Where do we go when we die

"'Taken home to God' [compare Eccl 12:7] simply means that their mortal existence has come to an end, and they have returned to the world of spirits, where they are assigned to a place according to their works with the just or with the unjust, there to await the resurrection. 'Back to God' is a phrase which finds an equivalent in many other well known conditions. For instance: a man spends a stated time in some foreign mission field. When he is released and returns to the United States, he may say, 'It is wonderful to be back home'; yet his home may be somewhere in Utah or Idaho or some other part of the West."

Answers to Gospel Questions, comp. Joseph Field Smith Hr, 5 vols [1957-66], 2:85
Institute Book of Mormon Student Manual p 242

Who is in spirit paradise

D&C 138:12-16 Who would this include?

"All spirits of men after death return to the spirit world. There, as I understand it, the righteous-meaning those who have been baptized and who have been faithful-are gathered in one part and all the others in another part of the spirit world."

-Joseph Field Smith, DS Volume 2: 230

influence of Satan in spirit world

"IF we are faithful to our religion, when we go into the spirit world, the fallen spirits--Lucifer and the third part of the heavenly hosts that came with him, and the spirits of wicked men who have dwelt upon this earth, the whole of them combined will have no influence over our spirits. Is not that an advantage? Yes. All the rest of the children of men are more or less subject to them, and they are subject to them as they were while here in the flesh."

-Brigham Young, Teachings of the Presidents of the Church Brigham Young, p 279

You won't all off the path after this life

"We don't need to get a complex or get a feeling that you have to be perfect to be saved. You don't. There's only been one perfect person, and that's the Lord Jesus, but in order to be saved in the Kingdom of God and in order to pass the test of mortality, what you have to do is get on the straight and narrow path-thus charting a course leading to eternal life-and then, being on that path, pass out of this life in full fellowship. I'm not saying that you don' have to keep the commandments. I'm saying you don't have to be perfect to be saved. If you did, no one would be saved. The way it operates is this; You get on the path that's named the 'straight and narrow.' You do it by entering at the gate of repentance and baptism. The straight and narrow path leads from the gate of repentance and baptism, a very great distance, to a reward that is called eternal life, If you're on that path and pressing forward, and you die, you'll never get off the path. There is no such thing as falling off the straight and narrow path in the life to come... If you're on that path when death comes--because this is the time and the day appointed, this is the probationary estate--you'll never fall from it, and, for all practical purposes, your calling and election is made sure."

Bruce R McConkie - Address given to University of Utah, January 10, 1982, Quoted in Joseph Fielding McConkie, Here We Stand, p 175

Spirit World - prison vs hell

"In the spirit prison are the spirits of those who have not yet received the gospel of Jesus Christ. These spirits have agency and may be enticed by both good and evil. If they accept the gospel and the ordinances performed for them in the temples, they may leave the spirit prison and dwell in paradise. Also in the spirit prison are those who rejected the gospel after it was preached to them either on earth or in the spirit prison. These spirits suffer in a condition known as hell."

Gospel Principles Manual

Spirit World - men preach to those in prison

"I do not believe the Methodist doctrine of sending honest men and noble-minded men to hell, along with the murderer and the adulterer... But I have an order of things to save the poor fellows at any rate, and get them saved; for I will send men to preach to them in prison and save them if I can."

-Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 366

Sins forgiven in world to come

Alma 34:32-35; 40:14 vs. D&C 138:32-37

"For our Savior says... 'but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the world to come', evidently showing that there are sins which may be forgiven in the world to come."

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p 219

spirits enter next state with same desires

"Suppose, then, that a man is evil in his heart--wholly given up to wickedness, and in that condition he dies, his spirit will enter into the spirit world intent upon evil. On the other hand, if we are striving with all the powers and faculties God has given us to improve upon our talents, to prepare ourselves to swell in eternal life, and the grave receives our bodies while we are thus engaged, with what disposition will our spirits enter their next state? They will be still striving to do the things of God, only in a much greater degree."

-Brigham Young, Teachings of the Presidents of the Church Brigham Young, p 279

Easier to repent here and easier to learn there - Spirit World

Alma 34:33

"President Brigham Young said it is a hundred times easier to repent here on the earth than it is in the spirit world. By the same token, if we go there in the right condition, it is a hundred times easier to learn in the spirit world than it is here in this life. So we should do what we can do best where we are. "

Elder Hartman Rector Jr, CR Oct 1970, p 74

All have an opportunity to hear or hear it again - Spirit World

"Why was the gospel preached in the spirit world? So that the dead might repent and live according to the will of God (see Joseph Smith Translation, 1 Peter 4:6)

Mercy and justice require that those who have died without an opportunity to hear the gospel in mortality receive that opportunity in the spirit world. Mercy and justice also require that those who have rejected the gospel in this live receive some opportunity to hear it again."

The Savior's Visit to the Spirit World, Elder Spencer Condie, July 2003 Ensign (Student Readings for the Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel Class)

Christ in the Spirit World

"We simply do not know who among the dead will turn their hearts to the Lord and repent. We are not in a position to judge...
The Savior Himself greatly anticipated His visit to the obedient in the spirit world (John 5:25)...
His visit organized the preaching of the gospel to those in the spirit world...
The dead who have not heart or who rejected the gospel in mortality are in darkness, or in a state of misery (Alma 40:14; D&C 138:2). Yet because of His visit, we have a hope for their salvation."


