Over the past 2 years, we as a family have set a goal to increase our temple attendance. One part of this was taking our son to do baptisms for the dead once a month. The goal was to research names and take family names each month. This has been an incredible experience for us. One time we were researching a day before we had planned to go to the temple and we had only been able to find female names. My son said, “Maybe we should wait and go another day.” 

My reply was, “Let’s keep searching.” 

I woke up early the next morning and started looking at all our previous leads. Nothing was working out. I was getting a bit discouraged. I then said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to guide me to those names of our ancestors that were ready that day to have their baptisms done. Next, the thought came to my mind that I should go to my temple list of names that were already reserved. I went there and clicked on one of the names that we had found previously. I started doing some research. After an hour of working, I found three male names and documents of their births, deaths and marriages! I immediately added them and attached all of their documents to FamilySearch. These three men were a father, son and grandfather. They lived in Holland in the 1700s and were related to me through my husband.

After I sent these names to my temple reservation list so that I could get their cards printed at the temple, I had the most amazing feeling. It was so powerful that I could not deny it. I felt as if these three men were aware of what I was doing and that they were extremely happy that they would be getting baptized that day. After this, I ran to share my experience with my family. I think that everyone could feel the Spirit as I relayed what I had felt.

My son and I then went to the temple. I went to get the cards printed and the temple worker looked at me strangely when I passed her the paper. She asked, “Do you feel that?” 

I said, “Yes! You mean you can feel it too?”  

She said that she could feel something very strong when I passed her the paper. I said, “Yes, it is the three Dutchmen.” 

During the baptisms and right after, I also felt the most amazing feeling. It was like the room could not contain how much joy was in it.

I’m am so grateful for this experience. It taught me that the veil is thin and that our ancestors are aware of us. We can be guided through the Holy Ghost to know where to search for their names. 

-Julie Hyder, Patron, Granite Family History Center