Baptizing our ancestors

Just one example from our own family.  Aiden has had no interest in going to the temple.  I don't know if he was nervous about it or just didn't want anything to detract from his free-time, but we have been trying to encourage him and figure out a way to get him there.  Jeff finally decided it was time to just do it and related this about their experience:

Aiden and I had a great experience on Saturday.  He's been saying that he doesn't know what the Holy Ghost feels like and we've been working with him to recognize & cultivate those feelings (but without any remarkable progress).  We were planning on going to St George for the holiday weekend but then I felt that we should stay in town and do something different with the extra time.

I have been wanting to take Aiden to do baptisms for the dead but the idea kept getting pushed back to the remote part of my brain.  Plus I was anxious about the experience, concerned that he wouldn't be able to look past the inconvenience and intrusion on his time to appreciate it or gain from it.  Anyway, I realized that having the extra day off this weekend would soften the blow, so to speak, of sacrificing a few hours to go to the temple.  Having that as part of my sales pitch, I talked Aiden through the importance of doing the work for the dead as a way to help free spirits from prison, and we read a verse along those lines (D&C 128:22).  We planned on doing family names and the relevance of helping family members seemed to lend additional weight.  He seemed somewhat willing and that was progress I supposed.  I threw in an offer of breakfast with Dad at Golden Corral and we agreed to go for it.

Anyway, it's hard to convey the significance of the details but despite a long wait, Aiden & I were baptized for a number of Harmer ancestors, and I was able to perform several of the baptisms with Aiden as proxy.  Without getting mushy, it was quite special.  While waiting for the confirmations, I asked Aiden for his feelings and he said simply, "Good."  We talked about how the Holy Ghost most often works in simple/not flashy but nevertheless real/significant ways.  When I was able to confirm Aiden for/in behalf of those relatives, I could feel the Spirit strongly but I wondered what he was feeling.  Afterwards, he asked me if I could feel the power of what was happening when my hands were on his head.  He went on to describe a sensation of "energy" and that overall, the temple/baptism experience was "awesome."  We all have a long ways to go at our house but it was a deeply moving and important experience for both of us and I'm more than glad that we were able to have that and that Aiden was willing to devote the time to giving it a chance.