The Savior's Visit to the Spirit World, Elder Spencer Condie, July 2003 Ensign (Student Readings for the Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel Class)

Faithful parents and wayward children

"Perhaps in this life we are not given to fully understand how enduring the sealing cords of righteous parents are to their children. It may very well be that there are more helpful sources at work than we know. I believe there is a strong familial pull as the influence of beloved ancestors continues with us from the other side of the veil.

President Faust's teachings authoritatively summarize the things we do and do not know about righteous parents and wayward children. The influence of parents who honor covenants and obey commandments indeed can have a decisive spiritual impact upon children who stray by activating the tentacles of divine Providence--in ways that have no been revealed fully and are not understood completely. However, righteous parental influence (1) does not replace in the life of an individual the need for the redeeming and strengthening power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, (2) does not overrule the consequences of the unrighteous exercise of moral agency, and (3) does not negate the responsibility of an individual as an agent 'to act...and not to be acted upon.' (2 Nephi 2:26)"

-Elder David A Bednar, March 2014, Faithful Parents and Wayward Children: Sustaining Hope While Overcoming Misunderstanding

The gospel is preached in the Spirit World

D&C 138:58-59

Since our Lord has proclaimed 'liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.' (Isaiah 61:1) the gospel is preached in all parts of the spirit world, repentance is granted to those seek it. 

-Bruce R McConkie, DNTC 1:522 Institute New Testament Student Manual, p. 174

We must know the counsel in order to follow it

"When we do not keep ourselves advised as to what the counsel of the Lord is [through his servants; D&C 1:38], we are prone to substitute our own counsel for His. As a matter of fact, there is nothing else we can do but follow our own counsel when we do not know the Lord's instructions."

-Marion G Romney, Message of 1st Presidency, Ensign August 1985

Angels are those we know

"...When messengers are sent to minister to the inhabitants of this earth, they are not strangers, but from the ranks of our kindred and friends...In like manner, 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 to 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 who they had learned to love in the flesh."

-Joseph F Smith, Gospel Doctrine pg 435-436

Second Coming - Jewish people

"Just must return, Jerusalem must be rebuilt, and the temple, and water come out from under the temple, and the waters of the Dead Sea be healed. It will take some time to rebuild the walls of the city and the temple &c.; and all this must be done before the Son of Man will make His appearance."

-Joseph Smith, History 1838-1856 volume D-1 [1 August 1842 - 1 July 1843], p. 1520

Second Coming - Jewish people

"That is to say, the Jews 'shall begin to believe in Christ' before he comes the second time. Some of them will accept the gospel and forsake the traditions of their fathers; a few will find in Jesus the fulfillment of their ancient Messianic hopes; but their nation as a whole, their people as the distinct body that they are in all nations, the Jews as a unit shall not, at that time, accept the word of truth. But a beginning will be made; a foundation will be laid; and then Christ will come and usher in the millennial year of his redeemed."

-Bruce R McConkie, Millenial Messiah, 228-229

Light of Christ vs Holy Ghost

"By means of this Spirit every man is enlightened, the wicked as well as the good, the intelligent and the ignorant, the high and the low, each in accordance with his capacity to receive the light; and this Spirit or influence which emanates from God may be said to constitute man's consciousness, and will never cease to strive with man, until man is brought to the possession of the higher intelligence which can only come through faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, and the gift of the presentation of the Holy Ghost by one having authority."

-Joseph F Smith, Gospel Doctrine, 61-62

Holy Ghost can visit non-members

"Every man can receive a manifestation of the Holy Ghost, even when he is out of the Church, if he is earnestly seeking for the light and for the truth. The Holy Ghost will come and give the man the testimony he is seeking, and then withdraw; and the man does not have a claim on another visit or constant visits and manifestations to him. He may have the constant guidance of that other Spirit, the Spirit of Christ."

-Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:42

Holy Ghost is pure intelligence

"The gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands cannot be received through the medium of any other principle, than the principle of Righteousness... This first Comforter or Holy Ghost has no other effect than pure intelligence. It is more powerful in expanding the mind, enlightening the understanding, and storing the intellect with present knowledge... it is calm and serene; and [the] whole should and body are only exercised by the pure spirit of intelligence..."

-Joseph Smith Papers

Holy Ghost comes as we merit it

"The Holy Ghost comes a little at a time as your merit it. And as your life is in harmony, you gradually receive the Holy Ghost in a great measure."

-Spencer W Kimball, The Teachings of Spencer W Kimball, p. 114

Whatever Christ touches, LIVES

"...a reminder to us that whatever Jesus lays his hands upon lives. If Jesus lays his hands upon a marriage, it lives. If he is allowed to lay his hands on a family, it lives...when they got to the home of the ruler of the synagogue, Jesus took the little girl by the hand and raised her from the dead. In like manner, he will left and raise every man/woman to a new and better life who permit the Savior to take him by the hand."

-Howard W Hunter, "Reading the Scriptures" General Conference Oct 1979