I just read the nicest story, it has strengthened my testimony and given me greater determination to continue looking for my relatives beyond the veil. Some of you may have read this story before, but it's neat to read it again. Elder Joseph F. Merrill, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, said the following while speaking at a funeral 28 December 1937. "My father once asked that question when his oldest son was taken away. The oldest son had the responsibility, in a measure, of looking after father's interests in the home town, taking care of business and economic affairs. But the son was called home, leaving a family of small children of his own. Father grieved. He had never grieved so much in his life. It was difficult. How could his son be needed as much on the other side as he was needed at home in Montana? And father related that one evening as he sat thinking of this matter, he looked up, and there the son stood beside him in spirit form, and speaking to him said, 'Father, do not grieve. You want to know why it is so? You know you are doing work for the dead here. You have gathered your genealogy, gotten all possible you could secure from the records, and you can be here doing temple work for those dead. Those dead are not yet converted, and I am engaged in the spirit world preaching the gospel as it was promised me in a patriarchal blessing that I could do. I am very busy. My time is given to that work. You and I are saving our family. You are doing the temple work and I am laboring among them.' My father never grieved again..." Joan Raney Charlotte, NC raneyj@rex.queens.edu raneys@earthlink.net -------------------------------------------------------------------- John D. Stone jdstone@erols.com http://www.erols.com/jdstone Visit the "Latter-day Saints' Resources on the Internet" -------------------------------------------------------------------- "Death is a graduation day and a time of assessment to see what we have become. -- Sterling W. Sill (Ensign, November 1976, page 46) --------------------------------------------------------------------