One thing I have learned about this church is that when a lesson needs to be taught, many smaller events lead up to the main lesson.
First off, for an online mission portal that I have to do every week I had to watch a video about family history and missionary work. Normally I would not have been that enthused about geneology type things, but this video intrigued me. It said that we as a church need to remove the line that divides missionary work from family history work and instead realize that we are all supposed to be focusing on bringing people to Christ.
After the video, there were links available to click on and I decided to go to FamilySearch.org to check out my lineage. On my Dad's line, I could see symbol after symbol that meant that all of the temple work was done, but on my Mom's side, it just had the names of her parents listed, one of which had a symbol different to all of the others have seen. My Grandpa Perez died about a year ago so now his name is presented with a picture of a temple and a hazard triangle. Upon seeing this I leaned back to one of the Sisters in my district and said, half-jokingly, "help me save my grandpa!" It wasn't until those word came out of my mouth that I realized how true that statement was. My grandpa is in desperate need of temple ordinances so he can progress in the Spirit World. I immediately understood how important and relevant proxy temple work is, and my perspective has been permanently changed.
On a related note, last Tuesday the MTC was honored to have Elder Nelson from the Quorum of the Twelve speak to us on none other than Family History work. Some things he said touched my heart dearly; he said that there are spirits of those deceased and gone from this world who are desperately praying and praying for their posterity to receive the gospel. These people walk around completely unknowing of how much their loved ones who are no longer with them are trying to bring them joy. It is our job, not only as missionaries, but as members of this church to go and answer all of those prayers and get both the quick and the dead to complete their temple ordinances and be saved.
In summary, I would like to reitterate to all of you from Elder Nelson to do your family history work. Try to find the little hazard symbols next to your ancestors names and save them. They are depending on us. We are the only ones who can help them. So go and save somebody's grandpa! They will literally be eternally grateful.
I love and miss you all!
Elder Jeff Bromley II
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