Last Saturday was such a beautiful day! The bright blue sky, red, orange and yellow leaves provided the perfect backdrop for celebrating the life of the mother of my childhood best friend. Nancy, the mother, passed away a few weeks ago. The funeral and burial were on Saturday. It was so wonderful to see her posterity and posterity in-laws, 55 and counting. I hadn’t seen my childhood chum in person in over ten years. It was so fun to see all the grandchildren of my friend’s mom. I had fun matching up the children to my friend and her six siblings. I was delighted to hear stories of Nancy’s life told during the funeral. Despite the sorrow, it was a great reunion. I also got to see and talk with other childhood friends and adults from the neighborhood where I grew up. This was the same neighborhood where Nancy and my BFF lived. My childhood friend and her brother sang the song below, at the funeral. It probably brought tears to every single person in the room. It certainly did for me.

This funeral, in combination with the funeral of my uncle two weeks ago, has caused me to be reflective of memories, life, and death. If my uncle was the source of memories about the fun that can be had with living in a desert, swimming, reading comic books, and playing with Fisher Price Little People and board games, Nancy is the source of memories of slumber parties involving singing around a player piano, eating popcorn, watching Shirley Temple and Disney movies, and drinking smoothies before they were a thing. Nancy was the wife of the man, whose funeral I was able to attend almost five years ago when I happened to be in town, after moving to AZ. (I blogged about it over here, in the middle of a post recapping my Thanksgiving week in Utah in November 2018.)

The same neighbor spoke at both funerals, which was super interesting. It is so interesting how we all change and grow as we learn to relate to each other. We produce results that are the harvest of our life, and then we die. But the death is not the end! Because of Jesus Christ, we will live again! We will continue to learn and grow and love. We can be with our loved ones forever! Those who have gone on before us are yearning to be with their loved ones, just as we yearn to be with our loved ones who have departed. They can be with their loved ones with the power of temple ordinances that flow from Jesus Christ.

Here’s a story about that! The cemetery photo at the top reminds me of this story. The story is by Hildo Rosillo Flores, from Peru. It’s in the October 2007 Ensign magazine. As a newly baptized member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he took up the charge to find out about his ancestors and do their temple work. He had trouble finding some of his grandparents’ names. He went to a cemetery where he thought the grandparents might be buried and diligently looked at each headstone with no luck. He decided it was time to go.

He continues:

“Ready to leave, I turned toward the front gate. But just as I took my first step, I felt two hands take hold of my head from behind and turn it toward a certain spot. My eyes rested on a small, dirty headstone that was level with the ground. I looked behind me to see who had grabbed my head, but no one was there.

“I walked to the headstone, lay on the ground, and cleaned off the inscription. With great gratitude, I read the information I was looking for: Isidro Garcia Rosillo, died August 1, 1934. Francisca Espinoza Berrú, died January 31, 1954.“

Those were the names he was looking for! I don’t know who it was who moved his head, and he doesn’t say, but I believe it was one of his ancestors who wanted temple work done. Brother Flores did the ordinances for these ancestors, as Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 15:29, “Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?”

Brother Flores concludes the story by saying that he knows he was guided by the Lord to find his ancestors.

I love this story! I love knowing that our ancestors’ spirits live on, anticipating the reunion of their spirits to their bodies because of the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. I love doing temple work. It gives me a lot of comfort and peace.

If you want more stories about families, family history and temple work, please get my Family Devotionals Ebook here and turn to the August section, which contains stories about those topics.