Resurrection of a Nephite Girl
From a post on a newsgroup: [The following narrative is reproduced as
I received it--except that I have corrected spelling and grammatical errors as
indicated by brackets. It appears to be a transcript of a talk. Note that San
Juan County is in eastern Utah. --DCA, 3/9/1998]
I have been requested to relate an experience I had in 1908 [or] 1909 in San
Juan County. I was just making a home in Blanding and the whole county there was
covered with trees and sagebrush. I was working hard to clear the ground to
plant a few acres of corn. We had five acres cleared and [we] started to plant
the corn. My little boy Roy, [seven] or [eight] years old[,] was there to help
me plant the corn. I'd plow around the piece and then he'd plant the furrow with
the corn. Then I'd cover it and plow again. While I was plowing on that piece of
ground, I discovered there were ancient houses there, that is[,] the remnant[s]
of them.
As I was plowing around I noticed that my plow had turned out the skeleton of a
small child[--]the skull and the backbone[. M]ost of the the bones[,] of
course[,] were decayed and gone. Part of the skeleton was there, so I stopped
immediately as my plow had passed it a little. I turned and looked back against
the bar of the plow between the handles. As I was looking at that little
skeleton that I had plowed out[,] and wondering, all of a sudden to my
surprise[,] I saw the bones begin to wiggle[. T]hey began to change position and
to take on [a] different color[. W]ithin a minute there lay a beautiful little
skeleton. It was a perfect little skeleton.
Then I saw the inner parts of the natural body coming in--the entrails, etc. I
saw the flesh coming on and I saw the skin come on the body [after] the inner
parts of the body [were] complete. A beautiful head of hair adorned the top of
the head[. I]n about a half a minute after the hair was on the head, it had a
beautiful crystal decoration in the hair. It was combed beautifully and parted
on one side. In about a half a minute after the hair was on the head, the child
raised up on her feet. She was lying a little on her left side with her back
toward me. Because of this I wasn't able to discern the sex of the child, but as
she raised up, a beautiful robe came down over her left shoulder and I saw it
must be a girl.
She looked at me and I looked at her, and for a quarter of a minute we just
looked at each other smiling. Then [in] my ambition to get a hold of her, I
[said,] "oh, you beautiful child," and I reached out as if I would embrace her
and she disappeared.
That was all I saw, and I stood there and I wondered and I thought for a few
minutes. My little boy was wondering why I was there because he was down at the
other end of the row[,] anxious to come and plant the corn. Now, I couldn't tell
that story to anyone because it was so mysterious to me and such. Why should I
have such a miraculous experience[?] I couldn't feature a human being in such a
condition as to accidentally plow that little body out and see it come alive. A
body of a child about five to seven years old, I'd say.
I couldn't tell that story to anyone until finally one day I met a dear friend
of mine, Stake Patriarch Wayne H. Redd of Blanding. He stopped me on the street
and [said], "Zeke, you have had an experience on this mesa you won't tell[.] I
want you to tell it to me." Well, I told it to him. Then he had me tell it to
other friends and since then I have told it in four temples in the United States
and many meeting houses and many socials, fast meeting, and a conference times.
I wondered, and it worried me for years[,] as to why [...] was I, just a common
[uneducated] man, allowed to see such a marvelous manifestation of God's power.
One day as I was walking alone with my hoe on my shoulder going to hoe some
corn, something said, "Stop under the shade of that tree for a few minutes and
rest." This just came to me and I thought I would, so I stopped there and [the
following] was given to me.
It was in answer to my prayer. I prayed incessantly for an answer as to why I
was privileged to see that resurrection. I was told why. When the child was
buried there, it was either in time of war with the different tribes or it was
winter time when the ground was frozen and they had no tools to dig deep graves.
If it were during time of war they couldn't possibly take time to dig a deep
grave. They just planted that little body as deep as they could under the
circumstances. When it was done the sorrowing mother knew that it was such a
shallow grave, that in her sorrow she cried out to the little group that was
present, "That little shallow grave, the first beast that comes along will smell
her body and will dig her up and scatter her to the four winds. Her bones will
be scattered all over these flats.["] There just happened to be a man present
holding the priesthood (a Nephite or a Jaredite, I don't know which because they
had both been in this country. I've been in their houses and know it.) The man
said, "Sister, calm your sorrows. Whenever that little body is disturbed or
uncovered, the Lord will call her up and she will live. Since that time, I have
taken great comfort, great cheer and consolation and satisfaction, with praise
in my heart and soul, until I haven't the words to express it, that it was I
that uncovered that little body.
Thank you for listening to me. I just can't tell this without crying.
Zeke Johnson
son of Joel Hills Johnson