A Father Gives Directions in a Dream

Last updated on: November 24, 2018 at 8:04 pm by Delisa Hargrove

A Father Gives Directions in a Dream 2018-11-24T20:04:43-10:00 Delisa Hargrove

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

[M]y beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men.

Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved?

Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain.

Have miracles ceased? Do angels still minister to Earth?

By Jack L. Hunsaker, September 21, 1961

In the year 1919, my mother had a stillborn baby boy. I wondered if he would be a part of our eternal family. When I asked our Bishop, he never did give me a satisfactory answer. So prayed about it time after time.

My father died on August 7, 1943, and just a month later, my sister was killed in an automobile accident. Almost immediately, our family was involved in court proceedings to determine who would have the custody of my sister’s little daughter, three and a half years old.

I was not going to get mixed up in it. The war was going on during this time and I was working nights from seven o’clock at night until seven o’clock in the morning. So I slept during the day.

Father Appeared in a Dream

One day during October or November 1943, a beautiful light appeared in the room where I was sleeping and in it was my father, two of my sisters who were dead, and also this stillborn brother. This stillborn brother looked as if he had gained his natural growth and appeared very happy.

My father said to me, “I want you to go where they are having the case tried for the custody of Marvis’s little girl. You take the witness stand and answer truthfully the ten or eleven questions asked. They will bring the little girl to you and leave her on your front porch. Then you raise her just like I have brought up you.”

I was deeply concerned because my sister Marvis was not with my father, my two sisters and the stillborn brother when I saw them in the light. So I said, “Father, where is Marvis?”

Father replied, “Jack, I can go where Marvis is, but she cannot come to me.”

“What in the world has Marvis done?” I asked.

Father spoke very seriously, “She has done nothing, but she has not had her temple endowments. I want you to go and have her temple work done at the very earliest moment so that she can be with me. I need her in my work.”

After my father left, my sister Marvis came and visited me and told me the same thing my father had done.

I went to the coast to the trial as father had requested. I took the stand on the 14th day of December 1943. I was not even cross-examined.

On January 4th, 1944, my sister’s baby girl was brought to my home. I adopted her and raised her just as my father had instructed me to do.

I had the temple work done for my sister and know it was accepted as a Pearl of Great Price.

Following the Directions throughout Her Life

When this baby girl was grown and ready to be married, the young man that she was going to marry was a serviceman. He was given a leave of absence from duty because of the serious illness of his mother. He came to me and asked me to let them get married civilly. I told him, “No” I felt I had a greater responsibility with my sister’s girl than with my own children.

The young man said he did not know whether or not he could get a recommend to enter the temple as he had not paid his tithing. I was assigned to the ward in which he lived and told him I would meet his Bishop next Sunday. The Bishop gave him a recommend and I ordained the young man to the office of an Elder. Then I went to the hospital to visit his mother.

She had big brown eyes, which were filled with tears and she said she was so happy that I insisted those youngsters get married in the temple. She said she wanted so badly to be with them when they got married but was unable to do so.

They were married int eh Temple in 1951 on a Friday. And that boy’s mother died the following Friday night.

When Brother Joseph O. Stradling, Jr., performed their marriage ceremony, he said, “There are not many at theis wedding that can be seen, but there are certainly a lot here that cannot be seen.”

I think that Rex Burnham, the boy’s father, was there and also my father. My wife said she felt that the girl’s mother was there when the bride was being dressed as her grandmother helped with the wedding dress.

This boy’s name is Merrill Rex Burnham and the girl, my sister’s daughter’s name is Glenna Jean Bodkin Hunsaker Burnham.

From Harold B. Lee

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught: “The spirits of the just are exalted to a greater and more glorious work; hence they are blessed in their departure to the world of spirits.” Now listen to this: “Enveloped in flaming fire, they are not far from us, and know and understand our thoughts, feelings, and motions, and are often pained therewith.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1938], p. 326.) It may be that when the anxieties of the passing of this day shall have gone, in the quiet loneliness of your home, in a day not too intense because of the motherhood requirements, there will come times when you will say, “My, he seemed to be so close to me. I seem to have felt his nearness.” And it will be real. It will be something you can’t deny. (The Teachings of the Harold B. Lee, pp. 59-60)

Where is the spirit world? Is it away up in the heavens? That isn’t what the scriptures and our brethren explain. They have told us the spirit world is right here round about us, and the only spirits who can live here are those who are assigned to fill their missions here on earth. This is the spirit world. And if our eyes could be opened we could see those who have departed from us—a father, mother, brother, a sister, a child. We could see them, and sometimes when our physical senses are asleep, sometimes our spiritual self—and we have ears, spiritual ears, and spiritual eyes—sometimes they will be very keen and awake, and a departed one may come while we are lying asleep and come into our consciousness. We’ll feel an impression. We’ll wake up. Where does it come from? It comes from the spirits of those whom we are sealed to. (The Teachings of Harold B. Lee, p. 58)

From Joseph F. Smith

I believe we move and have our being in the presence of heavenly messengers and of heavenly beings. We are not separate from them. We begin to realize more and more fully, as we become acquainted with the principles of the Gospel, as they have been revealed anew in this dispensation, that we are closely related to our kindred, to our ancestors, to our friends and associates and co-laborers who have preceded us into the spirit world. We cannot forget them; we do not cease to love them; we always hold them in our hearts, in memory, and thus we are associated and united to them by ties that we can not break, that we can not dissolve or free ourselves from. If this is the case with us in our finite condition, surrounded by our mortal weaknesses, shortsightedness, lack of inspiration and wisdom from time to time, how much more certain it is and reasonable and consistent to believe that those who have been faithful, who have gone beyond and are still engaged in the work for the salvation of the souls of men, the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound and proclaiming liberty to the captives who can see us better than we can see them; that they know us better than we know them. They have advanced; we are advancing; we are growing as they have grown; we are reaching the goal that they have attained unto; and therefore, I claim that we live in their presence, they see us, they are solicitous for our welfare, they love us now more than ever. For now they see the dangers that beset us; they can comprehend better than ever before, the weaknesses that are liable to mislead us into dark and forbidden paths. They see the temptations and the evils that beset us in life and the proneness of mortal beings to yield to temptation and to wrong doing; hence their solicitude for us and their love for us and their desire for our well being must be greater than that which we feel for ourselves. I thank God for the feeling that I possess and enjoy and for the realization that I have, that I stand, not only in the presence of Almighty God, my Maker and Father, but in the presence of His Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Savior of the world; and I stand in the presence of Peter and James, (and perhaps the eyes of John are also upon us and we know it not); and that I stand also in the presence of Joseph and Hyrum and Brigham and John, and those who have been valiant in the testimony of Jesus Christ and faithful to their mission in the world, who have gone before. When I go I want to have the privilege of meeting them with the consciousness that I have followed their example, that I have carried out the mission in which they were engaged as they would have it carried out; that I have been as faithful in the discharge of duty committed to me and required at my hand as they were faithful in their time, and that when I meet them I shall meet them as I met them here, in love, in harmony, in unison and in perfect confidence that I have done my duty as they have done theirs. (Conference Report, April 1916, p.3)

Previous Post

November 17, 2018

The Land Which God Consecrated

Next Post

November 24, 2018 Cool Head and Iron Nerve

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Discovery How Tos Realization Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 November 2025 October 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 June 2024 May 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz