We have some amazing resources in the Lehigh Valley to help people find their families. In the church, we nickname this feeling the “Spirit of Elijah.” It is an amazing feeling to have this happen, to have your “heart turned to your fathers,” as Malachi described. As people begin to reach out to and find their ancestors, they are amazed at how their hearts are touched and they have a desire to learn more about who their ancestors were and how they lived. We emphasize the need for people to find their own ancestors and help their own family. We have enormous databases that are available free and are undertaking an enormous volunteer effort to digitize key data from handwritten records. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Church therefore has invested heavily in genealogical research making it possible for individuals to have access to as many of the world’s genealogical records as we can access. However before we can perform these ordinances, we need to know who these people were. Today baptisms and other ordinances, including eternal marriages are performed in our temples for those who were not able to receive it when they were alive. The restoration of the sealing power makes this possible for that ordinance to be performed here and be effective in the next life. In the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians verse 29, the apostle Paul indicates that it is possible for baptism to be performed for the dead, namely, that people living now can be baptized on behalf of those who have already passed into the next world. A just God certainly would not allow them to not have an opportunity to be baptized.
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