Wilford Woodruff Story

When Wilford Woodruff Called His Wife Back from the Dead + What She Saw

byKatie Lambert | Dec. 28, 2018

While traveling from Maine to Illinois in 1838, President Wilford Woodruff experienced many hardships, including the death of his wife. 

Though it appeared his wife had died from an unknown illness after weeks of sickness, President Woodruff listened to a powerful spiritual prompting and brought his wife back from the dead in the most remarkable way.  

The following is an excerpt from President Wilford's book Wilford Woodruff:Leaves from My Journal which details the experience, along with what his wife saw after passing into the spirit world. On the 23rd of November my wife, Phoebe, was attacked with a severe headache, which terminated in brain fever. She grew more and more distressed daily as we continued our journey. It was a terrible ordeal for a woman to travel in a wagon over rough roads, afflicted as she was. At the same time our child was also very sick.The 1st of December was a trying day to my soul. My wife continued to fail, and in the afternoon, about 4 o’clock, she appeared to be struck with death. I stopped my team, and it seemed as though she would breathe her last lying in the wagon. Two of the sisters sat beside her, to see if they could do anything for her in her last moments.I stood upon the ground, in deep affliction, and meditated. I cried unto the Lord, and prayed that she might live and not be taken from me. I claimed the promises the Lord had made unto me through the prophets and patriarchs, and soon her spirit revived, and I drove a short distance to a tavern, and got her into a room and worked over her and her babe all night, and prayed to the Lord to preserve her life.In the morning the circumstances were such that I was under the necessity of removing my wife from the inn, as there was so much noise and confusion at the place that she could not endure it. I carried her out to her bed in the wagon and drove two miles, when I alighted at a house and carried my wife and her bed into it, with a determination to tarry there until she either recovered her health or passed away. This was on Sunday morning, December 2nd.After getting my wife and things into the house and wood provided to keep up a fire, I employed my time in taking care of her. It looked as though she had but a short time to live.She called me to her bedside in the evening and said she felt as though a few moments more would end her existence in this life. She manifested great confidence in the cause she had embraced, and exhorted me to have confidence in God and to keep His commandments.To all appearances, she was dying. I laid hands upon her and prayed for her, and she soon revived and slept some during the night.December 3rd found my wife very low. I spent the day in taking care of her, and the following day I returned to Eaton to get some things for her. She seemed to be gradually sinking and in the evening her spirit apparently left her body, and she was dead.The sisters gathered around her body, weeping, while I stood looking at her in sorrow. The spirit and power of God began to rest upon me until, for the first time during her sickness, faith filled my soul, although she lay before me as one dead.I had some oil that was consecrated for my anointing while in Kirtland. I took it and consecrated it again before the Lord for anointing the sick. I then bowed down before the Lord and prayed for the life of my companion, and I anointed her body with the oil in the name of the Lord. I laid my hands upon her, and in the name of Jesus Christ I rebuked the power of death and the destroyer, and commanded the same to depart from her, and the spirit of life to enter her body.Her spirit returned to her body, and from that hour she was made whole; and we all felt to praise the name of God, and to trust in Him and to keep His commandments.While this operation was going on with me (as my wife related afterwards) her spirit left her body, and she saw it lying upon the bed, and the sisters weeping. She looked at them and at me, and upon her babe, and, while gazing upon this scene, two personages came into the room carrying a coffin and told her they had come for her body. One of these messengers informed her that she could have her choice: she might go to rest in the spirit world, or, on one condition she could have the privilege of returning to her tabernacle and continuing her labors upon the earth. The condition was, if she felt that she could stand by her husband, and with him pass through all the cares, trials, tribulation and afflictions of life which he would be called to pass through for the gospel’s sake unto the end. When she looked at the situation of her husband and child she said: “Yes, I will do it!”At the moment that decision was made the power of faith rested upon me, and when I administered unto her, her spirit entered her tabernacle, and she saw the messengers carry the coffin out at the door.On the morning of the 6th of December, the Spirit said to me: “Arise, and continue thy journey!” and through the mercy of God my wife was enabled to arise and dress herself and walked to the wagon, and we went on our way rejoicing ("Leaves from My Journal," Salt Lake City, 2nd Edition, 1882). 

http://www.ldsliving.com/The-Remarkable-Way-Wilford-Woodruff-Called-His-Wife-Back-from-the-Dead-What-She-Saw/s/85675?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=email

Tender Mercy: By Courtney King Walker

Tender Mercy: When the Spirit Passed a Message to My Grandparents on the Other Side

By Courtney King Walker · December 11, 2018

For years I have struggled with depression. Even with medicine, exercise and therapy sometimes it still hits hard for no reason at all, especially targeting my self worth. One particular low week I went to the temple feeling very emotional about something I was trying to work through at the time. While praying for comfort and relief, the thought came into my head how much I love my Grandparents, who had since passed, but especially how much I loved them when they were on earth with me.

