Geneology.....

I have to apologize that is has been so long since I last posted an update. But, you do have to remember that preparedness for me is a daily journey. I only put things on this blog that are either requested of me or that I feel are of value to those reading this blog. Recently I had a pretty unique experience. It has been on my mind for several weeks and I feel impressed to share my thoughts about the experience.
I have a great aunt who passed away when I was a young girl. Growing up, I remember only having the opportunity to spend a hand full of moments with her, but those moments are etched in my memory plainly. I think of them often and they always bring a smile to my face. Aunt Erris was a funny lady. Eccentric, silly, and obsessively in love with Burt Reynolds! LOL Anyhow I have vivid recollections of her bouncing me on her knee and singing a silly song that too this day I still sing to my children on occasion. I remember her big eyes under her large round spectacles and how they would light up excessively whenever I told her a story or recited some thing that I had recently memorized. I LOVED Aunt Erris and felt genuine love from her whenever I was around her. Aunt Erris was not active in the church but had been baptized as a young girl.
Over the years after I grew up and got married I would feel my Aunt Erris prompting me to get her temple work done. This sounds silly and I am so sad about it now but I would get to busy and the feeling would go away for a year or so and then it would come back again. Again, I would think about it and then I would remember that she still had children living. I had been told that it is appropriate to ask immediate family before doing the work, as sad as this sounds, I was too intimidated to ask. Eventually, after I felled to act on the feelings they left me, and left me for several years. Just recently however, the feelings have returned with an intensity that would not go away. The old feelings of the fear of having to ask her children rose in my mind, but this time I got distinct communication from Aunt Erris. In her high pitched, scratchy, voice, I could hear her in my mind so clearly telling me: "Amy, would you quit worrying about my children. I am telling you that I want you to take care of this for me! I want it, that is all the permission you need."
Within the next couple of days I went to my genealogy library and asked for help finding a family member and getting them ready to have their temple work done. (I had never done anything like this before.) They helped me find Aunt Erris and I was surprised to see that her temple work had already been done. I said out loud, but mostly to myself, "That is so weird. She has been bugging me so much." A lady sitting next to me leaned over and said to me, "Did you say that a she has been bugging you?" I briefly told her of my experience. She taught me a valuable piece of information that was given to her several years ago by an avid genealogy lover. When you have a woman bugging you, check on her children. As soon as she said that I recalled that several days ago I had had the distinct thought that I needed to check on her son Doug who had died several years before her. He was mentally retarded and so had never had a wife and family. He had been baptized for himself before his death but had never gone to the temple. So we proceeded to estimate his year of birth and look at him and also one other son that had died only a few years ago. Mike's work had already been done. Doug, however, had never had his work completed! We were able to fill out the information needed and get him Temple Ready. We will be taking his work to the temple soon!
Now you are no doubt asking, so why is she putting this on a preparedness blog? Well, many months ago a friend of mine lost her only son. An incredible giant of a young man. He was active in the church, very successful in a sport which made him nationally known, had a strong testimony and was a great example of strong character and virtue. Since his death I have pondered many times, why? I have asked Heavenly Father and sought answers in prayer. I have been impressed with thoughts that made sense but it wasn't until I went to visit this friend and she sent me home with a book to read that I was confidant of the answer. The book is called The Messenger. It is about a man who spent time in heaven while in an induced coma. I was reading this wonderful book when out of the blue in one paragraph, in one little sentence, he repeated exactly what I had been feeling the answer to my prayer was. I took that as a confirmation of my feelings. The answer to this prayer is the whole reason for this post, and it is this: Heavenly Father is calling some of his strong spirits home because times are coming that in order to make it through them the families of these spirits are going to need their help from the other side.
I feel very strongly that there are some really strong spirits anxiously waiting to help us that may not have their temple work done. I felt that way about Doug. Is it possible that there is something about temple work that has to be done in order for our family to be able to HELP us! I feel that there is! I am writing this post to give you something to think about. Maybe we should do a little digging into our family history and make sure that some of those 'strong spirits' have what they need in order to help us be prepared!