--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - The First Presidency collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 18 number: 5 published: 1915-03 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "The First Presidency, \"Editor's Table: Work for the Dead,\" *Improvement Era* 18, no. 5 (March 1915): 451." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1805unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1805unse start_page: 451 end_page: 451 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1915-03) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1805unse publication_year: 1915 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1915, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Editor's Table: Work for the Dead Editors' Table Work for the Dead Arrangements are now being made to assist the Saints resid- ing in the various missions of the Church, and in other places remote from the Temples, who are thereby unable, personally, to perform Temple ordinances in behalf of their dead kindred, or friends to obtain the needed services of proxies. It is our desire that faithful members of the Church, in the condition stated, shall be helped, to the fullest possible extent, to accomplish this sacred duty that all Latter-day Saints are required, by Divine injunction, to fulfil. The information needed to properly identify the dead, for whom Temple ordinances are to be performed, includes the fol- lowing: Names in full (maiden names of women). Date of birth. Place of birth (Town, County and State or Country). Date of death. Name of heir, or friend, at whose instance the work is to be done, and his, or her, relationship to each one named. When this information cannot be given as complete as desired, that which is lacking may be approximately formulated, by following instructions that will be published in periodicals issued in various missions of the Church. Members of the Church in missions, and localities a great dis- tance from the Temples, who desire to comply with the gospel re- quirements for salvation of the dead, should confer with the President of the mission, or district, in which they reside, stating what ordinances they wish to have performed, and they will then be provided with the blanks, and instructions needed. The proper method of compiling records of names of the dead, for whom Temple work in desired, is provided for in a blank book specially prepared for that purpose, which can be pro- cured, at a moderate price, by application to the mission presi- dents. Donations are thankfully received at the Temples, to assist in meeting the heavy expense of their maintenance, but the poor, who can give nothing, are cheerfully accorded all the privileges that the most liberal donors receive. There is no charge made by the Temple authorities for per- formance of the ordinances, but, when proxies have to be ob- tained to act in endowments for the dead, which occupies the time of an entire session in Temple work, it is customary to pay such proxies a small sum, to partly remunerate them for personal