Right then I offered a prayer, asking Heavenly Father to somehow let them know how much I loved them and how grateful I was to be a part of their heritage and to benefit from their sacrifices. At that moment, I felt a witness in my heart that they already knew this, and that my love for them would be the one thing in my life that would help me during my trials.

Later that night I went to bed a little sad, still unable to shake my dark mood. I dreamt I was with a big part of my extended family in an unknown place in the mountains, and all four of my grandparents were there with me. Even though they looked much younger than I remembered, I knew who they were. Grandma was super funny and kept mugging for the camera (I guess we were taking family photos) and being completely different than I ever remember her since I mostly knew her as stern and serious because of an illness she had later in her life.

I remember thinking how perfect her skin looked. I couldn’t figure out why they were here with me rather than in heaven. Somebody explained that they were told they could come back briefly, but couldn’t stay. When I realized they were leaving to go back to heaven again, Grandpa took me in his arms and hugged me. There was this transfer of intense love like no other for at least a couple of minutes, almost like electricity. In that moment I knew without question how much he loved me and how much I loved him.

I woke up immediately after that and wrote everything down because the feelings were so strong that I didn’t want to forget them. As the day went on though, I started doubting my feelings and rationalizing what I’d seen and felt, assuming it was nothing more than a funny dream. However, a few weeks later I read a talk by Elder Melvin J. Ballard in which he spoke of a dream he once had where the Savior embraced him. Elder Ballard described the experience in these words, “I felt a love so intense that I thought the very marrow of my bones would melt.” 

At that moment, the emotions I felt when Grandpa hugged me in my dream came rushing back, almost like a witness. Elder Ballard’s words were the exact words I would have used to describe the love I felt when my grandpa hugged me. That’s when I had no doubt that Grandpa really did somehow send me his love while I was asleep, that Heavenly Father really did send my grandparents the message I’d asked him to send while praying in the temple.

Even now, so many years later, I believe my grandpa wanted to let me know he received my message and then was allowed to send me one of his own. I have no doubt it was a tender mercy sent from Heavenly Father who knew exactly what I needed at a time when I needed it the very most.

https://ldsmag.com/tender-mercy-when-the-spirit-passed-a-message-to-my-grandparents-on-the-other-side/

President Russell M. Nelson Statment

"Ask for the Lord’s help to love those He needs you to love, including those for whom it is not always easy to feel affection. You may even want to ask God for His angels to walk with you where you presently do not want to tread."  Russell M. Nelson, Christmas Devotional 2018 Dec.
https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/christmas-devotional/2018/12/four-gifts-that-jesus-christ-offers-to-you?lang=eng

5 Insights into the Spirit World from Those Who Have Seen It.

By Marlene Bateman Sullivan 

Job posed the question of ages when he asked: "If a man die,
shall he live again?” (Job 14:14) Jesus Christ answered, saying;
 “Because I live, ye shall live 

also” (John 14:19). Like birth, death is a necessary step
in our eternal progression

—a doorway that leads into the next life. The written
accounts we have of early 

Latter-day Saints visiting the spirit world stand as a
witness that life does not 

end with death. When the Savior came to earth,
died, and rose again, 

He opened the doors of salvation, breaking the bands
of death so that we might live.

Brigham Young said, “Our bodies are composed

of visible tangible matter . . .

What is commonly called death does not destroy 

the body, it only causes 

a separation of spirit and body, but the principle 

of life, inherent in the native elements, of which the 

body is composed, still continues” 

(Discourses of Brigham Young, compiled 

by John A. Widstoe, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book 1954),

pp. 368-369).

Since none of us has died, death remains unfamiliar and
unknown. However,

a few people have visited the spirit world through
near-death experiences, 

dreams, and visions. We can learn much about death
and the next life from 

their accounts.

