Sister Jeffries sat in her home, and diligently kept working on the altar covers she was making for the temple. She decided to complete that before she finished going to the temple to do work for her parents and ancestors who had gone before. As she thought of doing that, she felt such a feeling of peace.
Suddenly, she saw the room grow brighter than midday, and two glorious white robed messengers appeared, and between them, her mother, who had passed on years before, was standing there.
Her mother pleaded with her daughter to right away do her temple work for her, and to make it possible so she could get her "White dress," so she could go with the angelic messengers to her reward.
Sister Jeffries answered that she would do it as soon as she had completed one more day of work on the altar covers. Her mother insisted that she do the work "before you do anything else," so that she could take her place with the glorious beings. After urgently stating that, her mother and the two messengers disappeared from her view.
So the next day, Sister Jeffries took her mother's name to the temple, and did her temple work for her. It was the last temple work she ever did. Sister Jeffries came home sick from the temple, never to recover. She passed away in a few weeks, no doubt to join the Mother whose salvation she had made sure. (Story taken from the Biographical Record of Martha Cragun Cox, an unpublished manuscript, pp 214-272)
Most of us have a long life ahead of us, but there will come a time when we leave this life. In the end, we will not find joy in the television programs we watched, the movies we saw, or the video games we played.
However, if we will engage in this great work of saving our dead when we are here, what joy will fill our hearts when after this life, we reunite with the people whose work we have done. It will be by the power of Christ that they will be saved, but it will have been accomplished by the work we do on this earth both with Family History, and with Temple work.
If you just do one of your ancestor's work, how great shall be your rejoicing with them in the Kingdom of the Father. How much more joy will you feel if you bring many.
Family History isn't as it used to be. If you can place an order for something on the internet, you can do Family History. The tools we have now can greatly accelerate the speed at which you do this great work.
There will be a story next week that weaves in some Family History hints when doing Family History on the App. Stay tuned for that. For today, here is a hint, and below that, the music video that inspired this post.
Open the Family Tree Mobile App, tap the 3 lines, and then tap "Ancestors with tasks." It will take a few minutes for your ancestors to come up, but you will get a list of ancestors that have record hints. Choose and ancestor and tap the blue record hint circle at the end of their name.
It will give you a list of new records that have been found for that ancestor, and there may be census records that list other family members there.
Tap the record, click review, and see if the record matches, or there are other family members in those records that aren't already listed.
If you run into roadblocks, don't worry, you aren't the only one. Many of the posts on this blog talk about running into roadblocks, and future posts will deal with that a bit more.
To close, I'm sharing Kenneth Cope's song called "White Dress," where he relates Sister Jeffries Story, and other similar stories. "Heaven's rejoicing as Jesus draws near"
Discover your own story on the Family Tree Mobile App or the Family Search Website or discover memories on the Family Tree Memories App. You can also follow this blog by entering your email in at the top of the sidebar.
Picture is Angels Among us by Simon Dewey
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