Sister Birdzell's Temple Experience

From: Deanna Birdzell
Sent: May 27, 2007 9:48 AM

My name is Sister Deanna Birdzell.

I am serving a mission here in the Washington DC Temple.

I am from Bountiful, Utah.

I am a widow of 8 1/2 long, long years.

I arrived here in Maryland on January 31 of this year.

I will tell you of my little story....

When my husband passed away, he was the only member of the Church with the Birdzell name (that I knew about).

He came to me (after he died) and said "Deanna, I am okay. I had to come to this side to teach the Birdzell family of the gospel so that you could get their Temple work done."

From that day on, I have searched and searched and the Lord has directed me to three wonderful people, who are not members of our church but they have sent me thousands and thousands of names.

I have put all of these names into my PAF file and today have more than 76,000 names in that file.

Now, I have to say that many of the names are on my side also, and I being from pioneer ancestry, much of my side of the temple work has been done, but none of Mike's was done.


So I began---------to make a long story short, have been able to have several thousand of ordinance work completed.

When I came here, I brought quite a lot of names with me, and having no Priesthood with me, I passed out some of my brother cards to those I with whom have become acquainted. .

About two months ago, I received in the mail a note from a Larry D. Kump.

He, not knowing that I was here in this area, sent this note to my Bountiful address and it was forwarded back here to me.

In this letter Brother Kump wanted to let me know that he had been impressed that the brother he had done the work for had indeed accepted the gospel and was so thrilled to have had his work done at the Temple.

In this note from Larry, he put inside his "personal calling card" and so I e-mailed him and told him how thankful I was to have him do one of my names.

So we began corresponding a little bit.

On his web site (http://kumpster.blogspot.com) there is a picture of him.


He told me that he goes to the Temple every Saturday morning and does a session at 8:00 AM.

So I knew that he attended the Temple each Saturday, but on the past two months I have been a sealing secretary on the Saturday morning shift so I probably wouldn't get the opportunity to be a follower or a patron on that 8:00 AM Endowment session.

Yesterday, I was going to the sixth floor to be secretary in the sealing office and this gentleman got on the elevator with me.

I looked at him and thought to myself, "Could this be Larry Kump?".


So I asked him what was his name.

He replied "Brother Kump".

He then looked at me and looked at my name tag and he said "Sister Birdzell?".

Yes, it was me.

And he was going to do sealings today, not a session.

Now, how ironic is that?

So we were able to talk and to get acquainted, and it was a thrill for me to get to know him.

He told me that I reminded him of Anna the Prophetess (who saw the Christ child at the Temple).

What a compliment!

How kind he was.

I am certainly not a prophetess, but I certainly appreciate his compliment.

Another "strange thing" is that the day a brother gave Larry the card for Temple work to be done for one of my husband's family (Birdzell), Larry said that he is sure that the name tag on the ordinance brother's name said 'Brother Birdzell", and he didn't know that there aren't any Birdzell brethren working at the Temple.

I know that many wonderful miracles take place in His Holy House and this is certainly one experience I shall never forget.

I hope that this is what Larry wanted for me to relate to you..

I send you my best wishes.

Deanna Birdzell