the church and caused it to lose its truth. We put up walls
that divided the church as we sought wealth, honor, glory and worldly lusts as
well as through fears we instilled in each other. In that condition the perfect
church became so weakened that it fragmented in numerous less-perfect churches. I
was told that all of these churches have portions of the truth, but that only the
church as it was created in heaven has all of it. I was told that Christ's Church
is on the earth again today, and if I desired to find it, I would find it…” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jeUZeFj33w&t=449s,
21:00)
Now this next one may be the coolest
old Utah farmer story I’ve ever heard. Before you read it – read this:
Ezekiel 37:
7 So I prophesied as I was
commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and
the bones came together, bone to his bone.
8 And when I beheld, lo, the
sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in
them.
9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy
unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the
Lord God; Come from the
four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
10 So I prophesied as he commanded
me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon
their feet…
Now
look at this:
7)
Zeke Johnson Sees A Girl Resurrect While Plowing a Field
“As I was plowing around I noticed that my
plow had turned out the skeleton of a small child, the skull and backbone, but
most of the bones of course were decayed and gone. Part of the skeleton was
there, so I stopped immediately as my plow had passes it a little. I turned and
looked back against the bar of the plow between the needles. As I was looking
at that little skeleton that I had plowed out and wondering, all of a sudden,
to my surprise, I saw the bones begin to wiggle and they began to change
position and to take different color and within a minute there lay a beautiful
little skeleton. It was a perfect little skeleton.
“Then I saw the inner parts of the natural
body coming in the entrails, etc. I saw the flesh coming on, and I saw the skin
come on the body when the inner parts of the body were complete. A beautiful
head of hair adorned the top of the head, and in about a half minute after the
hair was on the head, it had a beautiful crystal decoration in the hair. It was
combed beautifully and parted on one side. In about half a minute after the
hair was on the head, the child raised up on her feet. She was lying a little
on her left side with her back toward me. Because of this I wasn’t able to
discern the sex of the child, but as she raised, a beautiful robe came down over
her left shoulder and I saw it must be a girl.
“She looked at me and I looked at her, and
for a quarter of a minute we just looked at each other smiling. Then in my
ambition to get hold of her, I said, ‘Oh you beautiful child.’ I reached out as
if I would embrace her and she disappeared. That was all I saw, and I just
stood there and wondered and thought for a few minutes… Now, I couldn’t tell
that story to anyone, because it was so mysterious to me and such. Why should I
have such a miraculous experience?...
“…It was an answer to my prayers. I prayed
incessantly for an answer as to why I was privileged to see that resurrection.
Then I was told why. When the child was buried there, it was either in time of
war with the different tribes, or it was wintertime when the ground was frozen,
and they had no tools to dig deep graves. If it were during time of war they
couldn’t possibly take time to dig a deep grave. They just planted the little
body as they could under the circumstances. Then it was done, the sorrowing
Mother knew that it was such a little shallow grave that in her sorrow she
cried out to the little group present, ‘That little shallow grave, the first
beast that comes along will smell her body, and will dig her up and scatter her
to the four winds. Her bones will be scattered all over these flats.’
“There just happened to be a man present
holding the Priesthood. (A Nephite or a Jaredite, I don’t know which, because
they both had been in this country.) This man said, ‘Sister, calm your sorrows.
Whenever that little body is disturbed or uncovered, the Lord will call her up
and she will live.’ Since that time I have taken great comfort, great cheer,
consolation, and satisfaction with praise in my heart and soul, until I haven’t
the words to express it, that it was I that uncovered that little body.”
These 7 experiences are a fascinating
read – but are they true? The authors seem to think so. As unusual as they are,
they kind of fit in with other oddities we’ve posted before, like Church prophets seeing Christ,
people having visions of Joseph Smith before they met him or astounding American Indian Book of Mormon Prophecies.
It can all be pretty faith affirming if
you’re tuned to the right channel.
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