We Are Not Left Alone When We Die

One such insight we learn from these accounts
 is that in the first moments 

after death, newly-departed spirits are often
 met by a guide who escorts

 them to the spirit world.

Lorenzo Dow Young, who had a near-death
experience in the early 

1800s, said:

“In a moment I was out of the body, and fully conscious 

that I had made the change. At once, a heavenly messenger, 

or guide, was by me. I thought and acted as naturally as I had 

done in the body, and all my sensations seemed as complete 

without as with it,” he went on to say, “the personage with 

me was dressed in the purest white. My guide, for so I will 

call him, said ‘Now let us go’” 

(Marlene Bateman Sullivan, Gaze Into Heaven; 

Near-death Experiences in Early Church History, 

(Springville, Utah: Cedar Fort, Inc., 2013), 27-30).

Tom Gibson, who had a near-death experience following a
heart attack, shared that his friend Daniel came to escort him
to the spirit world. He wrote:

“The world was different from this one. I’m not sure how
 I got there . . . I just followed 

Daniel. It seems as if all I had to do was think of where
I wanted to be, and I could go 

there at any speed I wished. . . We continued walking for a
 while and I noticed someone 

on the path ahead of us. . . As we got closer to the individual
on the path, I could see and

 feel that he was a magnificent person, and it was . . .
I felt overwhelmed as I looked at him. 

He was bathed in light. Daniel asked if I knew who that was,             
and I answered, yes;

 it was Jesus Christ.“When we got close to the Savior,
 I felt a tremendous love emanating from him. It’s hard to
 describe, but you could feel it all around him, and I felt a
 similar enormous love for him. I fell at his feet—
not because I thought about it, but because I couldn’t stand”
(Marlene Bateman Sullivan, Gaze Into Heaven;
 Near-death Experiences in Early Church History, op cit. pp. 89-90).

It is comforting to know that loved ones or angels will greet us when we leave 

our mortal bodies and help us know where to go.

The Spirit World Will Be Glorious but Familiar

It is natural to be curious about what the spirit world looks like. Some people

 who visited there have given clear and vivid descriptions, such as Brother 

Pettersson, who said it resembled the world he knew on earth. He wrote:

“There were cities and villages, lakes and rivers, fields 

and gardens, houses and mansions, temples and palaces, 

flowers and animals of great beauty and variety. The people 

were busy. Some were building, some were planting, some 

harvesting” (Marlene Bateman Sullivan, The Magnificent World of Spirits; Eyewitness Accounts of Where We Go When We Die, (Springville, 

Utah: Cedar Fort, Inc., 2016), 87-92).

In 1867, John Powell wrote:

“My spirit then left my body and went with my guide . . . 

Here I beheld the inhabitants. The houses and trees were 

beautiful to behold. I was so amazed and so delighted that 

I requested my guide to permit me to stay and dwell there, 

for all things were far in advance of this world” (Ibid., 84-85).

Tom Gibson, whose near-death experience was mentioned
before, also described these surroundings:

“Daniel next led me to a city. It was a city of light—similar 

to cities on earth in that there were buildings and paths; but 

the buildings and paths appeared to be built of materials 

which we consider precious on earth. They looked like . . . 

that is they resembled marble, and gold, and silver, and other 

bright materials, only they were different—the buildings and 

streets seemed to have a sheen, or to glow. The entire scene was 

one of indescribable beauty. . .

“There was another feeling that went with it. On earth 

there always seems to be something . . . you know how things 

bother you here. There is always some problem troubling you. 

Either its health, or money, or people, or war, or something. 

That was missing there. I felt completely at peace, as 

if there were no problems which were of concern. 

It wasn’t that there were no challenges—it’s just that 

everything seemed to be under control. It was such a 

wonderful feeling that I never wanted to lose it” 

(Marlene Bateman Sullivan, Gaze Into Heaven; 

Near-death Experiences in Early Church History, op cit. pp. 89-90).

There Will Be No Strangers

President Spencer W. Kimball taught us that familial relationships
 and friendships forged on earth will continue on in the next life. He said:

“To the unbeliever [death] is the end of all, associations 

terminated, relationships ended, memories soon to fade 

into nothingness. But to those who have knowledge and faith 

in the promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ, death’s 

meaning is . . . a change of condition into a wider serener sphere 

of action; it means the beginning of eternal life” 

(Edward Kimball, (compiled and edited), 

Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, (Salt Lake City: 

Bookcraft, 1982), 39).

