Ephraim Hanks Raises Nancy Johnson from the Dead in Salina, Utah

The miracle of raising the dead is one of the rarest and most sacred of all miracles. Christ raised Lazarus and the daughter of Jairus, and He promised that His prophets, apostles, and disciples would have power to raise the dead (Matthew 10:8; 4 Nephi 1:5). This is one of a small number of published accounts of such a miracle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

After the miraculous Willie and Martin Handcart Company rescue and healings — where Ephraim Hanks had raised a frozen corpse back to life — word spread that Hanks had the gift of healing. Thereafter, he was often called upon to bless the sick.

Years after the handcart rescue, Ephraim Hanks was summoned to Salina, Utah to give a blessing to Nancy Johnson, a young wife who had fallen gravely ill. By this time, Ephraim was an older man with long white hair and a bushy white beard. Salina was a considerable distance away, and by the time he reached the town, Nancy Johnson had already passed away. The Relief Society sisters were in her bedroom preparing her body for burial.

When Ephraim arrived, he demanded, "Who gave you the order to commission her unto death?"

He washed up in the horse trough and entered the house. He ordered the protesting sisters to leave, and then he locked the door behind him.

Two hours later, looking exhausted, Hanks came out of the room and closed the door behind him. He quietly said to Nancy's husband, "Your wife is sitting up in bed, and would like to talk to you."

Nancy told her husband, "I dozed off and took a nap. How long have I slept?"

Her husband responded, "You have been a very sick woman for ten days. We thought we had lost you."

Nancy explained, "I had the most wonderful dream. I dreamed there was a man with long-flowing white hair and a full-flowing white beard sitting here beside my bed, holding my hand. He told me that I would bear and raise seven daughters. He also said there would be a time when my daughters would all stand together and be a great joy to me." He prophesied that each of the seven daughters would serve as Relief Society presidents at the same time.

Nancy fully recovered. Sure enough, she had seven daughters — and when the daughters grew up, they all served as Relief Society Presidents at the same time, exactly as Ephraim Hanks had prophesied.

This account is among the most extraordinary Latter-day Saint testimonies of the power of priesthood to restore life. It is dramatized in T.C. Christensen's 2013 documentary film "Ephraim's Rescue."