genealogy

Morning of the Resurrection

Posted: 14 Aug 2009 12:00 AM PDT
"I quote a letter dated January the 17th, 1889. . . . It concerns my great-grandfather, who was the first of our line in the Church, and who died a few days later, Jonathan Taylor Packer. This letter was written by a daughter-in-law to the family."After describing the distress and difficulty he had suffered for several weeks, she wrote:" 'But I will do all I can for him for I consider it my duty. I will do for him as I would like someone to do for my dear mother, for I am afraid I shall never see her again in this world.'"And then she wrote this: 'Your father says for you all to be faithful to the principles of the gospel and asks the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob upon you all, and bids you all goodbye until he meets you in the morning of the resurrection." 'Well, Martha, I can't hardly see the lines for tears, so I will stop writing. From your loving sister, Mary Ann Packer.'"I know that I shall see this great-grandfather beyond the veil, and my grandfather, and my father. And I know that I shall there also meet those of my ancestors who lived when the fulness of the gospel was not upon the earth; those who lived and died without ever hearing His name, nor having the invitation to be baptized."

Boyd K. Packer, "The Redemption of the Dead," Ensign, Nov. 1975, 99