We have a loving Father in Heaven who desires that all
of His children return to His presence.
In order to help us accomplish this task, He organized a plan and
explained it to us while we were still spirits living in His presence. He told us that He would send each of us to
earth for the purpose of gaining a physical body and developing those
attributes that we needed. He told us
that our time here on earth should be used to prepare ourselves to return to
His presence in the Celestial
Kingdom
The requirements for obtaining exaltation and
entering the highest degree in the celestial kingdom include many ordinances
that must be done on the earth. Because
billions of people have died without any knowledge of these saving ordinances,
Heavenly Father provided a way for all his children to receive them. President Joseph Fielding Smith calls this
plan of salvation for the dead "one of the grandest, most reasonable, and
soul satisfying doctrines ever revealed to man" (Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. [1954-56],
2:143).
We can better understand and appreciate this
doctrine by actually participating in the work of salvation for ourselves and
our ancestors. One of the most important
things we can do is to learn and understand that our Father in Heaven loves
each one of us so very much that He sent His Son to earth to die for us. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gave us the
greatest of all gifts when He made it possible for us to return to our Father's
presence.
"For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John
3:16).
"And, if you keep my commandments and endure
to the end, you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the
gifts of God" (Doctrine and
Covenants 14:7).
We
can help our Father to bless His children by providing temple ordinances for
our ancestors, either by participating in the actual ordinances at the temple
or by finding and submitting information so the ordinances can be done by
others. In doing this, we are helping to
make "the greatest of all the gifts of God" available to those
ancestors.
The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us that we
must learn certain principles and perform certain ordinances in order to enter
the Celestial Kingdom
Everyone needs these principles and ordinances in order
to enter the Celestial
Kingdom Celestial Kingdom
Jesus Christ taught the importance of being
baptized by water and the Spirit: "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God
Many billions of people have lived on the earth and
then died without being taught the gospel and receiving these ordinances. If these people never receive earthly
ordinances, they will be unable to enter the celestial kingdom, regardless of
their righteousness. However, Heavenly
Father's plan of salvation applies to all his children, and He has provided a
way for these people to hear the gospel and receive the ordinances, even though
they were unable to do so when they were on the earth.
We have the opportunity to help those who have
died without gospel ordinances through doing family history work. Elder
Royden G. Derrick, who was a
member of the Seventy, shared the following family story:
"When I was a young child, our family was
anxious for the return of Uncle Orson.
My mother had deep feelings about the matter, which she implanted in her
children. For some reason I always
watched for Uncle Orson to come to the back door of our home. I remember on a number of occasions when a
peddler would come to the back door. I
would pull on my mother's dress to get her attention and ask, `Is this Uncle
Orson, huh?' But the answer was always
no.
"… Uncle Orson was born in 1881. Fourteen months later his father died,
leaving him without the guidance of a father during those critical early
years. When he was 17 years old, he,
with a group of other boys his own age, went to Saltair, a dance pavilion on
the shores of the Great Salt Lake . Before the evening was over, they became
drunk and ended up in the county jail.
"The following morning, parents and family
members came to the jail house and obtained their sons' releases. Many of them put their arms around their sons
and built them into pillars in the community.
But unknown to my grandmother, Uncle Orson was released from jail, given
a one-way ticket to the Northwest, and told never to return.
"Mother said that on occasions she would
hear her mother sobbing in her bedroom during the night. When she went to her mother's side, her
mother would say, `I wonder where my wandering boy is tonight.'
"Uncle Orson likely worked in the lumber
camps of the Northwest in an atmosphere that was not conducive to living the
principles of the gospel. If he were
living today, he would be very old. It
is most likely that he has gone to the world of spirits by now….
"My good friend, Joseph S. Nelson, died a
few months ago at age 86. He was a great
missionary during his life. He served
four missions…. I've been searching the
scriptures to find [what he is doing now] - and here he is:
"`I beheld that the faithful elders of this
dispensation, when they depart from mortal life, continue their labors in the
preaching of the gospel of repentance and redemption, through the sacrifice of
the Only Begotten Son of God, among those who are in darkness and under the
bondage of sin in the great world of the spirits of the dead' (D&C
138:57)….
"I have loved Uncle Orson from childhood
because I inherited a longing for him. I
want so much to buy him a return ticket home to his eternal family….
"I wonder if my good friend Joe Nelson might
find Uncle Orson and teach him the gospel truths that his father would have
taught him in mortality had he been here to do so" ("Find Them,"
New Era, Sept. 1981, 4-6).
Doctrine
and Covenants 138:30 tells us that missionary work is being accomplished in
the spirit world: "But behold, from among the righteous, he
organized his forces and appointed messengers, clothed with power and
authority, and commissioned them to go forth and carry the light of the gospel
to them that were in darkness, even to all the spirits of men; and thus was the
gospel preached to the dead."
The gospel of Jesus Christ is taught to the
spirits of our departed ancestors. Even
if these spirits accept the gospel, they can progress no further unless the
earthly ordinances are performed for them here on earth. We can perform these
ordinances for them in the temple. This
work is referred to as vicarious work. To do something vicariously means that a
person does something in place of someone else.