Thomas S. Thomas also testified that relationships endure beyond
this life. He declared:

“The grand greeting you first receive is from your closest 

of kin—father, mother, brother and sisters—and all that are 

near and dear to you who passed from earthly life and arrived 

in the Great Beyond before you.”

He continued, “I realized that I met no strangers in the meeting 

and greeting of the millions of souls there. . . . There were 

two groups of souls I met there. One group had been to earth 

and departed before me from there, and the other group was 

waiting their chance to go to earth. None of either of these 

were strangers to me; I had always known them” 

(Marlene Bateman Sullivan, Gaze Into Heaven; 

Near-death Experiences in Early Church History, op cit., 98-102).

Death is Not a Thing to Fear

We need not fear death, for when we depart this life, we will be
freed from earthly pain and filled with joy. Brigham Young said:

“We shall turn round and look upon it [death] and think, 

when we have crossed it, why this is the greatest advantage 

of my whole existence, for I have passed from a state of 

sorrow, grief, mourning, woe, misery, pain, anguish and 

disappointment into a state of existence where I can enjoy 

life to the fullest extent as far as that can be done 

without a body” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 

vol. 17, 26 volumes, (Liverpool, 1854-86), 142).

Just as a mother forgets the pain of childbirth once her child is in her arms, 

so we will forget the pains of earth life and find comfort and joy.

Thomas S. Thomas also spoke of this:

“All mental powers were restored. The fond memories of the past
returned . . . your soul is endowed with wisdom and knowledge
and filled with everlasting love. . . . 

Distance is no barrier to transmit thought without instruments,
or to travel under your own power. Your vision is magnified
there; your future view is plain; desire for knowledge is
 inexhaustible; you are master of yourself; 

intelligence is the key to all realms which makes
 an endless trail to all advancement and is a place
 of satisfaction and joy to the soul. . . . to the soul. . . . 

Time is figured on a different basis than in earthly life” 

(Marlene Bateman Sullivan, Gaze Into Heaven;
 Near-death Experiences 

in Early Church History, op cit., 98-102).

Death Brings with It Hope, Light, and Love

Perhaps the most important thing we learn from those
who have visited the spirit world is that Heavenly
 Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, are divine 

Beings who love and watch over us and that we can
 live with them again if we follow the example of our
 Savior, Jesus Christ, and obey God’s commandments.

These experiences also teach us that our moments on
earth are just that—moments—and that eternity
 stretches before us. Reading these accounts 

instills upon our minds the importance of making
 more productive use of our time on earth. We can
reevaluate our priorities to direct our time and 

energy growing and mastering ourselves.
 Everyone has sins to repent of, faults to change
 into strengths, and frailties to overcome.

“For behold, this life is the time for men to

prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this 

life is the day for men to perform their labors. . . . if 

we do not improve our time while in this life, then 

cometh the night of darkness wherein there can 

be no labor performed” (Alma 34:32-33).

These accounts comfort our souls with the knowledge that
 in the next life, we can  live in a sphere governed by love
 and light—a place of great beauty and everlasting peace. 

To achieve this blessed state, we would do well to
 follow the admonition of Nephi:

“Wherefore, ye must press forward with a 

steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness 

of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, 

if ye press forward, feasting upon the word of 

Christ and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the 

Father: Ye shall have eternal life” (2 Nephi, 31:20).

http://www.ldsliving.com/5-Insights-into-the-Spirit-World-from-Those-Who-Have-Seen

-It/s/82344?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=email

The Healing Power of Prayer in the Wake of the Haun's Mill Massacre

The Healing Power of Prayer in the Wake of the Haun’s Mill Massacre

By Ted Gibbons · November 4, 2018

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On October 30, 1838, the massacre at Haun’s Mill on Shoal Creek took place. From that event come a number of historical insights, insights about the inhumanity of man, and about the faith of the Saints, and about the love of God. Amanda Smith lost a son and a husband at Haun’s Mill, but she also got in touch with the power of the Lord in a most unusual way. This is her account of something that happened after the attack.

