"Few, If Any. . ."

I’m awake this morning at 6:00 a.m., still basking in the afterglow of our shared sealing session last night in the Orem Temple. My dear friend Hank Nelson, along with his wife Kristy who was seated at the sealing desk in the office, conducted the session at my request. 

It was a heavenly outing for me, exactly what I prayed it would be. We had 19 of our family members, including Harold and Catherine, acting as proxies for 44 of our deceased ancestors. We sealed couples and children to parents. It was a happy time for all who attended, and some silent tears were shed in acknowledgement of the rich outpouring of the spirit that attended us. I noted every teardrop that fell in quiet reverence.

I will add that I also noted son-in-law Clark’s temple shoes, originally owned by President Harold B. Lee, then by me, now by Clark, and I pondered anew where those shoes have been and what they have surely seen. He first wore them when he was a newly-sustained Apostle in 1941 on April 10th. Their tattered and well-worn appearance testified anew to me of the true calling of living prophets. To qualify for ownership of those shoes one must be a proper size 9, and Clark and I both qualified.

Our session went a little late, since we were the last group to occupy a sealing room last night. We exited the temple in darkness, but a group of young adult young women snapped this picture for us as a treasured memory. 

There are those who have asserted over the years in the Church that we don’t really know whether or not the departed spirits of our family members will accept the proxy work we do in the temples, but I have a different view. 

I remembered this following statement last night, and suggested it to daughter Dianne as we rode down the elevator after the session had concluded, then I checked the reference this morning:

President Wilford W. Woodruff

“’All who have died without a knowledge of this Gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God; also all that shall die henceforth without a knowledge of it, who would have received it with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom, for I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts.’ [D&C 137:7–9.] So it will be with your fathers. There will be very few, if any, who will not accept the Gospel. … The fathers of this people will embrace the Gospel.” (Millennial Star, May 28, 1894, 339–40, emphasis mine).

Brigham and Wilford in St. George Temple

At the time, President Wilford W. Woodruff had lived to witness the construction of the first four temples in Utah, and dedicated the magnificent Salt Lake Temple that took 40 years to build. He and President Brigham Young had worked in tandem in St. George to fulfill the Prophet Joseph’s request to arrange the temple ceremonies more accurately, and that is exactly what they did.

“President Young has said to us, and it is verily so, if the dead could they would speak in language loud as ten thousand thunders, calling upon the servants of God to rise up and build Temples, magnify their calling and redeem their dead.” (Deseret News: Semi-Weekly, March 26, 1878, 1).

“If [we] knew and understood the feelings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and those of his brethren associated with him, and the feelings of the millions of the human family who are shut up in their prison houses, we would not tire. … We would labor for the redemption of our dead.” (Deseret News: Semi-Weekly, October 26, 1880, 1).

“The eyes of the heavens are over us; the eyes of God himself, the eyes of every Prophet and Apostle in the spirit world, are watching you, watching this Priesthood, to see what they are doing and what they are going to do. It is of far more importance than we realize and comprehend. Let us awake to the ordinances of the House of God and do our duty, that we may be justified.”  (In Conference Report, October 1897, 47).

Think for a moment how powerful Wilford Woodruff’s statement is that there would be few, if any, of our deceased ancestors who will not accept the fulness of the gospel in the spirit world. 

Those, for example, who rejected the Book of Mormon in this mortal life will surely be attending a class somewhere in the spirit world taught by the Lamanites and the Nephites and all the other “ites” mentioned in the record. Imagine the surprise on the faces of those recalcitrant spirits who hear their firsthand testimonies in the spirit world and ask yourself how they could possibly resist any longer. 

I am a great believer that repentance and progress occurs in the spirit world. We certainly believe people can change here in mortality because we have witnessed it. So why not believe people can and do change in the spirit world? I KNOW they do.

President Russell M. Nelson

It’s why our living prophet today, President Russell M. Nelson, now nearing this 100th birthday on September 9th, is the very embodiment of the leadership President Woodruff foresaw in the building of temples worldwide. And we are living witnesses of the fulfillment of the prophecies of President Woodruff.

“Eternal progression” is a concept that is often misunderstood, more so in years gone by than it is today. I have always valued the perspective of Brigham Young on this topic:

“Instead of pleading with the Lord to bestow more upon you, plead with yourselves to have confidence in yourselves, to have integrity in yourselves, and know when to speak and what to speak, what to reveal, and how to carry yourselves and walk before the Lord. And just as fast as you prove to him that you will preserve everything secret that ought to be — that you will deal out to your neighbors all which you ought, and no more, and learn how to dispense your knowledge to your families, friends, neighbors, and brethren, the Lord will bestow upon you, and give to you, and bestow upon you, until finally he will say to you, ‘You shall never fall; your salvation is sealed unto you; you are sealed up unto eternal life and salvation, through your integrity.’” (Discourses of Brigham Young, 93).  

I have assurances borne to me by the Holy Ghost that we are in the correct path leading to exaltation and eternal life in the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom. I can never hear those inspired words of the temple sealings without my whole soul reaching out to my Heavenly Father and longing for the fulfillment promised in those sacred ordinances. 

Patsy Goates

I pondered all night last night what Patsy must have surely been feeling as she witnessed her posterity doing that sacred service. I’ll bet she was certainly assisting “at the veil” and hugged and kissed each one we served. Her spirit filled me with that assurance as I laid my head on my pillow later.

Thank you, each one of you in my posterity, who participated. We have done our small part in reaching out to the “ones” who President Nelson invited us to search out and bless with the promises of eternal life. Do not despair or lose faith in family members who may not yet have accepted the gospel. Remember these promises permeate every stage of our existence and hope on without reservation or doubt. These are BIG ideas, truly, and they require BIG and CONTINUING faith in their fulfillment. 

Our forefathers for whom we serve in the temples are the seminal trees from which we sprang - they are the roots and we are the branches. Those roots will flourish when nurtured and groomed with the message of the fulness of the gospel in the spirit world. 

I love you all now and eternally. We will never be separated in this life or the next because of our faith and our faithfulness. We are bound together by sacred and enduring covenants, the keys to which are held by living Apostles and Prophets.