Near Death Experience of Ella Jenson

"Raised from the Dead" (Condensed from Sept.-Oct., 1929, issues of The Improvement Era, 32:883; also Y.W. Journal 4:164. Compare with Life of Lorenzo Snow, p. 406.) This story, true in every particular, shows the fulfillment of a prophecy made upon the head of Lorenzo Snow when he received a patriarchal blessing under the hands of the Prophet's father, Joseph Smith, Senior. It was [116] given in the Kirtland Temple, and among other things were these promises: "The dead shall arise and come forth at thy bidding." It was March 3, 1891, and for several long weeks Ella Jensen, a young girl of 19 at Brigham City, Utah, had lingered, almost between life and death, with Scarlet Fever. Leah Rees, her girlfriend, was serving her as night nurse, and it was about three or four o'clock in the morning, when, as Leah reports it, "I was suddenly awakened by Ella calling me to get the comb, brush and scissors. She explained that she wanted to brush her hair and trim her finger nails, and get all ready, `For,' said she, `they are coming to get me at ten o'clock this morning.' "I asked who was coming to get her." "`Uncle Hans Jensen and the messengers,' she replied. `I am going to die and they are coming at ten o'clock to get me and take me away.'" "I tried to quiet her, saying that she would feel better in the morning if she would try to sleep." "`No,' she said, `I am not going to sleep any more, but I am going to spend all the time getting ready.'" "She insisted that I get the comb, hairbrush and scissors, which I did, but she was so weak that she could not use them. As I was brushing her hair, she asked me to call her parents. I explained that they were tired and asleep and that it would be better not to disturb them." "`Yes,' insisted Ella, `you must call them. I want to tell them now.'" ...I know I am going to die, and that they are coming to get me.'"