The Wait is Over

Last week a group of our Young Men and Young Women from church all got together and went to the temple (about an hour away) to perform sacred ordinances for those who have already passed on. It is a sort of tradition that the youth of our church get to participate in. We all dress in identical white and are baptized physically for those who did not get a chance to on this earth. Normally, I would go to be baptized for some stranger I did not know who had died hundreds of years ago and leave with a feeling of happiness for that person and relief that I hadn't done something stupid like slip down the stairs on my way out. But this last week was different.

My Grandma C------- works in Salt Lake City at the Family History Library where they do family history research and compile names that can be sent to temples across the globe so their work can be done. I asked her if she had some family names that needed to be baptized. She said yes, and sent my brother and I a package filled with pink and blue cards that were ready to have their work done for them. We took these names to the temple with us and were able to be baptized in their name. We were the last two to perform the baptisms, which made the ordinance especially meaningful for me. The fifteen cards I held in my hand represented fifteen people who had waited, wait how many years? I looked down...three hundred years to be baptized. They were waiting for someone to come along and do the physical work they could not do for themselves. They wanted to be sealed together with their families for time and all eternity, but just needed someone to help them along. As I stepped out of the water after my baptisms were done, the brethren there stopped me and confirmed each and every one of those names right there on the baptismal font steps. I stood there, shivering with cold as they placed their hands on my head. I was instantly warm and felt a peaceful stirring inside of me. I knew the women on the other side were grateful for my service and I knew that I was doing the right thing. They had waited a long time to be baptized, just like I waited a long time in line. But the funny thing is, now it doesn't seem like that long of a time compared to theirs. When put into the eternal perspective...