“Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.” (D&C 13:1). It is no coincidence that the age at which young men have conferred upon them the Aaronic Priesthood is the same age in which young men and young women are permitted to enter the temple to perform baptisms for the dead. President Joseph F Smith taught regarding ministering angels - ““When messengers are sent to minister to the inhabitants of this earth, they are not strangers, but from among our kindred, friends, and fellow-beings and fellow-servants. Our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters and friends who have passed away from this earth, having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given them to visit their relatives and friends upon the earth again, bringing from the divine Presence messages of love, of warning, or reproof and instruction, to those whom they had learned to love in the flesh.” Where else but in the temple baptismal font would the keys to the ministering of angels be used to unlock the shackles of our ancestors who want nothing more than to carry messages of comfort and hope and strength to their living descendants? Every time that we do vicarious work for one of our ancestors in the temple, we are using the keys of the ministering of angels. We are freeing our ancestors - freeing them from spirit prison and freeing them up to help guide and support us in our mortal journey. If we ever feel like we need more angels in our lives, then the obvious thing to do is to unlock more angels by doing more family history and temple work. I know that serving in the temple is a selfless act of sacrifice, one where we can be ministering angels to our family members who cannot be saved without our help, and I also know that they are more than willing to return the favor and be ministering angels right back to us, and that we ourselves cannot be saved without their help.
