Temple Work

Tonight, I had my very first experience doing work in the temple for one of my ancestors. In short, it was awesome! I have dabbled in Family History work on and off, and once FamilySearch got up and running, I logged on and started working every now and then. I was amazed to realize that a lot of my ancestors, ones I had heard stories about and everything, had work yet to be done. I didn't know it was that easy. I printed off ordinance request forms for a couple who I heard a lot about, the woman who is my namesake's namesake. A woman by the name of Edna Claire.

The Story of My Namesake's Namesake

The great thing is that agency is part of it... choosing whether to accept or not. It came to me one day as I was pondering family history, that some people might not accept the work being done for them. And that's okay, because agency is such a part of this process. But specifically pondering Edna Claire, I've had the thought not to count anyone out. You never know, and I should not make a judgment based on what I know. I wasn't even going to take the ordinance request to the temple, but felt compelled as I was pulling out of the driveway to go back in a grab the one for her and Almer. And I did. I usually pop in the Motabs Cd on the way, but kept in one that was already in there, and one of the songs was, "Oh, What Songs of the Heart" which speficially mentions loved ones who passed on before us and how we will embrace them when we get to the other side. I felt this was a sign I was doing the right thing. And while I was doing other work in the temple, I thought about Edna, and I wondered, this childless woman, who obviously wanted a child so much, if there was a chance she could be one of those taking care of my baby, the one I wanted so much, then doing this one thing would be my way to thank her for that. After I was done with what I was doing, I almost didn't ask if the baptistry had time to do one baptism, just one, but I did, and they said yes. I felt as if all had worked together for the good of this one woman and I was pleased to be able to do this.

This is the fun way to do temple work-- doing it for someone you know, or at least, someone you are related to. Preparing it was easy and actually doing it was exciting. I'm going to do it again.