Saturday, December 1, 2012

Day 30 - Baptism for the Dead

These are the slips of paper I saved from two of the times I did baptisms for the dead in the Cardston  Temple. Two of the slips you see are from February 7, 1976. I was baptized 72 times on this occasion. The temple was a three hour drive from Calgary. The Young Women would leave at 3am so we could arrive there by 6:00 in the morning. We did this twice a year and always looked forward to it.

I remember dressing in white and then waiting in the room for the patrons to come and get us. One time while we waited there was a family there waiting with their children. They were being sealed. Two little girls and their parents all dressed in white. Someone came to get the parents and took them off to the sealing room to be sealed. The little girls soon followed to be sealed to their newly sealed parents. It was a beautiful thing.

There's a balcony on the left side of this picture. The balcony goes nowhere. There are no stairs to this balcony and there is no door leading onto it. One time I was with a girl who saw spirits standing on this balcony and as each one was baptized they would disappear from her sight. She had been baptized quite a few times and when they told her she was finished she said, "no there's still one more." They told her no but she insisted. She told them she could see people standing on the balcony and that each time she came up out of the water people were disappearing one by one. There was still one more. They searched through the papers and couldn't find anything. Then a man stood up to look around and as he did he moved his foot. There was one paper under his foot. He picked it up. They called the name and said the prayer. She went into the water and when she came out that person was gone.

I have very fond memories of my youthful trips to the Cardston temple.