Why Latter-day Saints baptize for the dead, and my family history miracle.

A temple worker stopped a baptism to tell my son something I'll never forget. My great-g grandandmother, Kiwa Shinoi, immigrated from Japan to Hawaii in 1907 with her first husband and their two young children. Like thousands of other Japanese immigrants, they came to work in Hawaii's sugarcane plantations. Years later, their marriage ended and her husband returned to Japan. As I began researching my family history, I identified that first husband's name, Torio Adachi, his son Hatsukichi, and his father Kurakichi, three generations of Adachi men.

We took their names to the Laier Hawaii temple, and my son was baptized by proxy for each of them. As the temple worker read these three names, he suddenly stopped. He looked at my son and asked, "Are these your relatives?" My son replied, "Yes." The temple worker simply shook his head and said, "These men are warriors." Afterward, the temple worker found us in the hallway. He told us that as he performed those baptisms, the spirit became incredibly strong.

He said again, "Those three men were warriors and they will serve as guardians over your son for the rest of his life because he performed this great work for them." Years later, as I was researching deeper into my great-grandmother's family, I wrote to the city office in Fukushima, Japan, asking for additional family records for my great-g grandandmother and her first husband. A government employee replied that he couldn't send me the Adachi records because they weren't my direct blood relatives.

I remember feeling an overwhelming urgency. As far as I knew, there was no one else who would perform the temple work for this family. So, I wrote back. I explained that the Adachi children were my grandmother's half siblings. I told him we consider them family and that I wanted to honor them as my own ancestors. Then I said a prayer and sent the email. A few weeks later, a large packet arrived from Japan.

When I had those records translated, I discovered he had quietly included the entire Adachi family, over 100 names. One of the unique beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that Jesus taught except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Baptism is required. But most people who have ever lived never had the opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ or accept him as their savior.

We believe that those who die without hearing the gospel are still given the opportunity to learn of Jesus Christ and choose whether to follow him. Because baptism requires a physical body, living people are baptized by proxy in temples on behalf of those who have died. God truly is a loving and merciful father who is in relentless pursuit of his children on both sides of the veil.