FINDING THE LOST

"Several years ago as I was about to depart for work, a call came from my Bishop.  His oldest son had disappeared.  He had eaten breakfast and dressed for elementary school, but when his mother was ready to drive him and his sisters to school he could not be found.  They thought perhaps he had walked to school.  His mother transported her daughters and then made a search.  The boy was not at school.  It was at this point that calls went out to the police and to several ward members.  I delayed my departure for work and along with several dozen others, commenced an intensive search of the neighbourhood.  After a few hours his mother found him, curled up on the floor of his closet with the door closed.  He was fast asleep.

I have reflected many times on the shared anxiety of so many to find this boy, to see that he was safe again with his family, to ensure that nothing unacceptable happened to him.

The search for that boy is a metaphor for this lesson.  You see, I have ancestors lost in history.  We all do.  They languish in the spirit world, waiting and hoping for someone to find them.  Our longing to locate the dead who are lost should be as compelling as our anxiety to find the living who are lost".
(Ted L. Gibbons, D&C Lesson 40)

The estimated population of the world in A.D. 1 was 200 million; by 1850 it had reached one billion (see World Almanac and Book of Facts 1995 (1994), 510).  By mid 1995, the world's population was estimated at 5.76 billion.  Over time, as many as 105 billion people may have lived on the earth.  (Estimates courtesy of Population Reference Bureau, Washington, D.C.; see Carl Haub, "How Many People Have Ever Lived on the Earth?" Population Today, 23 (Feb. 1995): 4-5)

The number of completed proxy temple endowments is approaching an estimated 140 million, meaning that this work has been performed for about .13 percent (just over one-tenth of 1 percent) of the earth's estimated historic population of 105 billion.  (Ted Gibbons, D&C Lesson 40)
Daunting isn't it?  These statistics should not be discouraging but encouraging.  It should make us act in haste to save even just one soul who is languishing in the spirit world forgotten.  Oscar Shindler said something powerful:  "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire".  Elder Dallin H. Oaks broke it down to a manageable task when he said: "Our effort is not to compel everyone to do everything, but to encourage everyone to do something".  ("Family  History: In Wisdom and Order", Ensign, June 1989, 6)

Saving souls is the greatest work we can be engaged in. Saving the dead is comparatively easy compared to going from door to door asking people to listen to you while you tell them about the gospel. All it takes is planned time and a willing heart.

The Sunday School manual suggests four activities that will allow us involvement in this great work:

1.  Have a current temple recommend and attend the temple regularly.
2.  Prepare to have ordinances performed for deceased relatives.
3.  Learn about ancestors' lives.
4.  Keep a journal or prepare a personal history or a family history.

I was born and raised in Croatia.  My ability to trace my ancestors has been somewhat limited for many years.  I have done relatively little in this area compared to a lot of serious family history buffs.  I have done what I could and I ardently hope I will have the means and ways to do more in the near future.  I want to do more.  I am the only church member in my family and that makes me my ancestors' only hope.  I believe in family.  It's the main reason why I joined the Church 38 years ago.  My patriarchal blessing tells me I have been blessed with a rich heritage. I want to know what that means and I believe I will one day because I have the tools that are needed for this work, my Church membership and my desire.