Saving Souls at Christmastime

As a Church, we are engaged in the all-inclusive work of the salvation of souls on both sides of the veil. We send tens of thousands of missionaries throughout the world to teach and baptize the willing in this world. We gather them out, welcome them into our congregations and set their feet on what we have come to call "the covenant path." 

As they progress along that path they are increasingly blessed by making and keeping sacred covenants. Eventually, they enter a temple somewhere in the world (there are now 355 in various stages of completion), and are sealed to an eternal companion of their choosing. These are the ordinances of salvation, and they bind couples and posterity together, linking them to ancestors who have gone before them.

The other night, our family who were nearby gathered in a sealing session at the Mount Timpanogos Temple to perform proxy sealing ordinances for many of our deceased ancestors. Most of those ancestors were in the family of our dear daughter and sister, Kim Goates. She is a native of Brisbane, Australia, who emigrated many years ago to the United States where she met and married our oldest son Jeff. 

The picture shown here is all of us assembling for dinner after the session, and doesn't include Jake and Rich who returned home without eating with us. 

The date December 19th is significant in two ways - it's our original sealing date in 1969, when I married Patsy, and it's also the birthday of son Steve. 

Since her conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Kim has been instrumental in her search for all her extended family in Australia. Those names have been compiled and the other night we all participated as a family in procuring those sealing ordinances for each deceased member of her family, a work they could not perform for themselves. We were blessed in that session to be assigned to a sealer whose first mission was in. . . wait for it. . . Brisbane, Australia. Truly, the "divine coincidences" we routinely encounter in this work of salvation cannot be overstated. Someday I hope to learn more about how all those intersections seem to collide in such marvelous ways. 

From the Church's website, we glean this explanation:

What Is the Work of Salvation?

The work of salvation is Heavenly Father’s work “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). This important work includes member missionary work, convert retention, activation of less-active members, temple and family history work, and teaching the gospel. Too often, we think these aspects of the gospel are unrelated. But in The Work of Salvation: Worldwide Leadership Broadcast on June 23, 2013, Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that “the work really is indivisible. These efforts are not separate; they’re all part of the work of salvation.”

The phrase “Hastening the Work of Salvation” - the name of the broadcast’s companion website (hasteningthework.lds.org) - refers to the Lord’s promise: “Behold, I will hasten my work in its time” (D&C 88:73).

Essential priesthood ordinances - baptism, confirmation, ordination to the priesthood for men, and temple ordinances - stand as milestones along our path to return to our Heavenly Father. As we participate in the work of salvation, we follow and inspire others to follow this covenant path.

I couldn't help thinking about the gathering that was surely taking place in the spirit world among Kim's ancestors as those ordinances were being performed. Some, who look in on this "impossible" work of salvation for the dead simply cannot digest the math. There are so many more dead people than living people, they reason, how can you possibly think you will even make a dent in those daunting numbers. I know, it truly does seem impossible. The odds are never in our favor as disciples of Jesus Christ. And it has ever been thus. Christ was only ONE. We are only 17 million against a living population of 8 billion, and multiples more who are dead. What are we thinking?

I wrote about the impossible gospel years ago, and we are undeterred against all the insurmountable odds. Having lived my lifetime of experiences, and with the perspective gained from hindsight, the onward and upward momentum of the work of salvation is something truly breathtaking to behold in these latter days. 

President Russell M. Nelson is leading the armies of Israel in all parts of the world today. His priesthood keys are being shared now in an exponential way I never could have envisioned in my younger days. The Kingdom of God on earth is expanding. The world of spirits is actively "recruiting" among those of us who have seen our loved ones graduate to a higher and holier place. They are engaged in the same way we are. 

In fact, the other night as I performed proxy sealings I was kneeling across the altar in turn from three of my daughters, Dianne, Tina and Allie. I could remember all those times it was Patsy kneeling across from me, and I was invigorated and energized by those memories. It was truly a joyful and wondrous work we were doing. Can we really refer to it as "work" when it is so much fun?

That's what the temple experience is designed to do for us. We bless others and are blessed by them. 

And at Christmastime the work of salvation is just that much more delicious.