After my 17 year old daughter died in a car wreck I had an experience with 'another function of guardian angels.' We had moved into our new Ward just before the wreck and our Church membership records came after her death. LDS Wards send membership records into Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City for all who are deceased. When our family membership records finally came from our previous Ward the clerk came by to have us check our daughter's record to make sure everything was accurate before sending it in. I looked over it, she was born on May 4th, died April 4th and at that time I hadn't remembered...but she had been baptized on June 4th. So that is what stood out to me...the same as it did my husband when he looked at it. All those 4th of the month...it was interesting! The Clerk left us that copy of her record and after he left I took it upstairs and set it in her room thinking that if she were allowed to check in on us she would see it. I went to my room and laid on my bed and just sobbed over the loss of this sweet daughter.
Unexpectedly...out of nowhere came a voice to my mind. It was so loud and so clear, "IT IS NOT CORRECT!" The crying stopped instantly and I rushed into her room to check and sure enough...on the line: 'sealed to parents' it was blank. It should have had 'BIC'
(Born in the Covenant) on it. I had been a Genealogy Librarian years before and was familiar with checking over records but somehow I had missed it. A call was made to the clerk to make the needed correction.
What a comfort it has been in the deepest of grief and sorrow to know the blessings of the Temple that allow families to be sealed together for eternity. And as
'children of the covenant' special divine blessings as well as sacred obligations are theirs. What greater gift could loving and righteous parents give to their children through the Gospel of Jesus Christ? 'Families are Forever' through the wonderful blessings of Temple covenants.
Several months later I was reading the book 'Life Everlasting' by Duane S. Crowther when one story he related struck me with such force in light of my experience. Quote:
"Another function of guardian angels was clearly reveled to Elder John Mickelson Lang, a temple worker in the St. George Temple, in 1928.
"One day while baptismal rites were being performed, I distinctly heard a voice at the end of the font, very close to the ceiling, calling the names of the dead to witness their own baptism, allowing a moment for each spirit to present itself. After hearing many names called, I noticed a difference in the pronunciation of some of them. It seemed that the spirit who was calling must have a different list to ours.
"I was so impressed at the time that I placed my arm about the shoulders of Bro. W. T. Morris, clerk, who was passing, and called his attention to the sound of the voice, but it was not discernable to him.
"This occurrence had taken place in March of 1928, and it continued to prey upon my mind for some months, until one day in Oct. I had gone to an upper room of the Temple, as was my custom, to offer secret prayer, asking for the assistance of God in my work, and to thank Him for showing me that there was a recording angel in His house, to keep a perfect record of that which transpired. I had finished my prayer and was about to leave the room when the question flashed through my mind, 'But where and how does He get these names? Some of them were not pronounced the same as ours.'
"God knew my thoughts; I never asked of Him to know. The explanation came to me in these words: 'Every spirit that comes to earth has a guardian angel, whose duty it is to keep a record of the individual's parentage, the conditions under which it was born, its inheritance, environment, thoughts and desires, and when the individual's life is completed, the guardian angel's mission ends. It returns, makes its report and hands in the record it has kept. This record is placed upon the other book, spoken of as The Book of Life.'
"All this gave me to understand that in this other book is preserved the names and perfect dates of every spirit that ever came to the earth.
"It is also made plain therein, how all things will be proven by two or three witnesses; for instance, in case a child is left on a doorstep, the guardian angel of the child, that of the father and of the mother constitute three witnesses to the child's parentage. There are two witnesses to all things which transpire between any two persons. Also, God can give into the Temples a perfect record of the Lamanites, for instance, or any other people who have no earth record.
"God is perfect. His record is perfect. We will be judged from the books.
"I bear record that this testimony is true, for I received it from an angel in the house of the Lord."
('Life Everlasting' by Duane S. Crowther; "A Testimony Received by John Mickelson Lang in the St. George Temple in the Year 1928," unpublished manuscript in the possession of Sister Ruth Gregory, Smithfield, Utah.)
Links to paintings:
Heavenly Hands by Greg Olsen
The St. George Temple by Marcia Johnson
Also see:
Angelology: The Doctrine of Angels
After my 17 year old daughter died in a car wreck I had an experience with 'another function of guardian angels.' We had moved into our new Ward just before the wreck and our Church membership records came after her death. LDS Wards send membership records into Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City for all who are deceased. When our family membership records finally came from our previous Ward the clerk came by to have us check our daughter's record to make sure everything was accurate before sending it in. I looked over it, she was born on May 4th, died April 4th and at that time I hadn't remembered...but she had been baptized on June 4th. So that is what stood out to me...the same as it did my husband when he looked at it. All those 4th of the month...it was interesting! The Clerk left us that copy of her record and after he left I took it upstairs and set it in her room thinking that if she were allowed to check in on us she would see it. I went to my room and laid on my bed and just sobbed over the loss of this sweet daughter.
Unexpectedly...out of nowhere came a voice to my mind. It was so loud and so clear, "IT IS NOT CORRECT!" The crying stopped instantly and I rushed into her room to check and sure enough...on the line: 'sealed to parents' it was blank. It should have had 'BIC' (Born in the Covenant) on it. I had been a Genealogy Librarian years before and was familiar with checking over records but somehow I had missed it. A call was made to the clerk to make the needed correction.
What a comfort it has been in the deepest of grief and sorrow to know the blessings of the Temple that allow families to be sealed together for eternity. And as 'children of the covenant' special divine blessings as well as sacred obligations are theirs. What greater gift could loving and righteous parents give to their children through the Gospel of Jesus Christ? 'Families are Forever' through the wonderful blessings of Temple covenants.
Several months later I was reading the book 'Life Everlasting' by Duane S. Crowther when one story he related struck me with such force in light of my experience. Quote:
