5 Ways Angels Communicate With Us

 

5 ways angels communicate with us

byDonald W. Parry, adapted from "Angels: Agents of Light, Love, and Power" | Sep. 21, 2020

This excerpt was originally published by LDS Living in August 2018 and is being shared again in honor of the anniversary of the night the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith. 

President Boyd K. Packer taught that divine revelation may come in various ways: “The Lord reveals His will through dreams and visions, visitations, through angels, through His own voice, and through the voice of His servants. ‘Whether by mine own voice,’ He said, ‘or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.”¹ Depending on the needs of mortals and according to the will of the Lord, angels communicate with mortals in a variety of ways—by a visitation, by a voice, by thoughts, by feelings, or in other ways. . . .

Many visitations from the spirit world are from relatives, including grandparents, parents, and siblings. Deceased friends, too, may visit loved ones with messages from God. President Joseph F. Smith wrote, “Our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters and friends who have passed away from this earth, having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given them to visit their relatives and friends upon the earth again, bringing from the divine Presence messages of love, of warning, or reproof and instruction, to those whom they had learned to love in the flesh.”² President Smith then gave an example of Sister Cannon, who “can return and visit her friends,” but he added, it had to “be in accordance with the wisdom of the Almighty” because “there are laws to which they who are in the Paradise of God must be subject, as well as laws to which we are subject.”³

1. Angels can communicate through dreams and visions.

Is there a difference between a vision and an inspired dream? Elder James E. Talmage explained: “In general, visions are manifested to the waking senses whilst dreams are given during sleep. In the vision, however, the senses may be so affected as to render the person practically unconscious, at least oblivious to ordinary occurrences, while he is able to discern the heavenly manifestation. In the earlier dispensations, the Lord frequently communicated through dreams and visions, oftentimes revealing to prophets the events of the future even to the latest generations.”⁴ Examples of angels communicating with persons in dreams include Jacob (“And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream”; Genesis 31:11), and Joseph (“the angel appeared unto him in a dream”; Matthew 1:20; 2:13, 19).

Some individuals may tend to minimize the significance of dreams originating from God. Some indicate that a vision is greater or more important, but both President Spencer W. Kimball and President Harold B. Lee taught regarding the importance of God-inspired dreams.⁵ Even as various persons, both men and women, from the Bible and Book of Mormon had God-inspired dreams and visions that included angels, both men and women in the last days may also experience heavenly communications. Such was the testimony of the prophet Joel (Joel 2:28; see also Acts 2:17). When he visited the young Joseph Smith on the evening of September 21, 1823, the angel Moroni cited Joel 2:28–32 and stated that the words of these verses would soon be fulfilled (see Joseph Smith–History 1:41).

2. Angels communicate with mortals by speaking to them.

We know that angels communicate with mortals by speaking to them. For example, “the angel of the Lord called unto [Abraham] out of heaven . . . the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time . . .” (Genesis 22:11, 15). Alma 12:29 states that God “sent angels to converse with them.” President Brigham Young told his audience that “there are persons in this congregation that will converse with angels just as freely as we converse with each other.”⁶

President Boyd K. Packer, citing passages from the Book of Mormon, explained: “We are told that ‘angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost.’ We are even told that when we speak by the power of the Holy Ghost, we ‘speak with the tongue [or in the same language] of angels.’ (2 Nephi 31:13; 2 Nephi 32:2.)”⁷ President Packer further explained: “Nephi explained that angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost, and you can speak with the tongue of angels, which simply means that you can speak with the power of the Holy Ghost. It will be quiet. It will be invisible. There will not be a dove. There will not be cloven tongues of fire. But the power will be there.”⁸

On one occasion, Elder Parley P. Pratt was seeking men to join Zion’s Camp; he had traveled for many hours by carriage, ridden through the night, and finally stopped to rest at noon. He loosened the horse to permit it to graze, and then he fell asleep. Because of his exhaustion, he later recorded, he “might have lain in a state of oblivion till the shades of night had gathered about me. . . . I had only slept a few moments till the horse had grazed sufficiently, when a voice, more loud and shrill than I had ever before heard, fell on my ear, and thrilled through every part of my system; it said: ‘Parley, it is time to be up and on your journey.’” Elder Pratt quickly responded, found his horse, and traveled on until he rejoined Zion’s Camp. When he told Joseph Smith of this experience, the Prophet explained that it was “the angel of the Lord who went before the camp” who woke him.⁹

3. Angels communicate with thoughts or feelings.

In addition to angels’ visitations and conversations, angels may communicate with thoughts or by feelings. Elder Dallin H. Oaks summarized: “The ministering of angels can also be unseen. Angelic messages can be delivered by a voice or merely by thoughts or feelings communicated to the mind. President John Taylor described ‘the action of the angels, or messengers of God, upon our minds, so that the heart can conceive . . . revelations from the eternal world’ (The Gospel Kingdom, sel. G. Homer Durham [1943], 31).

“Nephi described three manifestations of the ministering of angels when he reminded his rebellious brothers that (1) they had ‘seen an angel,’ (2) they had ‘heard his voice from time to time,’ and (3) also that an angel had ‘spoken unto [them] in a still small voice’ though they were ‘past feeling’ and ‘could not feel his words’ (1 Nephi 17:45) . . . Most angelic communications are felt or heard rather than seen.”¹⁰

As Elder Oaks attested, mortals can feel the words of an angel. The full text of 1 Nephi 17:45 states: “Ye are swift to do iniquity but slow to remember the Lord your God. Ye have seen an angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words; wherefore, he has spoken unto you like unto the voice of thunder, which did cause the earth to shake as if it were to divide asunder” (italics added). The concept of feeling an angel’s words may be indicated in the following passage from latter-day scripture: “Which our forefathers have awaited with anxious expectation to be revealed in the last times, which their minds were pointed to by the angels, as held in reserve for the fulness of their glory” (D&C 121:27).

4. Angels can give impressions.

Christopher Columbus was guided by an angel from the Lord, who “gave him deep impressions,” taught Elder Orson Hyde on America’s Independence Day in 1854: “[An] angel was with Columbus, and gave him deep impressions, by dreams and by visions, respecting this New World. Trammelled by poverty and by an unpopular cause, yet his persevering and unyielding heart would not allow an obstacle in his way too great for him to overcome; and the angel of God helped him.”¹¹

5. Angels can communicate through pure intelligence.

Other Church authorities provide additional understanding regarding spiritual communications with angels. President Boyd K. Packer, citing the Prophet Joseph Smith, referred to “pure intelligence,” which one may experience when communicating with an angel: “Should an angel converse with you, neither you nor he would be confined to corporeal sight or sound in order to communicate. For there is that spiritual process described by the Prophet Joseph by which pure intelligence can flow into our minds and by which we can know what we need to know without either the effort of study or the passage of time, because that is revelation.”¹²

Laws govern angels and their communications.

Angels’ visitations and communications must be authorized by those authorities who are assigned to direct such work. All of God’s messengers, whether they are resurrected or translated beings, unembodied or disembodied spirits, or mortals must comply with God’s laws relating to communication among the different spheres of existence. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that “the organization of the spiritual and heavenly worlds, and of spiritual and heavenly beings, was agreeable to the most perfect order and harmony: their limits and bounds were fixed irrevocably.”¹³ Without order and divine organization among the spheres, there would exist chaos and confusion. Elder Orson F. Whitney explained: “God’s house is a house of order, and the spirit world is a room in that house. This being the case, it is only reasonable to conclude that before anything important or unusual can take place there, the Master of the Mansion must first give consent. Otherwise confusion would prevail, and the divine purpose for which the veil was dropped between the two worlds might be thwarted. . . . Permission from the Great Father would have to be obtained before one of his children, either an unembodied or a disembodied spirit, could make itself manifest to mortals.”¹⁴

Lead image: Shutterstock

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Although angels are a vital part of Latter-day Saint history and doctrine, their roles and purposes are often misunderstood. In this inspiring volume, author Donald W. Parry discusses in a clear and understandable way what we can learn from the scriptures and from modern prophets and apostles about angels and their missions. Available now at DeseretBook.com.

 

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1.     “Personal Revelation: The Gift, the Test, and the Promise,” Ensign, Nov. 1994, 61; see also N. Eldon Tanner, “Warnings from Outer Space,” Ensign, Nov. 1972, 26: “Since the very beginning of time we have a record of God’s messages to man, either by personal appearance, by angels, by direct revelation, by visions, by dreams, or by inspiration.”

2.     Gospel Doctrine, 436.

3.     Gospel Doctrine, 436.

4.     Articles of Faith, 205.

5.     Kimball, “The Cause Is Just and Worthy,” Ensign, May 1974, 119; Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places, 142.

6.     Journal of Discourses, 5:258.

7.     “Personal Revelation: The Gift, the Test, and the Promise,” Ensign, Nov. 1994, 59.

8.     “The Gift of the Holy Ghost: What Every Member Should Know,” Ensign, Aug. 2006, 49–50.

9.     Autobiography, 93–94.

10.“The Aaronic Priesthood and the Sacrament,” Ensign, Nov. 1998, 38–39.

11.Journal of Discourses, 6:368.

12.Mine Errand from the Lord, 125.

13.Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 325.

14.Saturday Night Thoughts, 307.

https://www.ldsliving.com/5-Ways-Angels-Communicate-with-Us/s/89075?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=email

Visits from the Unborn By Anne Hinton Pratt

 

Visits from the Unborn

By Anne Hinton Pratt · August 10, 2020

 

The most poignant feelings we have in this mortal existence often involve the deep connections we enjoy with our children and grandchildren. There is a familiarity that is often present with these children even before they are born. When the veil is very thin…

The Presence of Spirits

A couple of days after my 2^nd son was born (third pregnancy), I was laying on the bed resting, when I distinctly felt the presence of spirits in the room on my left side. I had the uncanny feeling that they were my unborn children and were there viewing me and the circumstances that they would be born into.  At that time, an extraordinary thing happened.  I suddenly felt a yearning to have more children.  This was not normal! My default position after having a baby was generally something like, “Well, I’m never doing that again!” But strangely, just a day or two after this son was born I was wanting to welcome new spirits into my home.  I marveled at the change of heart that they brought, opening the way for them to be.

The singularity of sensing pre-born children is always sacred and oh so sweet! I’ve had many people willing to share their wonderful stories with me and have been given permission to also communicate them with you. Each story illustrates an inspiring way to be re-introduced to well-known, yet-to-be-born loved ones.

 “There is My Mother!”  “I Know You!”

Shelli Dimig had an experience akin to mine, where she felt a son who was observing her before birth.  She said,

“One afternoon in 1999, I was walking into my bedroom to set down a basket of laundry on my bed, feeling very, very ill due to major heartburn and morning sickness, being about four months pregnant. As I sat the basket down, I heard a click in the upper left-hand corner of my bedroom. I looked there and immediately heard an adult male voice say, “THERE IS MY MOTHER.” I was completely shocked, not expecting such an occurrence! I stood there and marveled that I must be having a boy and that he had, apparently brought his friend to see his future mother through the veil.

“I became very attached to my son-to-be at that point and looked forward to meeting him again and raising him.  (An interesting note is that my son Jay was born at home in that room just a few feet away from where I heard the click from above! It was a sacred space.)” [1]

Diane Chase told me about how after her 5^th daughter was born, she became reacquainted with her daughter’s familiar spirit. As she was holding her in the hospital, they locked eyes and the message that clearly came through was, “I KNOW YOU!”[2] 

What a powerful message that was, and from then on the beautiful relationship with her daughter began again.

At times parents feel their yet-to-be-born children communicating with them to greet, advise, inform or comfort.  In the following story, the messages came to a grandmother who was able to encourage her unsettled granddaughter to come to earth. 

Hesitation of Preexistent Spirit

Laurel Larsen Stokes writes the following powerful experience:

“Just a year ago I was relaxing after a previous busy day at work and laying on my bed reading and dozing.  I was literally shaken awake by my ancestors, and I suddenly had an abrupt, emergent, encompassing “knowing” that there was a problem with my granddaughter that was scheduled to be born by C-section that day. I knew there was some kind of an emergency, so I immediately took action by checking with my daughter to see if there were any issues with the baby prior to her planned C-section.  Her only response was that it had been delayed for a couple of hours, but the unborn baby was doing fine.  I texted my other two daughters and asked them for their prayers and spoke to my husband asking for his prayers.   

“I felt the ancestors knew I needed to do those things while they waited for me. I went back to my room, sat on my bed feeling them surround me again.  I then was met by my great grandmother who was one of the early church midwives in northern Utah.  Though I have seen pictures of her when she was older, I was now seeing her as a young adult, but I had a “knowing” who she was. 

“She escorted me over to an area where there were other spirits. Without speaking, she conveyed through thoughts that my granddaughter was there and was very hesitant to be born.  I communicated to my granddaughter without speaking that we would be there for her and would help her!  I then was sent back to my physical surroundings.

“My granddaughter was born healthy two hours later.” [3]

Who knows what would have happened if Laurel had not been allowed to intervene. The next story also involves a grandmother.  In this experience she saw her granddaughter in great detail in a very special setting…

Shining Apparition

JoJean Loflin had an extraordinary experience which occurred on November 7, 2002. Her daughter Andrea had struggled with carrying babies to full term and had previously lost several of them early on.  She had finally succeeded in her third in-vitro attempt, and the whole family rejoiced for her.  JoJean writes:

“On that Thursday morning, I left the house early as always to attend my Temple shift in the Provo Utah Temple.  That morning my heart was overflowing with gratitude and joy.  I expressed my thanks to God for the pregnancy of my daughter and asked that I would be open to the holy influences of the Temple.                                                                                           

“The Endowment room, as is customary, was darkened for the showing of the film, and I struggled to stay awake that hour of the morning, after just a few hours of sleep, and perhaps had briefly dozed off.

“I suddenly came to myself, raised my head, and looked around the darkened room, at this time fully awake. In the center of the aisle, between the two sides of the room, I saw light begin to gather and spread. It became brighter and brighter, filling the center of the room, though I still sat in darkness, and I saw a figure taking shape in the light that clearly became the figure of a woman.

“As she became more distinct, I was aware that the light continued to radiate into the back and upper corners of the room, and all around her. She was tall, slender and beautiful. Her whole being was radiant beyond my capacity to describe – glorious, elegant, shining, exquisite. She was wearing a white gown, gathered loosely at the base of the neck and falling from there to her feet and having long full sleeves that came to the wrist and were gathered into a cuff there. Her hands were beautiful and graceful, her arms not straight at her sides but with elbows bent, hands in front of her, her right hand slightly outstretched toward me.

“She was not a phantom or an apparition; I could not see through her but perceived her as a person of solidity and substance. I watched in awe for perhaps 30- 40 seconds or so, as she stood there and looked at me. Then the light slowly began to gather out of the corners and back into the center until it faded away completely, and she was gone.

“I had a hard time concentrating after that.  I didn’t know what to think or how to think…

After the session JoJean went home where she immediately was told that she needed to go to Andrea because things weren’t good.  She met with Andrea and her husband shortly thereafter and learned that during an ultrasound just a couple of hours before, no heartbeat was found.  Their baby daughter was dead. JoJean continues:

“I shared with them my experience of the morning and expressed the possibility that that beautiful angel was their unborn daughter. Since that time, I have become ever more convinced that indeed she was.

“The reality of that experience was an immeasurable comfort to me in the weeks that followed it – and it has been a source of wonder and joy to me ever since.  I testify now and forever that this was not a dream; it was not a hallucination. It was not a figment of my imagination. It was as real as anything I have ever seen or felt in my life” [4]

What a powerful experience JoJean had!  It’s an honor to those for whom the veil is thinned, even though the situations may be heartbreaking.  In this final miraculous story, both parents, in three different settings, were privileged to communicate with their unborn daughter.

