Ep 4. The Resurrection of Ella Jensen

Hello! And welcome to the Faith Promoting Stories Podcast. I’m your host, Caden Beardall. Let’s dive right in.

Introduction

Story 10 - The Resurrection of Ella Jensen

At 3:00 a.m. on March 3, 1891, 19 year-old Ella Jensen informed her caretaker that she would be exiting mortality at 10 a.m. the next day.

Ella had been afflicted by scarlet fever for several weeks. But just as it was according to her premonition, she perished at 10 a.m. the following day.

Meanwhile, President Lorenzo Snow was speaking at a Stake Conference when a note was passed to him, requesting that he announce the funeral services for Ella.

President Snow had other plans. Instead of announcing the services, he informed the congregation that he had “urgent business to attend to” and left abruptly with another stake officer.

Arriving two hours after Ella’s passing, President Snow anointed her motionless head and offered a prophetic command: “Dear Ella, I command you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to come back and live. Your mission is not ended. You shall yet live to perform a great mission.”

An hour later, Ella arose, comically disgruntled, saying “Where is Brother Snow? Why did he call me back? I was happy and did not want to come back.”

This resurrection represented a destined miracle for President Snow, fulfilling a promise in his patriarchal blessing that “the dead shall arise and come forth at thy bidding.”

Though we could glean a number of precious insights from this story, I am most struck by the rationale of President Snow’s miracle.

Ella was returned to the earth for her work was not finished yet.

Do you realize, that if you are considering, or ever find yourself considering, a voluntary termination of your own mortal probation, you are robbing God and your fellow man of your irreplaceable role?

Satan would have you believe, that in your endless capacity for creation, love, and labor, that you are somehow humanity’s anomaly with no worth.

No lie could be blacker. 

If you feel hopeless, if you are convinced that you have no place, or that you are untalented, too stupid, or ugly to be of any worth to anyone, you are grossly incorrect.

You are culmination of a Diety’s most sacred labor, formed stroke by stroke, by the hands of Him who does not err.

You are ineffably, cosmically, beautiful.

Story 11 - The Oakland Temple Miracle

At 91 years old, President David O. McKay could barely speak, breathe, or stand. 

Despite his feeble condition, President McKay was expected to offer the dedicatory prayer of the Oakland Temple, a feat that some speculated would be impossible in his infirmity.

Yet, armed with an oxygen tank and a pharmaceutical cocktail, the aging prophet felt inspired to carry on.

The night prior to the dedication, President McKay could barely manage a brief press conference. 

But, with the determination becoming of a servant of God, President McKay took to the pulpit the next morning, his arms cleaving to its edges for support. 

And then, before an anxiously onlooking body of saints, he spoke.

Words came like water, with strength and vigor, in ultimate supplication. The prophet enunciated, “as if it had been 10 years before,” some reported.

For an hour, the prophet dedicated a temple of God, his body seemingly rising to meet the heavens he spoke with.

So should you arise, no matter how apparently weak you may feel.

It’s likely that you may feel enervated by the prevalence of evil in the world.

But can you not recognize what that says of you? Here you are, a disciple of Jesus Christ, sent to the earth in its climactic chapters.

Will you let evil overcome you? Or will you rise to your pivotal role in preparing the world for Christ?

If you have sinned and feel too expired for service, do you not believe that Jesus did what He did so that you can be restored?

Like President McKay, now is your time to rise. There is a God to meet you. There are people who need you.

And God is mighty to raise.

Story 12 - Elder Talmage's Quarantine

In 1892, an epidemic of diphtheria had reached its peak.

When left untreated, the disease possessed a mortality rate of 50-90% in children. 

Elder James E. Talmage, then only a professor, discovered that a neighboring family were stricken by the disease.

Because of the virulent nature of the illness, no person dared to enter the home for fear that their own wellbeing would be comprised.

This family did not share Brother Talmage’s faith. They were complete strangers to him.

Yet, compelled only by his commitment to kindness, Brother Talmage was unable to stand idly by. Despite the danger, he entered the home.

When he arrived, he was met with a harrowing scene: one of the toddlers was already deceased, and the remaining two children lay in critical condition.

He went to work. He began cleaning the house, prepared the young body for burial, provided for the other sick children, and stayed the day through.

When he arrived the next morning, he was grieved to discover that another child had passed.

The only remaining child was suffering terribly. He later wrote;

“She clung to my neck, oftentimes coughing germs on my face and clothing, yet I could not put her from me.”

“During the half hour immediately preceding her passing, I walked the floor with the little creature in my arms. She passed in agony.”

He then returned home, bathed in zinc, quarantined, and suffered through his own episode of the illness.

What is the utility of kindness?

Elder Talmage, despite his heroic efforts, was unable to preserve the lives of any of the children.

He put himself in mortal peril for a day of kindness.

Jesus said that whosever shall save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for Christ’s sake shall find it.

Perhaps Jesus’s statement was not only a commentary on martyrdom, but a template for life.

When we live for ourselves, we are lifeless. But if we give our life to others, then are we truly alive.