Into the Spirit World

President Eyring has spoken more than once in general conference about the time his mother passed away in the hospital. In one of those talks, he told of how they went home afterwards and how his dad went to be alone in a bedroom. He recounted, “After a few minutes, he walked back into the living room. He had a pleasant smile. He walked up to us and said quietly, ‘I was worried that Mildred would arrive in the spirit world alone. I thought she might feel lost in the crowd.’ Then he said brightly, ‘I prayed just now. I know Mildred is all right. My mother was there to meet her.’ I remember smiling as he said that, imagining my grandmother, her short legs pumping, rushing through a crowd to be sure she was there to meet and embrace her daughter-in-law as she arrived.” I thought of that story today as I attended the funeral of my cousin who unexpectedly died this week. This was my second funeral in a week’s time and has caused me to reflect about the Spirit World and what happens to us as we depart this mortal life. President Eyring’s story suggests that there will be others waiting there to greet us who have preceded us in death, and who better than those of our family? I have hope that my sister, who died in infancy many years ago, was one of those who greeted my cousin as she embarked on the next phase of her journey.

               We often speak about what happens after death in terms of returning back to God. But what do the scriptures say about where we go and who we meet? Alma gave us perhaps the most direct answer when he taught Corianton, “Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life” (Alma 40:11). I believe that “God who gave them life” is the Savior and not the Father, for Christ  is “the light and the life of the world,” the one who told the brother of Jared that he created man (Doctrine and Covenants 12:9, Ether 3:15). I don’t think this encounter with the Savior is a permanent residence with Him but some kind of brief welcome into the next phase of our eternal journey into the Spirit World as we await our resurrection. According to Alma, the righteous then go on to a place called “paradise, a state of rest” and the wicked go to a place called “outer darkness,” or what we would typically call spirit prison (see Alma 40:12). And what happens there? We know that that gospel is preached there and that we continue our work. The Lord said, “If they live here let them live unto me; and if they die let them die unto me; for they shall rest from all their labors here, and shall continue their works” (Doctrine and Covenants 124:86). So the dead continue their works in some way in the Spirit World, and they are not yet in the presence of our Heavenly Father. Alma taught, “The resurrection of the dead bringeth back men into the presence of God; and thus they are restored into his presence, to be judged according to their works, according to the law and justice” (Alma 42:23). As far as I understand it, we don’t return to the presence of the Father until we are resurrected and stand before Him to be judged. So before that time of our resurrection, we continue working and progressing in the Spirit World, perhaps in a way more like this earth life than we usually think.

               Perhaps the most important thing for us to understand is that death does not change who we are or where we are on our path back to our Heavenly Father. We will continue our path there and our spriritual progression. Now, is always the best time to prepare spiritually for what lies ahead for us on both sides of the veil.