Tragedy and Miracles

Teiva Kubiak and his wife Haunui live on the island of Moorea near Tahiti.  Haunui has had a difficult time with pregnancies in the seven years they have been married.  In the pregnancy I will be referring to, she was nearly four months along when she began encountering problems, eventually losing all the amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus.  When this happened, their baby girl [who they named Nuihere] died.  They were devastated because they had been praying for a miracle of healing. Their miracles, however, came in unusual ways.

An amazing sequence of spiritual events began about five days before their baby died.  At that time, they didn’t know the sex of the child, so it was enlightening when Haunui had a vision of a young woman she instantly recognized as her child.  In the vision, this beautiful young woman was waving goodbye to her, so Haunui became alerted for what was coming.

A few days later when Haunui was required to be transported by ambulance from their home to the hospital, she herself died for a short time.  In the spirit world, she saw this same daughter, dressed in white with Christ. It was a magnificent, incredible experience! Haunui desperately  wanted to stay there with them, but both Nuihere and the Lord told her that she hadn’t finished her mission and that she needed to return to her husband Teiva because he needed her more…

Haunui was resuscitated and was able to return home.

A week later, Teiva and Haunui went to the temple to express their tremendous gratitude to Heavenly Father for her recovery.  Teiva continues the story in his own words:

“In the celestial room, as I was praying, I deeply asked our Father in Heaven to let Nuihere come to me. As I was asking, I could feel her love for me. She was with me, like holding me in her arms. It was a moment I will cherish forever. Even writing it now makes tears come out. It lasted like 5 minutes then vanished, but I will never forget it. Only a very few number of people know this story, but I’m happy to share it now as a testimony that the family is eternal.” [5]

Gamut of Experience

In these stories I’ve shared the gamut of experience from the unborn popping in to provide unexpected delight,- to a grandmother encouraging a spirit to be born, – to the witnessing of a spirit before or after death.  Each story illustrates such beautiful ways to be re-introduced to well-known loved ones.

For reasons only God fully knows, some spirits are permitted to manifest themselves to us. When we feel, hear, or see their spirits in this realm it’s a very sacred experience that opens the doorway from one world to another and lets us know how very thin the veil can be… 

 

https://latterdaysaintmag.com/visits-from-the-unborn/

Duchesne County plane crash survivors share their Miracle in the sky story

 

Duchesne County plane crash survivors share their miracle in the sky story

 

By Garna Mejia, KSL TV | Posted - Aug. 9, 2020 at 7:46 p.m.

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5PM: Duchesne County plane crash survivors share their miracle in the sky

KSL TV

MOUNTAIN HOME — A small plane carrying six people crashed near Moon Lake in Duchesne County on Friday, and miraculously, everyone survived. The plane’s pilot spoke to KSL from his hospital room about the crash and what happened for all six people to survive.

Shadrach Feild shared that he trained a lot for a worst-case scenario, and while that training kicked in, he felt divine intervention’s hand.

“I absolutely know that God had his hand in this,” Shadrach Feild said. “It’s a miracle.”

When you see what’s left of Feild’s Cessna T210M, it’s hard to believe that everyone on board survived.

“For the terrain that we were in and how it all unfolded, it takes more than a good pilot to get through this,” he said.

Six people were on board the plane including Feild, his wife Jazlyn, their family friends Betsy and Gentry Mikesell, and their 16-year-old teenage twin sons, Brock and Boston Mikesell.

The group said they were out flying near Moon Lake on Friday morning.

“When I came over the corner over the lake, there was a lot of wind coming at me, which isn’t normally a big deal,” Feild said. “My plane — a Turbo charged 210 — has plenty of horsepower.

That’s when Feild said the engine gave out.

“I pushed the throttle in and there was no power,” he said. “It kept running, but there was just no power.”

“It took about 12 seconds from that point to the time we touched down,” said Betsy Mikesell, explaining that they only had moments to brace for impact.

Meanwhile, Shad prepared the plane and crew for an emergency landing.

“I remember telling them I would take care of them,” Feild said, holding back emotions. “We made it across the lake.”

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“Because Shad was so calm, I just thought he was landing it. He never said, ‘we’re going to crash,’” Mikesell said.

As Shad looked for a landing spot, he spotted two possible locations. The first, he said, was a beach, but there were people on it and he feared his tires wouldn’t handle the sand well. The second option was an open field.

