A WIDOW’S SACRED EXPERIENCE

The following account is my recollection of an event as told to me by a dear, elderly, widow in the Jordan River Temple December 8 1982.  I can be certain of the account for the Spirit bore witness to my soul that everything she said to me was true.  One day after work, I stopped to attend an endowment session at the Jordan River Temple at about 3:30 p.m.  It was still too early in the day for most people to attend so the sessions were sparse and attended mostly by retired patrons.  I entered the chapel and began to meditate as I waited for the endowment session to begin.  An elderly sister was sitting next to me.  I had never before seen her.  She was a complete stranger to me and I to her.  After a few moments sitting next to each other in silence, she leaned over to me and in a reverent, whispered voice, asked if she could tell me something.  I replied that she most certainly could.  She proceeded to tell me an incredible story.  As was her common practice, she came to the temple several times a week.  On this particular day, she had spent the entire day serving in the temple.  Earlier in the day she had received the name of a woman for whom she attempted to complete a proxy endowment.  Before that could be accomplished, she was approached by a temple worker who asked her if she could help them with some sealings.  She indicated that she already had a name printed for an endowment session.  The officiator indicated the name could be returned to the computer pool and be assigned to someone else.  She reluctantly but obediently handed him name and went to do sealings.  At that time, a temple recommend had a magnetic strip that was swiped at the temple, not only to gain entrance, but to record ordinances completed.  After her sealing session, she decided to do one more endowment session before going home.  She got in line to get another proxy name but there were four women ahead of her.  They were experiencing some difficulty with the computer as it would not print a proxy name despite repeated attempts to swipe the recommends.  After waiting for a moment, she decided to go to the restroom while they got the computer fixed.  Upon her return, the line was much longer.  The computer still did not recognize any recommend the sisters presented and would not print a proxy name.  While watching this, she felt impressed to walk to the front of the line and offer her recommend to be swiped.  Despite some skepticism by the one stationed at the computer, astonishingly, it immediately printed a proxy name for her.  She looked at the name.  The name and death date were an exact match to the person she’d had to return earlier in order to do sealings.  From that point forward, all the other sisters were able to receive a printed proxy name by scanning their temple recommends.  She showed me that miraculous proxy name and was very excited to act in her behalf.  Obviously, factors were at play from the other side of the veil to which neither she nor anyone were aware.  She didn’t recognize the name of the person for whom she would do the vicarious ordinance.  As far as she could tell, there was no connection between her and the name on that slip of paper.  However, she could sense the importance of the work in which she was involved, as could I.  I was particularly grateful to have been there to hear her account.  I believe.