Nature of the Holy Ghost

Actually, the missionary does not convert anyone; the Holy Ghost does the converting. The power of conversion is directly associated with the Holy Ghost, for no person can be truly converted and know that Jesus is the Christ save by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Spencer W. Kimball

On Thursday, I was thinking about missionary work in the Spirit Prison when I remembered this principle and wondered how that works there. Because the missionaries and investigators are also spirits, they would be able to see the Holy Ghost if He just sat in on their lessons. And what would keep the investigators from thinking He was just another guy?

Then I realized that the Holy Ghost cannot be actually present in every place He is felt on earth at one time, so he could probably be physically, for lack of a better word, absent from Spirit World discussions.

My basic understanding of spirits has always been that they have definite forms and are only able to be in one place at a time - like physical beings but less sturdy (There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; D&C 131:7). But I have also understood that one reason the Holy Ghost doesn't have a body is so that He can be present everywhere He is needed, which Heavenly Father and Jesus can't do with their physical bodies. Those understandings really do not work well together.

So maybe something about lacking a body helps in the spiritual communication from a distance - with bodied and unbodied spirits, so he can confirm truth to the spirit investigators in a way other than another guy in the room talking directly to them.

But then I think about how we pray to the Father, and He hears us, even if we do not pray vocally. Maybe it is more to do with His special ability than our own ability to transmit spiritual messages. but it does seem likely to me that inspiration and prayers are transmitted through similar means. Maybe being without a body makes it somehow easier to talk to many at once?

Or maybe the Holy Ghost could work perfectly well having a body, and the only reason He doesn't is so that He can be available to us throughout our lives. I think I actually really like that idea.

Of course, that does bring me to another question I have on occasion entertained for a while before setting it aside - when does the Holy Ghost get His body, and when and how does He get tested?