“I thought it would be better to try and land in the sage brush flat,” Feild said. “I didn’t want to flip over and hurt the people in the back.”

“For some reason in my mind, I was just so calm,” Mikesell said. “I just remember bracing and holding onto the seat in front of me.”

Mikesell said she was the first one out of the plane as nearby campers ran to their rescue.

“Someone said that you could feel angels everywhere, and I feel like that is what we experienced, “ Mikesell said. “Someone else said that it looked like we were just being carried down to the ground, and I swear that is literally what happened.”

“I lost my dad about four years ago, and I know that he helped,” Feild said. “I could feel him the whole time.”

Brock managed to walk away from the crash.

Betsy said Shad and Gentry both suffered T12 back injuries and remain hospitalized. Gentry also has a broken femur, tibia, and shattered ankle. Additionally, he suffered a broken nose and 3 fractures on his face.

Shad’s wife Jazyln broke her arm and wrist.

Boston, the other twin, fractured a hip.

And Betsy said she has four broken ribs on each side, a neck injury and bruised lungs.

Despite their injuries, they said they’re grateful to be alive and for the help of first responders and the campers who ran to their aid.

“Not only where we landed but that the plane died where it did — had it have been 45 seconds earlier, we all would’ve died,” Feild said. “There was nowhere to land 45 seconds earlier. It was God’s hand.”

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash.

https://www.ksl.com/article/50004503/duchesne-county-plane-crash-survivors-share-their-miracle-in-the-sky-story

A Nigh Time Visit from a Spirit By Boyd K. Packer

A nighttime visit from a spirit: An uplifting story from President Packer

By President Boyd K. Packer, excerpted from "The Holy Temple" | Aug. 03, 2020

At the rededication of the Logan Temple in 1979 I recounted an incident in the life of my wife's grandfather, which I include here.

The Logan Temple is sacred to our family, for there my wife and I were married, and my wife's grandfather responded to the call and helped to construct that temple.

C. O. Law, the superintendent of construction for that temple, wrote on February 25, 1884: "This letter certifies that Brother Julius Smith of Brigham City has worked faithfully and honorably on the Logan Temple for nearly two years, and as the temple nears completion, his branch of the labor being terminated, he is now honorably released and we sincerely trust that Brother Smith may become a participant in the blessings of the House of the Lord which he has assisted to erect."

Brother Smith with his wife, Josephina, lived on a few acres of ground in Brigham City. There they raised fourteen children, my wife's father being the youngest. When the call came for workers to assist in the building of the temple, he responded.

Each Monday morning he left his family in the care of his wife and hiked up through Flat Bottom Canyon, down Dry Canyon to the south end of Cache Valley, and on to Logan. After his week's work on Saturday, he walked home to spend Sunday with his family. . . .

The hope "that Brother Smith would participate in the blessings of the House of the Lord which he had assisted to erect" was amply fulfilled. He went there often.

As a young man he had lived among the Indians. In later years when Indian bands would visit Brigham City, one of the Indians would go to the home of Brother Smith. His visits were not welcomed by the rest of the family, for he would peer in every window intently until he determined that Brother Smith was home. And only then would he knock at the door.

One night, some years after the completion of the temple, Brother Smith was reading his newspaper. He heard a noise at the window, and he saw his Indian friend peering in with an unusually sad expression. He went to the door and found no one there, and the snow beneath the window had not been disturbed.

This incident bothered him greatly, and during the following week he tried to locate and get some information about this Indian friend. He learned that he had died.

In due time, he recorded, "Today I have taken care of his work in the temple." That very evening he was looking through the mail and again heard a sound at the window. When he looked up he saw his Indian friend, this time smiling. He counted that a very sacred experience, and in the record of a great amount of work done by this faithful grandfather in this temple is found the name Be-a-go-tia.

I have wondered over the years about the meaning of the scripture recorded three times in the Book of Mormon, that "the course of the Lord is one eternal round." (1 Nephi 10:19, Alma 7:20, Alma 37:12.)

