It has been a great day! I had time today to listen to Talking Scriptures podcast on Doctrine and Covenants 137 & 138. As I have already written about..I am inspired to do better at being curious and asking questions..seeking for personal revelation. Mike and Bryce’s podcast was very enlightening and the following quote by Elder Maxwell really hit me.
On the other side of the veil, there are perhaps seventy billion people. They need the same gospel, and releases occur here to aid the Lord’s work there. Each release of a righteous individual from this life is also a call to new labors. Those who have true hope understand this. Therefore, though we miss the departed righteous so much here, hundreds may feel their touch there. One day, those hundreds will thank the bereaved for gracefully forgoing the extended association with choice individuals here, in order that they could help hundreds there. In Gods ecology, talent and love are never wasted. The hopeful understand this, too.[34]
My sister, Allison, died of cancer just a few months shy of her 30th birthday. I have never doubted that she had work to do on the other side but this quote adds to that perspective and understanding. She had severe rheumatoid arthritis and maybe her ability to share the Gospel, to be an example and a missionary would have been impeded by her physical limitations if she had continued on this earth bound to her body? It gives me comfort to know that her amazing ability to listen and to teach (she was a trained teacher while on earth) are being utilized in heaven to help bring the Gospel message to a few of those 70 billion.
Bryce Dunford, one of the instructors for Talking Scriptures, shared a story about how he taught a grieving student to think of her deceased father as the one who taught the person in heaven for whom she, the student, was performing vicarious ordinances here on earth. So, today while I attended a sealing session at Oquirrh Mountain Temple, I thought of my grandmothers, Allison, my nieces Taylor and Lila Rose being the ones who are teaching the women who were sealed to their parents today or for whom I will do endowment and initiatory work in the next two weeks. CONNECTION is such a powerful motivator and catalyst for good.
I have also realized that I need help more than ever from the other side of the veil but, they might be too busy teaching the people there to give me much help. I need to do a better job on my side searching, praying and asking for revelation, for dreams that will help me continue connecting people to my Family Tree.