Emerging from the blacksmith shop was my eldest son, bearing on his shoulders his little brother Alma. ‘Oh! my Alma is dead!’ I cried, in anguish. ‘No, mother; I think Alma is not dead. But father and brother Sardius are killed!’ What an answer was this to appal me! My husband and son murdered; another little son seemingly mortally wounded; and perhaps before the dreadful night should pass the murderers would return and complete their work! But I could not weep then . . . The entire hip joint of my wounded boy had been shot away. Flesh, hip bone, joint and all had been ploughed out from the muzzle of the gun, which the ruffian placed to the child’s hip through the logs of the shop and deliberately fired. We laid little Alma on a bed in our tent and I examined the wound. It was a ghastly sight . . .

‘Oh my Heavenly Father,’ I cried, ‘what shall I do? Thou seest my poor wounded boy and knowest my inexperience. Oh, Heavenly Father, direct me what to do!’ And then I was directed as by a voice speaking to me. The ashes of our fire was still smouldering. We had been burning the bark of the shag-bark hickory. I was directed to take those ashes and make a lye and put a cloth saturated with it right into the wound. It hurt, but little Alma was too near dead to heed it much. Again and again I saturated the cloth and put it into the hole from which the hip joint had been ploughed, and each time mashed flesh and splinters of bone came away with the cloth; and the wound became as white as chicken’s flesh. Having done as directed I again prayed to the Lord and was again instructed as distinctly as though a physician had been standing by speaking to me. Near by was a slippery-elm tree. From this I was told to make a slippery-elm poultice and fill the wound with it. My eldest boy was sent to get the slippery-elm from the roots, the poultice was made, and the wound, which took fully a quarter of a yard of linen to cover, so large was it, was properly dressed . . .

I removed the wounded boy to a house, some distance off, the next day, and dressed his hip; the Lord directing me as before. I was reminded that in my husband’s trunk there was a bottle of balsam. This I poured into the wound, greatly soothing Alma’s pain. ‘Alma, my child,’ I said, ‘you believe that the Lord made your hip?’ ‘Yes, mother.’ ‘Well, the Lord can make something there in the place of your hip, don’t you believe he can, Alma?’ ‘Do you think that the Lord can, mother?’ inquired the child, in his simplicity. ‘Yes, my son,’ I replied, ‘he has showed it all to me in a vision.’ Then I laid him comfortably on his face and said: ‘Now you lay like that, and don’t move, and the Lord will make you another hip.’ So Alma laid on his face for five weeks, until he was entirely recovered—a flexible gristle having grown in place of the missing joint and socket, which remains to this day a marvel to physicians.

On the day that he walked again I was out of the house fetching [p.796] a bucket of water, when I heard screams from the children. Running back, in affright, I entered, and there was Alma on the floor, dancing around, and the children screaming in astonishment and joy. It is now nearly forty years ago, but Alma has never been the least crippled during his life, and he has traveled quite a long period of the time as a missionary of the gospel and a living miracle of the power of God. I cannot leave the tragic story without relating some incidents of those five weeks when I was a prisoner with my wounded boy in Missouri, near the scene of the massacre, unable to obey the order of extermination. All the Mormons in the neighborhood had fled out of the State, excepting a few families of the bereaved women and children who had gathered at the house of Brother David Evans, two miles from the scene of the massacre. To this house Alma had been carried after that fatal night. In our utter desolation, what could we women do but pray? Prayer was our only source of comfort; our Heavenly Father our only helper. None but he could save and deliver us.

One day a mobber came from the mill with the captain’s fiat: ‘The captain says if you women don’t stop your d——d prayer he will send down a posse and kill every d——d one of you!’ And he might as well have done it, as to stop us poor women praying in that hour of our great calamity. Our prayers were hushed in terror. We dared not let our voices be heard in the house in supplication. I could pray in my bed or in silence, but I could not live thus long. This godless silence was more intolerable than had been that night of the massacre. I could bear it no longer. I pined to hear once more my own voice in petition to my Heaven Father. I stole down to a corn field, and crawled into a stalk of corn.’ It was as the temple of the Lord to me at that moment. I prayed aloud and most fervently. When I emerged from the corn a voice spoke to me. It was a voice as plain as I ever hear one. It was no silent, strong impression of the spirit, but a voice, repeating a verse of the Saint’s hymn:

That soul who on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I cannot, I will not, desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake! (from “How Firm a Foundation”)

(LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, Andrew Jenson, Vol. 2, p.793-796)

https://ldsmag.com/the-healing-power-of-prayer-in-the-wake-of-the-hauns-mill-massacre/

