Description

Come Back, Ella, Come Back

March 3, 1891, near Brigham City Utah. It was about three o’clock in the morning when Ella Jensen, 19 years of age, and grievously ill with Scarlet Fever suddenly sat up in bed and announced, “They are coming to get me at ten o’clock this morning.” When asked who was coming to get her, Ella proclaimed, “Uncle Hans Jensen and the messengers. I am going to die, and they are coming at ten o’clock to get me and take me away.”

Ella insisted on spending the rest of her time in mortality preparing to die. With the help of her nurse she brushed and fixed her hair. Then she called each of her family members and bid them goodbye. The last one to arrive was her brother, Budd. As he walked in, she “threw her arms around her brother’s neck, kissed him, and then fell back on her pillow—dead. It was just ten o’clock.”

The family grieved at her loss. Her father, Jacob Jensen, set out for Brigham City. President Lorenzo Snow was in a meeting at the Tabernacle. His intent was to ask President Snow if he would speak at the funeral. Upon arriving at the Tabernacle, the meeting was in progress.

I went into the vestry, behind the main hall, wrote a note [to President Snow]. When the note was placed on the pulpit, President Snow stopped his talking, read the note, and then explained to the saints that it was a call to visit some people who were in deep sorrow and asked to be excused.

Rudger Clawson, who was serving as president of the Box Elder Stake, was invited by President Snow to go with him to the Jensen home. As they entered President Snow stood at Ella’s bedside for a minute or two saying nothing. He then asked if there was any consecrated oil in the house. President Clawson described what happened next.

Turning to me President Snow said, “Brother Clawson, will you anoint her?” Which I did. We then laid our hands upon her head and the anointing was confirmed by President Snow, who blessed her and among other things, used this very extraordinary expression, in a commanding tone of voice, “Come back, Ella, come back. Your work upon the earth is not yet completed, come back.” Shortly afterward we left the home.

Ella’s father recorded what happened next,

Ella remained in this condition for more than an hour after President Snow administrated to her, or more than three hours after she died. We were sitting there watching by the bedside, her mother and myself, when all at once she opened her eyes. She looked about the room, saw us sitting there, but still looked for someone else. And the first thing she said was: “Where is he? Where is he?” We asked, “Who? Where is who?” “Why, Brother Snow,” she replied. “He called me back.”

Ella described in great detail what and who she saw in her three-hour sojourn in the spirit world. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind the truth and veracity of her story. She told of meeting many people, relatives and friends, and of being in a large hall with many children and Aunt Eliza R. Snow when she heard the voice of President Snow commanding her to come back. Reluctantly, for she hated to leave, she turned around and retraced her steps back to her body. The rest of her story is incredible. Ella lived to be 86 years of age and bore eight children.

And as to President Lorenzo Snow, there is one more thing. Under the hands of the Patriarch Joseph Smith Sr., Lorenzo Snow was given a patriarchal blessing in the Kirtland Temple in 1837. It said in part,

“Thou shalt become a mighty man. Thy faith shall increase and grow stronger until it shall become like Peter’s. Thou shalt restore the sick; the diseased shall send to thee their aprons and handkerchiefs, and by thy touch their owners shall be made whole. The dead shall arise and come forth at thy bidding.”

Source: http://www.ldsscriptureteachings.org/2016/12/13/ella-jensen-raised-from-the-dead-by-lorenzo-snow/

Ibid. LeRoy C. Snow, “Raised from the Dead, “Improvement Era, (Sept. 1929): vol. 22, 881-86, 972-80.