A Seer Stone Story

[From Christian Stephansen, "My Life's Experience and History in Religion,"11-13. Unpublished manuscript, copy in the Matthew Roper's possession. The account was written about 1920 at which time the writer would have been 80 years old. I would like to thank John and Carol Tvedtnes for sharing this source with me].


I lived in Salt lake City, Utah on 3rd East between 11th and 12th South. I was in the dairy business. One day in the Spring, I said to my step-daughter, Marie, she was 15 or 16 years old, "Will you please deliver the milk today I have something to do." She delivered the milk. When she came home she unhooked the horse and put the horse in the street where there was good grass in the road between 9th and 12th South. In the afternoon we had to have the horse to take the milk to town. I hunted for the horse; No! I couldn't find the horse. I hunted again the next day, and couldn't find it. I was in great trouble. The milk had to be delivered twice a day in town, that was the third day. I went into the police office and told them about it. "I believe somebody has run away with my horse." They say we shall do the best we can for you.

Then I came home and went into my neighbor Charley Nelson. I said to him, "What shall I do Brother Nelson. I have come into great trouble; I have lost my horse?" "I have no money to buy another horse." Sister Nelson said, "Brother Steffensen, there is a boy in Nephi Ward that has a peepstone, and that boy has helped many people with things like that." Brother Nelson said, "Don't tell Brother Steffensen anything like that. I don't believe anything about that." Sister Nelson said, "You let Brother Steffensen take our black horse and the buggy, so he can drive out there this afternoon." Brother Nelson said, "He can do that." I took the black horse and the buggy and took my daughter Marie, with me, she that had unhooked the mare and put her out on the street to feed. After what Sister Nelson told me, I found the horse all right.

I asked the lady if she had a boy there that had a peepstone and she said yes. I said, "I have lost my horse; I run a dairy and I can't deliver the milk in town without a horse, I would like your boy to tell me where the horse is, if he can." The lady told me many things the boy had done for people. She said, "The boy is out to play now, but I will call him in." She took the peepstone down from the cupboard and gave [it] to the boy. The boy started out by telling me where I lived and how my house looked. he told me how the doors and windows were, about the porch and all, and that it was a little adobe house. he said there was a girl that unhooked the horse and turned [it] out on the street to feed, he pointed at my daughter Marie and said, "She is the girl." He also said, he didn't see a horse, but that it was a yellow mare with a brand on its left side and so on describing our yellow mare Kate exactly [as] she was. He said that our mare was over on the third street west of our house, last night in a man's corral among his horses, but the mare is not there now as the man drove her down to a pasture west of his house. That man's house is yellow and there is an old mowing machine standing in front of it.

Then the boy was through. He gave the peepstone to his mother and ran out to play. I was very much surprised at what he told me. I asked the mother to let me see the peepstone and she let me. The stone looked like half of a big white egg. Inside it looked like green glass but I couldn't see anything else. I asked her what I owed the boy, and she said nothing that he didn't charge anything like that. I gave her $1.00 as I was very glad for what he had told me.   

Me and my daughter Marie, who married President Penrose’s son Herbert, went to the street the boy told us to and came to main street we turned north and had just gone a little way north when we saw the yellow house he described and there stood the old mowing machine. A lady was sitting on the front porch. I asked her if she had seen a yellow mare there last night. She said yes, there was a yellow horse among our horses in the corral last night and the boys drove all the horses down to the west pasture this morning, I guess you can find your mare down there. My yellow mare was there all right so the boy with the peepstone was all right and he told me the truth. I was sure surprised  that a young boy that age could do that for I don’t believe the boy was more than 7 years of age, and to have such instrument like that. I call that a spiritual eye and such a gift! I asked the mother where he got the stone and she said he had found it in the gravel hole right here by our house and when he found it and looked into it he said, "Mamma, I can see rabbits running up on the mountains, and I can see where papa works. So then the mother knew it was a peepstone he had found. She told me there was a company of people that went up in the canyon on a pleasure trip. While they were up there they lost a boy. They decided that the boy had been drowned in the river. They hunted in the river for him but they could not find him. They went to the boy with the peepstone and asked him to tell them where they could find the boy. He took down the peepstone. After looking into the stone then said he, I can see miles and miles up the river, but your boy is not in the river, but I can tell you where your boy is. Another company passed you in the canyon and your boy went with them. You will find your boy with that company quite a ways east of where you are. Sure enough that is where they found him.

Here is another story about that same boy with the peepstone and these stories are true. There was a man in Salt Lake City that had stole from another man. The police were hunting for him and couldn't find him. They asked the boy with the peepstone, "Can you tell us where this man is that stole from the man named so and so? The boy said, "Yes, that man that stole from this other man is in a shop in Chicago, he makes shoes.

Can a person with such a little stone and with the gift from God, see what is coming to pass in the future and what has already passed? If so, that is a great gift. So a man can receive eternal life.

Brother Nelson went out to Cottonwood to his farm. 6 or 7 years after, Sister Nelson came in town for to do business, and the same time she came to visit us. We had been neighbors for so many years, and our conversation--Sister Nelson said, "Brother Steffensen I can tell you some news," I said, "What is that Sister?" She said, "It is about the boy, that told you where your mare was, has lost the gift he had." "How is that?" I said. Sister Nelson answered and said, "He started to charge the people for what he told them, that is the reason he has lost the gift; he has the stone, but that is all.” If this boy had been able to keep the gift to the age of manhood, and had received the Priesthood, he could have been a great instrument in the Lord’s hands, and in this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . . . .

The stone the boy got, was not given to him for business to make money. After he told me where my mare was, he gave his mother the stone and went out to play. He was then an innocent boy. When he got to be about 14 years old, I guess he wanted to make money, and that was when the gift was taken from him.

The gift that is given us from Heaven is Holy; and the blessing of this earth is unholy. The devil claims he has the Deed to this earth; that is the reason these two things can’t agree. The Lord Jesus Christ has given us a commandment, that we shall always pray in his name. Everything we have must be holy and sanctified. Ask the Lord to bless our body and spirit and for everything we have temporarily, and ask the Lord to bless the food we eat, but, all in his name. If these things were holy and sanctified, we wouldn’t need to pray for something we already have.