After I arrived home from my trip to Maine last week, the eve of Halloween, I kind of wanted to host my own Heroween/Halloween on Friday, and then do an All Saints’ Day/ Day of the Dead Celebration on Saturday, telling saints and ancestor stories around a bonfire. In my heart though I knew I didn’t really want to plan and follow through on those things. That represents my constant battle between the ideal and reality. So that’s why I didn’t plan those activities, before I left. I knew that after my arrival from Maine I’d be wanting to just decompress and catch up on laptop work that I hadn’t been able to do all week.

So that’s what I did Friday and Saturday in the afternoon and evening, while I doled out treats to our few door-knockers. I didn’t even get nonedible treats like I did last year. What with my trip that just was too much to plan. I did watch BYUTV’s Fires of Faith on Friday to celebrate Halloween/Reformation Day as I did my laptop work that doesn’t require too much thinking. You can watch it here. It’s three parts, and all about Martin Luther, as well as other reformers, especially those who sacrificed to bring about the Kings James Bible. I just watched Part 1 this year. So, so, so good! I’m so grateful for these martyrs.

I still want to share stories that resonate with those days with somebody. So you dear blog reader are the recipient since I’m not having a party like I have in the past where I share stories. Stories about good people, saints, who are now spirits because they are dearly departed. So, a week later,…here are five stories I want to share to honor Heroween/ Halloween/All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints Day, and the Day of the Dead holiday. These stories and holidays involve ghosts, which of course, is another name for spirits. This is very fitting since for my church’s Come Follow Jesus Christ scripture study this week we are reading about the revelation to Joseph Smith involving proxy baptisms in behalf of dead people.

Partly because of this revelation, I believe that dead people continue to live on, in the form of spirits, as they wait to be resurrected, or reunited with their physical bodies. People, ideally family members, can act as proxies to be baptized for these people. This isn’t so weird if you take a look at what Paul mentioned, in the Bible, “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?” ( 1 Corinthians 15:29)

We also know, because of a revelation to President Joseph F. Smith, that in the space between the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that Jesus organized spirits in the spirit world to be missionaries to teach spirits in spirit prison about Him and His gospel, to prepare them to get baptized. Read the revelation here.

So I just think it’s so cool that these truths have been revealed to us, regarding dearly departed people. Here are some stories, below, about deceased spirits that are not scary. I’ve blogged about these stories of spirits before but now I’m linking them all in one place.

The first story is here. Written by Carla Sansom, it involves a little European girl who died, and then as a spirit she appeared to her best friend of childhood, Carla, the author, multiple times, as Carla grew to adulthood. The deceased friend, Brigitte, never spoke. After these multiple visits, when Carla finally told her husband about them, her husband suggested that Brigitte probably wanted Carla to be baptized for her, since Carla was the only person Brigitte knew who was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After Carla did the research, got permission, and got the paperwork ready for the baptism and submitted it to the temple, Brigitte appeared to Carla a final time and spoke. She told Carla she could now progress in the spirit world.

The second story is here, or watch it above, from RootsTech. Skip to the 6:30 mark. It involves President Russell M. Nelsons’ grandfather who received a visit from his deceased father’s spirit. It’s a beautiful story.

The third story is from the book The Message. The main guy in this book, Lance Richardson, died during an operation and was allowed to see what his family was doing for a few days while his spirit was out of his body. They couldn’t see him. Then he was allowed to return back to his body and live for a few more years. It’s such a beautiful heartwarming story! I read it last January and want to read it every New Year to remind me of what’s truly important: Jesus, family, and friends. Below is the video of an interview with Lance’s wife, Jozet.

The fourth story involves a genius woman composer, Rosemary Brown, who says that she was allowed to receive inspiration from spirits as to how to write music, the unfinished works of famous composers like Lizst. It’s a fascinating story. Get it here. I love to listen to it at least once a year around Halloween time. It’s very heartwarming and has insights into the mortal life pertaining to the premortal world. Is she telling the truth? I don’t know but her story is very interesting.

The fifth story is from this week’s Come Follow Christ study. I’ve copied and pasted the introduction to the lesson below, from the link I just mentioned:

“In August 1840, a grieving Jane Neyman listened to the Prophet Joseph speak at the funeral of his friend Seymour Brunson. Jane’s own teenage son Cyrus had also recently passed away. Adding to her grief was the fact that Cyrus had never been baptized, and Jane worried what this would mean for his eternal soul. Joseph had wondered the same thing about his beloved brother Alvin, who also died before being baptized. So the Prophet decided to share with everyone at the funeral what the Lord had revealed to him about people who pass away without receiving gospel ordinances—and what we can do to help them.

“The doctrine of baptism for the dead thrilled the Saints; their thoughts turned immediately to deceased family members. Now there was hope for them! Joseph shared their joy, and in a letter teaching this doctrine, he used joyful, enthusiastic language to express what the Lord taught him about the salvation of the dead: ‘Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King!’ (Doctrine and Covenants 128:23).”

See Saints, 1:415–27; “Letters on Baptism for the Dead,” in Revelations in Context, 272–76.

I’m grateful to know of this doctrine of Jesus Christ that was restored through Joseph Smith. You can learn more in Doctrine and Covenants 127 and Doctrine and Covenants 128. It’s so comforting and beautiful to know that people live on after earth life. Even if they didn’t know about Jesus during their mortal life, they can be saved in heaven and be with their families eternally. God’s plan of salvation is so generous, with Jesus Christ at the center of it all, full of as much love and tender mercy as possible.

Jared Halverson, in the video below, tells a story of being in divinity school in Tennessee and sharing the doctrine of the baptism of dead with his classmates and professor. Go to the 51:00 mark to hear the story. I love that he says that the love of the Father and the Son is for all. Their love is demonstrated by the opportunity for all to be baptized, either in this mortal life, or in heaven by proxy mortals on earth. I also love that he points out that this doctrine is so joyful and wonderful, Joseph used so many exclamation points in verse 23 of Section 28 to celebrate this truth. Maybe these are the most exclamation points of any scripture verses.

“Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free.

“Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King! And ye rivers, and brooks, and rills, flow down with gladness. Let the woods and all the trees of the field praise the Lord; and ye solid rocks weep for joy! And let the sun, moon, and the morning stars sing together, and let all the sons of God shout for joy! And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever! And again I say, how glorious is the voice we hear from heaven, proclaiming in our ears, glory, and salvation, and honor, and immortality, and eternal life; kingdoms, principalities, and powers!”