The person doing the work or activity for another person is called a proxy.
In the temple we can be baptized and receive other ordinances for people
who have died without receiving the ordinances.
We are the ones who go down into the waters of baptism or who have hands
placed on our head, but they are the ones for whom the ordinances are in
effect. We do the ordinances, but those
who are dead can exercise their agency in choosing whether or not to accept the
work being performed.
Ordinances performed for the dead in the temple
include baptism, confirmation and bestowal of the gift of the Holy Ghost,
ordaining to the priesthood for the men, endowment, marriage, and sealing of
children to parents. Any worthy member
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who is at least 12 years old
can receive a recommend from the bishop and go to the temple to be baptized and
confirmed for the dead. Those who are at
least 18 years old and have received their own temple ordinances can return to
the temple to receive other ordinances for the dead.
The Lord has declared that we are each
responsible for helping our own ancestors to receive the ordinances of the
temple. The first step in doing this
vicarious work is to find out who our ancestors are. The information we need to know about them in
order to do their temple work is each person's name, sex, and at least one
identifying date, such as a birth or death date; however, we are encouraged to
find as much information about them as we can possibly find. Other helpful information includes
birthplace, parents' names, marriage date, spouse's name, and place of
death. All this information should be as
accurate as possible.
We can gain this information by asking living
relatives for information and copies of records that they may have; doing
research at family history centers or on the Internet; writing letters to
request copies of birth certificates; looking at census records; and going to
cemeteries.
When a person has the necessary information on an
ancestor, he or she can submit the ancestor's name to the temple. If family members want to do the temple work
for their own ancestors, the information is held in reserve for them to do
it. If family members are unable to do
the work or are unable to do the work in a reasonable length of time, they
should release the names so that other members of the Church can perform the
ordinances.
In addition to doing the work for our own
ancestors, we can assist other people in accomplishing their family history
work. After I wrote my first essays
about very important people for this blog, I realized that people may be using
my blog to find information about their ancestors and I started to include as
much genealogical information as I found.
When I attend the temple and do not have the name of an ancestor to
perform the work for, I often help friends with their family history work. The following story illustrates other ways we
can help others with their genealogy.
While 11-year-old Cindie and her father were
taking a walk together, they found an old tombstone. They cleared the moss from it and found the
following inscription:
MARYANN DEMING
Wife of Rufus Deming
died Jan. 5, 1855
in the 56th year
of her age
"Cindie said, `Oh, dad, I can just see what
happened. There were Mormon pioneers
crossing the plains, and poor Maryann [died], and her husband and children were
heartbroken, and they buried her here and sadly left her and went on to
Utah. It was so tragic!'"
Cindie's dad replied, "`I don't think so….
The Mormon pioneers didn't pass through Lake
County , California
Cindie was very excited about the thought of
using this information to help Maryann's descendants do her temple work:
"`Oh, dad, I can just see it now: one of her great-grandchildren has been
looking for her records for just years and years, and they need her death date,
and they're praying that someone will find her tombstone and send in the
information to the [Family History] Library.'"
Cindie and her parents spent three days
collecting information from local cemeteries.
They then compiled a book and sent it to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City
"A few weeks later … Cindie came home from
school to discover an impressive-looking envelope in the mailbox. Excitedly, she called [her father at work]
and read, `The Genealogical Society wishes to thank you for your 41-page booklet,
Cemetery Inscriptions of Lake County,
California. You have provided
important information which we did not have in our collection - information
which will no doubt be very useful to many of our patrons in the years
ahead. We congratulate you, at age 11,
on having your own author card in our card catalog'" (Terry J. Moyer,
"An Author Card for Cindie," New
Era, May 1981, 14-17).
Even though Maryann Deming was not one of
Cindie's ancestors, she was excited to find the tombstone and was inspired by
the Spirit to help Maryann's descendents.
When we have the spirit of family history work, there is much we can do
to help our ancestors and others.
The ancient prophet Malachi wrote, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
"And
he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the
children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse" (Malachi 4:5-6).
Our hearts are turned to our fathers as we learn
about our ancestors and dedicate ourselves to do temple work for them and for
others who have died without the gospel.
Our hearts are turned to our children as we teach them gospel
principles, keep our journals, and write our own life stories.
By being baptized for the dead, we help them
fulfill the principles and ordinances of the gospel. This work blesses us as we obey the Lord's
commandment to turn our hearts to those who have died without the gospel.
President Joseph Fielding Smith stated, "By
this means [doing temple work for the dead] we may help to save those who have
gone before and in our limited way become saviors
to many people. How great shall be
the satisfaction of the man and the woman who have performed those ordinances
for their dead, when they stand in the presence of their dead, and see their
joy and hear expressions of gratitude" (Doctrines of Salvation, 2:143).
I testify that doing temple work for our dead
ancestors is extremely important. They
need us and we need them in order to become perfect. I know that searching for information about
our ancestors and doing their temple work brings us closer to them. This means that we already have relationships
with them. This earth was created for
the purpose of creating eternal families.
By doing temple work for our dead, we are sealing families
together. I know that families can be
together forever through the plan of our Heavenly Father!
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