I love reading and hearing stories of people who were brought to Christ, changed their lives through repentance, accepted His atoning sacrifice, received the ordinances, and made sacred covenants to aid them in staying true and faithful to the Gospel.

We can read accounts in The Book of Mormon of the effect of missionary work in the conversion of God’s children. We learn how the Spirit worked upon Alma, one of the wicked priests of Noah. As the prophet Abinadi preached, Alma was converted, and later taught and wrote the things Abinadi had preached. By sharing his conversion experience and the teachings of Abinadi with others, many were converted. Think of how King Lamoni, his household and even his Father were taught by Ammon, one of the sons of Mosiah (Alma 17-21). While Ammon and his brothers were serving missions to the Lamanites many were converted. Some Lamanite converts were moved to bury their weapons of war in the ground, and suffer death rather than to break the covenants they had made with God.

In the scriptures we read of some who were taught by heavenly beings in a powerful and dramatic fashion. Who has not felt joy as they have read the account of an Angel appearing to Alma the Younger and the four sons of Mosiah, or the story of Christ appearing to Saul on the road to Damascus, to become a great disciple in the work of Christ? Most conversions come little by little, as we learn to become more like Christ day by day. Whether our conversion came dramatically or gradually, we have covenanted to share the gospel with God’s children. We rejoice as we see our brothers and sisters, with hearts changed, embracing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for the first time, or returning to the path they were once on.

One of the most beautiful doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints, which has been restored in this last dispensation, is the doctrine of the redemption of the dead. We are taught that through missionary work going on in the spirit world, persons who have died without having received the ordinances of the gospel, will be taught, and be able to use their agency to accept Christ’s gospel there. Those who accept Christ’s gospel in the spirit world need to be baptized and receive the ordinances of the temple. They can’t receive these ordinances as spirits, but depend on those who are living to enter the Houses of the Lord, and do this sacred work for them.

As we are engaged in family history work, we have the opportunity to serve those who are being taught the gospel in the spirit world to receive necessary ordinances. While temples are closed and we are not able to participate in proxy work now, we can prepare names of our family members to be brought to the temples, when they open again. We can participate in this work of redemption, this work of salvation, for our loved ones now. –Elaine Hardman