An Ancestor's Plea | A Song from Beyond the Veil — Rob Ferguson's Story (LDS)

Send us Fan MailCan an ancestor send a message from beyond the veil — even a song? Rob Ferguson of Hyde Park, Utah had spent years in family history work when, on the very night he angrily quit — frustrated after months of fruitless searching — an electric spiritual feeling enveloped him from his knees to the crown of his head as he rose from prayer. Then words began to come to his mind, in a voice not his own: "I tried to live a good life, I tried to do what's right... I searched the world for all my life and waited patiently to find the gospel blessings meant to be... So here I wait and watch and pray, my temple work will be done someday. It's up to you, my child, so please recall — your family chain extends beyond these walls. I wait. I wait. I wait." Rob typed the words as they came, faster and faster, like dictation — feeling the emotions of the woman speaking them. Though he is not musical, he picked out her melody note by note the next morning on the piano. He made only 20 copies of the song and told no one to share it. Twenty-two years later, serving a temple mission in Nauvoo, his wife Jill was assigned to a sealing session where a quiet, elderly ordinance worker named Sister Dill asked to share the experience that had driven her temple service for two decades: a piece of music given to her as a new convert in the Fresno Temple by President Thomas — one of Rob's twenty copies, carried and cherished for twenty years, and moved with her to Nauvoo. In the 22 years since that night, Rob's search for the woman whose voice he heard has led him to find and complete temple work for more than 200 of his relatives. The song, "The Ancestors' Plea," is sung by Rob's daughter at the end of this episode, and the sheet music is free at ancestorsplea.com — with a newly produced version by Becca Sorensen announced at the episode's close.Q: Can ancestors communicate with the living from beyond the veil?A: Latter-day Saint teaching holds that those in the spirit world are aware of the living and can reach us through the Spirit — heard in the mind, not the ears. In this episode, Rob Ferguson recounts hearing a woman's voice dictating words and, later, a melody: an ancestor taught the gospel in the spirit world, pleading for her temple ordinances — "your family chain extends beyond these walls."Q: What is "The Ancestors' Plea"?A: A song Rob Ferguson received in a single night: words first, coming like dictation, then a melody he picked out on the piano the next morning despite having no musical training. Its verses voice an ancestor who lived without the gospel, accepted it in the spirit world, and waits for a descendant to do her temple work: "So here we wait and watch and pray, our temple work will be done someday." Sheet music and a recording are free at ancestorsplea.com.Q: What should I do if I have a spiritual experience like this?A: Record it immediately — Rob wrote the words as they came, and found that in the act of writing, more was given, until it stopped "like someone turned the power switch off." The episode also teaches the pattern of opposition before revelation: the experience came the very night he gave up in frustration and darkness — a pattern Tia notes runs from Joseph Smith's experiences through many thinning of the veil accounts.Q: Did Rob ever find the ancestor who sang to him?A: Not definitively — after 22 years of searching he says, "maybe I found her and she just didn't tell me." But the search itself became the answer: over 200 relatives found and their temple work completed, and one of his twenty guarded copies of the song quietly converted and sustained a temple worker for two decades before finding its way back to him in the Nauvoo Temple — "astronomically impossible," as the episode puts it, unless Someone planned it.Sheet Music to Ancestor's Plea: www.ancestorsplea.comBekah Sorensen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bekah.sorensen/Website: www.thinningoftheveil.comYouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@UCAA9WnYhYvCp1ffCe-AGUQQYouTube An Ancestor's Plea Video:  https://youtu.be/udReZMxucHQBook: "Patterns of Revelation" :  https://www.amazon.com/Patterns-Revelation-Spiritual-Foundations-Hearing-ebook/dp/B0BWGLZ8VXSupport the show