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Bishop Henry Ballard

In this story, I quote from an article in LDS living magazine. It illustrates, once again, the influence of those on the other side of the veil, working for our salvation and I might add, all those of you, as President Nelson said, “…who are doing anything whether on this side of the veil or the other to help people along the covenant path, you are gathering Israel; how beautiful upon the mountains are your feet too.”

Shortly after, the Logan Utah Temple was dedicated on May 17, 1884. Bishop Henry Ballard of the Logan’s Second Ward was busy interviewing members and writing recommendations when his young daughter Ellen delivered a newspaper to him. The paper was the Newbury Weekly News which was published in Henry’s birthplace of Newberry, Berkshire, England. The paper’s date was May 15, 1884. That had only been printed three days earlier.

Now, at that time a typical trip across the ocean and then across the plains took weeks if not months. Bishop Ballard’s young daughter explained that she had been playing on the sidewalk when two strangers handed her the paper and gave strict instructions that she should deliver it to no one except her father. Upon inspection, Bishop Ballard found the newspaper to contain a story with the names of 60 people and their accompanying dates of birth and death.

The next day, Bishop Ballard sought an explanation from temple President Marriner W. Merrill. After listening to the bishop’s story, President Merrill said,

“Brother Ballard, someone on the other side is anxious for their work to be done and they knew that you would do it if this paper got into your hands.”

Bishop Henry Ballard made certain the temple work was complete and later it was learned that most of the people named in the newspaper were related to the Ballard family.

Now, there’s a postscript to that story.

More than 50 years later, the great grandson of Henry Ballard, young M. Russell Ballard was serving a mission in England and he made a visit to the offices of the Newbury Weekly News. He said:

“I visited the Newbury Weekly News and verified that the newspaper had never been post-dated or mailed out early. I held the issue of 15 May 1884 in my hands and photographed it. There is no mortal way in 1884 it could have reached Logan from Newberry within three days.”