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BRAD - Can our dead loved ones see us? Do they know what we're doing, how we feel, what we're thinking?.
JOEL -
Well that could be embarrassing if they could see everything we do and think :-)
There are no scriptures or official church doctrine that states that those in the spirit world can see or know everything we are doing here. I think it might be a rather confusing existence for them, seeing both worlds at the same time. I am pretty sure they don't know what we are thinking any more than two living people know what each other is thinking.
It is obvious, however, that those in the spirit world are at least generally aware of what we do here on earth; otherwise they would not know that their baptisms or endowments have been performed for them in the temples.
Brigham Young said:
"Through our efforts in their behalf their chains of bondage will fall from them, and the darkness surrounding them will clear away, that light may shine upon them and they shall hear in the spirit world of the work that has been done for them by their children here and will rejoice with you in your performance of these duties. (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 12:163-164)
President Joseph F. Smith said:
"For I believe that those who have been chosen in this dispensation and in former dispensations, to lay the foundation of God's work in the midst of the children of men, for their salvation and exaltation, will not be deprived in the spirit world from looking down upon the results of their own labors, efforts and mission assigned them by the wisdom and purpose of God, to help to redeem and to reclaim the children of the Father from their sins. So I feel quite confident that the eye of Joseph, the prophet, and of the martyrs of this dispensation, and of Brigham, and John, and Wilford, and those faithful men who were associated with them in their ministry upon the earth, are carefully guarding the interests of the kingdom of God in which they labored and for which they strove during their mortal lives. I believe they are as deeply interested in our welfare today, if not with greater capacity, with far more interest, behind the veil, than they were in the flesh. I believe they know more; I believe their minds have expanded beyond their comprehension in mortal life, and their interests are enlarged and expanded in the works of the Lord to which they gave their lives and their best service. Although some may feel and think that it is a little extreme to take this view, yet I believe that it is true; and I have a feeling in my heart that I stand in the presence not only of the Father and of the Son, but in the presence of those whom God commissioned, raised up, and inspired, to lay the foundations of the work in which we are engaged." (Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Joseph F. Smith)
President Spencer W. Kimball said:
"I am sure that the veil is thin. My grandfather, being one of a family, searched all his life to get together his genealogical records; and when he died, in 1868, he had been unsuccessful in establishing his line back more than the second generation beyond him. I am sure that most of my family members feel the same as I do-that there was a thin veil between him and the earth, after he had gone to the other side, and that which he was unable to do as a mortal he perhaps was able to do after he had gone into eternity. After he passed away, the spirit of research took hold of men-his family in the West and two distant relatives, not members of the Church, in the East. For seven years these two men-Morrison and Sharples-unknown to each other, and unknown to the members of the family in the West, were gathering genealogy. After seven years, they happened to meet and then for three years they worked together. The family feels definitely that the spirit of Elijah was at work on the other side and that our grandfather had been able to inspire men on this side to search out these records; and as a result, two large volumes are in our possession with about seventeen thousand names." (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball)
There are other numerous personal stories of those who have received some kind of vision, saw a spirit, heard a voice, or had some kind of spiritual communication from the dead. But these are only anecdotal examples for the benefit of the one receiving it.
If a thin veil is the only thing that separates us from those in the spirit world; they must indeed be close by and may be allowed at times to see us. Knowing the answer to this question has no bearing on our salvation but it can be comforting to those who have lost loved ones.
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