500 Names for the Temple

500 Names for the Temple

My grandfather, Frederick Lowe, was born in Cambridge, England. His family came to live in South Africa when he was 2 years old. When my daughter was called to serve in the London England mission, we hoped she would be assigned to Cambridge at some stage. My father and I were delighted when her first area of service was Cambridge!

My father sent her the name and address of an elderly relative who was still living in Cambridge, and when she and her companion were able to, they called on this elderly lady, explaining who they were and why they were visiting. My daughter explained that her grandfather, Rex Lowe, the son of Fred Lowe, was very interested in genealogy and had been tracing the family line, and would love to have any family information which this lady could share.

To my daughter’s delight, the old lady gave her the details of 500 ancestors! All of this information was sent to my father who, over time, prepared all the names of his relatives for the work to be done in the temple. This was far more than he had imagined he would receive from his elderly relative in England.
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Some time later she and her companion returned to visit the elderly lady and to thank her for the family history. She learned that the lady had passed on since her last visit. We couldn’t help wondering if she had stayed alive long enough to pass on the information to my daughter so that the temple ordinances for her deceased family could be performed in the temple.

“Behold, great and marvellous are the works of the Lord” (Jacob 4: 8). He has a purpose in all that He does, and we can see His hand in the events of our lives. He assists us in our righteous endeavours and as we try to do his work and obey His commandments. He wants us to have the ordinances for our ancestors performed in the temple. “For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers – that they without us cannot be made perfect – neither can we without our dead be made perfect” (D&C 128:15).