Ex-CIA Agent Tim Ballard the Power of Angels

How Surrounding

Himself with 

Darkness

Has Taught 

Ex-CIA 

Agent Tim 

Ballard

the Power of 

Angels

byLDS Living Staff | Oct. 31, 2018

Makes You ThinkMormon Life

Tim Ballard is a member of a church that often teaches the
 importance of “standing in holy places,” but in his fight against
child slavery, he spends a lot of time in dark spaces. However, in
the second episode of All In, Tim Ballard told LDS Living host
Jamie Armstrong that he often feels the Spirit most in those moments.
 In fact, Ballard went as far as to say that he wouldn’t be able to
 do what he does in his work with Operation Underground
Railroad if he didn’t have “a powerful faith in the Atonement
 and in the Savior.”

JA: You’re interacting with evil people, and you’re seeing the
 darkest things in the world. How do you not fall apart?

TB: I’ve watched guys and girls in this line of work who
quit and they lose their faith. How could a loving God allow
 this to happen? There must not be a God. You’ve got to
 understand the things we see. It’s incomprehensible. . . .
 People used to ask me, how do you do this? How do
you sit toe-to-toe with a trafficker and buy and sell children
and not become dark? And I couldn’t answer that question
 for a long time, because if I gave my honest answer, they
 would think I was crazy because the answer was, ‘Man,
 I feel really good when I’m doing that’ and [they’d think],
 ‘What are you? Some kind of crazy nut that you feel good
doing that?’ It wasn’t until later, I was reading the scriptures
 and pondering and I started learning or relearning and
internalizing the doctrine of angels and what [an] angel’s job is.
If you read the Book of Mormon and you pick the five principles
 that the Lord definitely wants us to believe, the five doctrinal
 truths, angels has to be on that list. Think of how many
times we are taught, ‘This is real; I send them to you. These
 are real people.’ So, I started recognizing, ‘Oh, that’s what I’m
 feeling. That’s why I feel actually closer to God as I’m
witnessing the worst things.’ I mean I’m toe-to-toe with a trafficker,
 the kids are in the back room, he’s talking to me about what
he’s done to these kids, showing me videos, and I’ve got to
look at those videos and laugh and act like I’m his friend.
It’s the only way I’m going to get these kids out. And
I’m feeling, what I now recognize, the whole time
the Spirit and light. And the closer I get to the dark, the
brighter those angels are because they’re with those kids
and they’re sitting encouraging me and blocking him,
the trafficker, so he doesn’t see me, what’s in my eyes.
Once I opened up to that doctrine and then you go in
with that knowledge, then you recognize it in a way that’s
sure. And then you start praying for it. It’s a lesson for
everybody, really. You don’t have to be working in the
darkness of sex slavery to apply this principle. This is
something that everybody can and should employ because
there’s darkness around all of us.

http://www.ldsliving.com/How-Surrounding-
Himself-with-Darkness-Has-Taught-Ex-CIA-Agent-
Tim-Ballard-the-Power-of-Angels/s/89629?
utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=email

The Experience of William L. Hansen

The following experience of William L. Hansen comes from the Book “Spirit World Manifestations: Accounts of Divine Aid in Genealogical and Temple Work” by Joseph Heinerman. It was first published in the Deseret News Church Section, May 27, 1933.)

“I had only passed my twentieth birthday a few months when I received a letter from “Box B,” signed by President John Taylor, asking me to report as soon as possible for a mission in Europe.
My father and brother, Nephi J. Hansen, arranged to buy all my earthly possessions, consisting of a good team of horses, harness and wagon and a new red two-wheel driving cart.

A few weeks after receiving this call, I was set apart by Apostle Abraham H. Cannon for the Swiss and German mission.  In company with my cousin, Angus J. Cannon and others, we were soon on our way to far-away Europe.

I think I shall never forget that parting at the railroad station of “Bahnoff” in Bern, when Lewis M. Cannon put my cousin and bosom companion, Angus J., on a train and sent him off to Germany and a short time after, putting me on another train going in the opposite direction to Geneva, on the Swiss border of France. ….

Elder Hansen stayed with a Brother Ripplinger, a young, unmarried Swiss convert.

