Hearts shall be turned!

Dear Family,

I just wanted to share a few experiences that I've had the last few days as I have been working on family history.

Experience #1:

I was working on some descendents of an ancestor when I started getting into the 1900's. As I thought about reserving their names for the temple I became worried. "What if these people were someone's grandparents? What if that grandchild converted to the gospel and was disappointed that the work had already been done? I decided to leave the name unreserved when I was hit by a very strong impression.

"Please do this work. These ancestors need the power to turn the hearts of their living children to the gospel." 

It was an awesome moment. It brought on a whole new light to the scripture "And the hearts of the children will turn to their fathers..." I can only imagine the power that might come to the county in New York, if the generations of its founding families are able to turn the hearts of their children to the gospel. I am more excited than ever to complete these baptisms, because I feel that it will have a powerful influence in the living posterity of these people.

 Experience #2:

This evening I was double checking some of the work I have previously done, tying up some loose ends, and merging some duplicates. One cousin, Amy Cromer, was stuck in a dead end. I knew the last name of her husband, but had no way to determine any more information on her family. I visited her again tonight, and noticed that all of her ordinances have been completed. I prepared her name, Cami Twede did her Baptism and Confirmation, NanaRue did the Initiatory, and Fay Howells completed the Endowment. It made me smile to know that our family had worked together to finish all of her work in under a month.
As I did a quick check on her, I was amazed to see that just 3 days ago, someone created a possible duplicate for Amy. Within minutes, the previously unknown name of her husband and three children were ready for baptisms. I teared up, realizing that now that Amy's work had been done, she now had the ability to help us find her own family.

I know that this work is important, I know that it gives us power, and I know that we aren't alone in our endeavors. I believe that the more we participate in family history work, the closer we come to those on the other side of the veil in a very literal sense. I feel so blessed to be a part of this work, and hope that you will find a testimony of it for yourself. I love you all!