Ezra Booth Embraces the Gospel After Witnessing a Healing of an Infirmity of Many Years (1831)

Ezra Booth, previously a Methodist priest, embraced the gospel and the Book of Mormon after personally witnessing a person healed of a long-standing infirmity. Booth was subsequently ordained an elder.

Ezra Booth's interest in the Church was sparked after he and John Johnson spent an entire night reading the Book of Mormon together. The healing he witnessed involved Elsa Johnson, who had suffered from chronic rheumatism in her shoulder for approximately two years, rendering her unable to raise her hand to her head until Joseph Smith administered to her by the laying on of hands, at which point she was healed immediately. This miracle was a primary catalyst for Booth abandoning his Methodist faith and seeking baptism.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

My mother had been laboring under an attack of chronic rheumatism in the shoulder, so that she could not raise her hand to her head for about two years. The Prophet laid hands upon her, and she was healed immediately. She arose, and did her housework. Ezra Booth, a Methodist priest, who was present, and who had been a witness to the healing, was so impressed that he was baptized, and ordained an elder.