As Easter week, the week of General Conference was kind of special. On Thursday before Conference, some very dear friends made it possible for me to attend the temple with them. Very early into our information session, something brought my Great Aunt Lucy clearly to my mind and I thought of her the entire time. I could almost feel her youth and enthusiasm of not being tied to an elderly body anymore and of her sheer joy of being reunited with Joe. I was moved to tears more than once remembering her and feeling her with me.
In the temple we receive instruction and make covenants for ourselves, and after we have completed them for ourselves, we do proxy work for those that have passed without the opportunity to hear these things. While some may have umbrage with this and feel it is disrespecting the departed's culture while living, I find it so moving to "help" others who have gone on before learn about Christ, and if they aren't interested, it is the same as it is here- Thanks, but no thanks. The "session" I happened to attend was FULL of people doing proxy work for the same entire family from Italy! Over 40 members of the same family- ranging from the 1700s to the 1930s had their "work" done at the same time. My friend and I memorized the name and phone number of the man who had done the genealogy research because we wanted to let him know just how amazing it was, and just how much had been completed, when we noticed the temple worker had the same last name! she said it was the genealogy of her husband's family and he was excited to see it get done. As we were leaving the temple, we said goodbye to the "desk man" and it turned out to be him! we got to hear a couple quick stories of some of the people we got to do the work for and hear some of his family history! It was truly an amazing day!
We sustained a new prophet during a Solemn Assembly during the first session of Conference. This has only happened 15 times during the history of the church and I wanted my children to be a part of it. The sustaining of a prophet is completely different than the way other ecclesiastical leaders may be chosen in other faiths. During Solemn Assembly, each organization, age group and quorum of the church is asked if they will sustain and support the new prophet and other leaders as presented. All of us were to raise our right arm to the square if we felt that we could support the new leadership. I was SO excited to share this opportunity with my children, and although it may seem irreverent- I couldn't help but to take pictures of my family participating in this rare event!
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