Temple-Work Stalwart

Ronald Sims, 77, of the Cardston Second Ward, Cardston Alberta West Stake, reached his goal to act as proxy in 200,000 ordinances for the dead (baptisms, endowments, and sealings) at the Alberta Temple on 12 June 1997. He set his first goal for 100,000 in November 1980 and achieved that number by the end of 1985, when he set the goal to increase the number to 200,000.

A member since 1949, Brother Sims still remembers the day missionaries first knocked on his door. He says that even before they came, he felt a prompting telling him who they were and what they represented and that he had better listen to them. After joining the Church, he received his endowment in 1953 and then began doing work for the dead.

Service has long been a priority in his life. He cared and provided for his parents in their home until he was 40 years old. In 1980, suffering health setbacks that made him unable to continue his employment, he moved with his wife, Ruth, from Cherry Grove, Alberta, to Cardston, where Ruth could be close to her family. This move also made it easier for him to serve more frequently in the Alberta Temple. “As I see it,” he says, “every time you do temple work for an individual, you’re making another friend. So I imagine when I’m finally called home I’ll have a lot of friends around me.”

Brother Sims plans on getting a pacemaker for his heart so he’ll be able to continue attending the temple. He has set his sights on the quarter-million mark in proxy ordinance work for the dead. “I haven’t a doubt in the world that the Church is true,” he says. “And I haven’t a doubt in the world that the work I’m doing is the most important work I could be doing.”—Joan Savage, Cardston, Alberta, Canada

Photo by Jed Clark