I was fed and cared for as well as poor Brother Ripplinger could do under the circumstances.  My room was very small and close with no outside window.  My meals were also so different than I had ever been used to, and as we had been asked to leave what allowance money we did have at the mission office (as the missionaries were then traveling without purse or scrip) there was not much opportunity to make any further selections.

And so the days and weeks passed. Not being able to have an English conversation with anyone and this being my first experience away from home and loved ones, I began to be very, very homesick indeed.

Again and again I felt an irresistible feeling or longing to run away from it all and return home.  I could not sleep nor eat and poor Ripplinger began to be very much concerned about me.

One morning I felt an irresistible desire to take a long walk out in the country for the day.  While I was walking down a long lane in a very quiet farming district, I saw a beautiful grove of trees on a gentle slope away off to my left. An irresistible feeling prompted me to go there, and upon reaching the grove, I began to feel very happy.  I took off my hat and upon my bended knees began to pour out my heart to my Heavenly Father in most fervent prayer.  Realizing that no one could hear me, I wept aloud again and again with a really contrite heart and my whole soul was filled.

I arose to my feet, and as I did so, looking a little to my right, I saw my angel mother standing beside me.  An indescribable joy came over me and I cried aloud, “My mother!”  She answered in unmistakable tones, “My dear son, Willie.” As I was only 6 years old when my mother died, I could not remember her features very well, but as I looked upon that heavenly personage, I knew it was my own dear mother.

She was clothed in a long white robe, her dark wavy hair hung over her shoulders, her dark blue eyes were clear and expressive.  Her face was well rounded without the sign of a wrinkle and her whole countenance radiated a divine something that I shall never be able to describe.  My mother expressed also her joy at being permitted to visit me upon this occasion, that my true condition was known in heaven and she had been chosen to answer my prayers.

She then said, “The evil one has tried very hard to overpower you and to discourage you in honorably fulfilling your great mission, but he has been thwarted in his evil designs.”  Further, that I had been freed from this snare and was to be preserved to fulfill an honorable and successful mission.

My mother’s poise was so natural and so divinely graceful, her conversation so complete and consoling for this occasion, that it really seemed perfect and complete in every sense.  No mother could ever have understood her son better and no mother was ever able to administer more completely that joy and something so essential in my time of need as did my mother to me on this sacred meeting.

Thus, two or more hours were spent together, by far the most memorable of my whole life.  Mother also said she knew I was having a hard time with the German language and asked me to meet her at the grove again the next day at the same hour as she also wanted to be helpful to me in this.  She explained that I would not see her again just as I saw her that day, as this personal appearance and visitation was by a special and divine appointment. Then my mother disappeared exactly as she had come – almost unperceived.

The next appointment was sacredly kept, and after my humble prayer of gratitude, my mother began to communicate with me again.  This time I could not behold her person nor hear her voice just as I had done on the preceding day, but there seemed to be just as divine a presence and an unquestionably clear conversation under a much higher law than we could possibly enjoy in our communications with each other here.

We understood and exchanged thoughts more rapidly, clearly and satisfactorily than Is possible with human voices, for there was no worry about what to say and just how to say it to be properly and clearly understood.

Exactly all that took place on this occasion, I do not remember. But I do know that something did transpire whereby I was able from that time to easily understand, to read and even write this new language (German) and in a most surprising manner to myself and those with whom I came in contact.  This afternoon was almost as wonderful as the former visitation and I was again requested to come once more on the morrow for further instructions and divine assistance.

The following day was the same in every way as the second day. This time it was spent in recalling teachings I had received at home, in Sunday School, Primary and other places, pertaining to the principles, beauties and divinity of the Gospel I had come out to preach.

This was to be my last visit with my mother at this place. After many more loving things had been said to me, again renewing the exhortations and blessings I had received, she again expressed her tender motherly love for me and my welfare.  Then she left me alone to rejoice, to reflect and profit by the divine and wonderful experience.

I visited often this sacred place and always felt very happy in prayer and reading aloud the German books I had purchased, principally the Book of Mormon, which seemed to be as clear to me now in German, as it had in my own language.

I had suddenly become a new man with renewed ambitions and ability to speak, read, write and understand the German language, even to the amazement of Brother Ripplinger and almost everyone with whom I came in contact. I began to read the evening newspaper aloud to Brother Ripplinger and his fifteen tailors, much to their amusement and surprise for they told me I was reading it almost perfectly, although there was much I could not yet understand.