I can see one meaning as it relates to our work for the dead. Genealogical work, the essential preparation for temple work, puts us to seeking through the records for those who have lived in the past. We look back to the past to find them. We perform temple ordinance work for them and then we look forward to the future to meet them. Something sacred is consummated when we have safely recorded, in the list of ordinances completed, the names of those who lived in our past and who yet live in our future. This ordinance work is crucial to us and to the Church.

https://www.ldsliving.com/President-Packer-s-Uplifting-Ghost-Story/s/83463?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=email

Don't Let Me Die Here By Gerald Lund

"Don’t Let Me Die Here": How a Touching Visit from Her Deceased Husband Brought One Woman Peace

byGerald N. Lund, excerpted from "Divine Signatures"  | Apr. 21, 2018

Comments

Let me share one example of a divine signature that has special significance for me personally. This was a tender mercy in the fullest sense of the word tender. My father, typical of many other men from his generation, did not express emotion openly very often. In all my growing-up years, I can never remember him telling me or any of my brothers and sisters that he loved us. We knew that he did, because he was a good father. He read stories to us almost every night. He taught us to work and how to be responsible.

The one exception to his emotional reticence was with my mother. With her, he was openly expressive of his love. He would often take her in his arms in front of us and tell us how she was the best thing that ever happened to him. Then he would kiss her soundly. It always embarrassed Mom but delighted us. One of the quickest ways to trigger Dad’s wrath was to be sassy to Mom. That behavior was corrected instantly and in a way that was not quickly forgotten. . . .

After more than sixty years of married life, my father died of colon cancer in 1995. As I watched Mom as the months and years moved on, I came to understand in ways I had not understood before what it meant to grieve for a person. She went on with life as a widow for the next nine years, but never quite got over the loss of Dad. She lived close to us and my siblings for a time, then moved in with our family for three years before we were called to go to England.

One day while we were having breakfast together, we were talking about Dad, and I said something about how protective and caring he had always been toward her. Her eyes immediately misted up as she nodded. Then she told us that in the latter part of their life the tenderness had only increased.

“He was always so tender with me in those last years,” she said. “For example, every night when we went to bed, we would lay there and talk for awhile. Finally, as we prepared to go to sleep, he would reach across to me and lay his hand on my cheek.” By now the tears were flowing. “Then he would say, ‘I love you, Evelyn.’”

By that time, both my wife and I were a little teary-eyed too. But she wasn’t through. “I have something I want to share with you about your father that I’ve never shared before. This happened about a year after he died.” She then reminded us of how she did not like the dark. I had to smile. That was an understatement. Mom hated being alone in the dark.

She continued with her story:

One night, I had gone to bed. The house was pitch-black and as I lay there all alone, the old feelings of fear and anxiety began to rise. I started thinking about your dad and how much I missed him. I missed him comforting me when I became frightened of the dark. As I was thinking about that, suddenly my heart began to pound. It was racing so fast and so hard that I was gasping for breath. I was terribly frightened. I was sure I was having a heart attack. What was even worse was the thought that I would die there alone in the dark and it might be days before anyone even knew.

She had to stop then, she was crying so hard. For all of her gentle spirit, my mother was not one to show her emotions either. Finally, regaining enough composure to go on, she said:

I was so terrified that I involuntarily cried out in my mind, “Heavenly Father, please don’t let me die here alone.”

For a moment, nothing happened. Then suddenly, I felt a hand rest against my cheek. And I heard your father say, “I love you, Evelyn.” That was all. But instantly, I was at peace. My heart slowed; my fear disappeared. A few minutes later, I fell into a deep sleep and slept through the rest of the night.

Mom passed away in August 2004. Even now, years after she told us that story, I cannot think of it without getting emotional all over again. Talk about tender mercies! And not just for her. My wife and I were also greatly blessed that morning. I silently thanked my Heavenly Father for allowing Dad that brief penetration of the veil. It enriched Mom’s remaining life, and it certainly enriched ours.

http://www.ldsliving.com/-Don-t-Let-Me-Die-Here-A-Touching-Visit-from-Her-Deceased-Husband-Brought-This-Woman-Peace/s/88241?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=email