That Christmas, I was called to the mission office at Bern, Switzerland for the holidays.  They all seemed surprised and delighted at the unusual success I had had in acquiring the language.  I remember after speaking at one of the conference sessions which was held at this time, how the brethren bore testimony of the wonderful power of the Lord in helping his servants acquire a knowledge of the language, using me as new evidence.”

(“Spirit World Manifestations:  Accounts of Divine Aid in Genealogical and Temple Work” by Joseph Heinerman, pages. 185-189.)

https://ldsmag.com/a-homesick-missionarys-incredible-visitor-from-the-spirit-world/

We can be angels to each other

When Elder Holland Spoke of Angels Among Us and the "Angel" Who Rescued a Lost Boy

byLDS.org | Sep. 07, 2018

Mormon Life

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As we begin gearing up for general conference, we will be highlighting past conference talks to help us review, remember, and grow closer to the Spirit so that we can better recognize the Lord's voice and direction this coming October. This talk was given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland in October 2008. (Read the full talk here.) After discussing the myriad ways heavenly angels minister to us in mortality, Elder Holland shared this touching story:

I have spoken here of heavenly help, of angels dispatched to bless us in time of need. But when we speak of those who are instruments in the hand of God, we are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil. Some of them we walk with and talk with—here, now, every day. Some of them reside in our own neighborhoods. Some of them gave birth to us, and in my case, one of them consented to marry me. Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind. . . . May I share with you an account by my friend and BYU colleague, the late Clyn D. Barrus. I do so with the permission of his wife, Marilyn, and their family.

Referring to his childhood on a large Idaho farm, Brother Barrus spoke of his nightly assignment to round up the cows at milking time. Because the cows pastured in a field bordered by the occasionally treacherous Teton River, the strict rule in the Barrus household was that during the spring flood season the children were never to go after any cows who ventured across the river. They were always to return home and seek mature help.

One Saturday just after his seventh birthday, Brother Barrus’s parents promised the family a night at the movies if the chores were done on time. But when young Clyn arrived at the pasture, the cows he sought had crossed the river, even though it was running at high flood stage. Knowing his rare night at the movies was in jeopardy, he decided to go after the cows himself, even though he had been warned many times never to do so.

As the seven-year-old urged his old horse, Banner, down into the cold, swift stream, the horse’s head barely cleared the water. An adult sitting on the horse would have been safe, but at Brother Barrus’s tender age, the current completely covered him except when the horse lunged forward several times, bringing Clyn’s head above water just enough to gasp for air.

Here I turn to Brother Barrus’s own words:

“When Banner finally climbed the other bank, I realized that my life had been in grave danger and that I had done a terrible thing—I had knowingly disobeyed my father. I felt that I could redeem myself only by bringing the cows home safely. Maybe then my father would forgive me. But it was already dusk, and I didn’t know for sure where I was. Despair overwhelmed me. I was wet and cold, lost and afraid.

“I climbed down from old Banner, fell to the ground by his feet, and began to cry. Between thick sobs, I tried to offer a prayer, repeating over and over to my Father in Heaven, ‘I’m sorry. Forgive me! I’m sorry. Forgive me!’

“I prayed for a long time. When I finally looked up, I saw through my tears a figure dressed in white walking toward me. In the dark, I felt certain it must be an angel sent in answer to my prayers. I did not move or make a sound as the figure approached, so overwhelmed was I by what I saw. Would the Lord really send an angel to me, who had been so disobedient?

“Then a familiar voice said, ‘Son, I’ve been looking for you.’ In the darkness I recognized the voice of my father and ran to his outstretched arms. He held me tightly, then said gently, ‘I was worried. I’m glad I found you.’

“I tried to tell him how sorry I was, but only disjointed words came out of my trembling lips—‘Thank you … darkness … afraid … river … alone.’ Later that night I learned that when I had not returned from the pasture, my father had come looking for me. When neither I nor the cows were to be found, he knew I had crossed the river and was in danger. Because it was dark and time was of the essence, he removed his clothes down to his long white thermal underwear, tied his shoes around his neck, and swam a treacherous river to rescue a wayward son.”

http://www.ldsliving.com/When-Elder-Holland-Spoke-of-Angels-Among-Us-and-the-Angel-Who-Rescued-a-Lost-Boy/s/89228?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=email