This is my sacred duty

This morning I was able to perform vicarious baptisms for the dead. Here's why:

Because this is my sacred duty.

 No we don't dunk dead bodies. I was baptized as a proxy for those that have passed on and cannot perform their own saving ordinances. The person whose work was done can then choose to accept the work, or to not accept it. (Yes we believe in life after death and agency and in eternal progression and eternal families and all that good stuff) 
" Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
(Malachi 4:5-6)
Ancient prophets foretold the return of Elijah before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This prophecy was also one of the first messages that Moroni gave to young Joseph and is being fulfilled around the world in LDS temples through saving and sealing ordinances.
President Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency taught:
“It is important to know why the Lord promised to send Elijah. Elijah was a great prophet with great power given him by God. He held the greatest power God gives to His children: he held the sealing power, the power to bind on earth and have it bound in heaven. … And the Lord kept His promise to send Elijah. Elijah came to the Prophet Joseph Smith on April 3, 1836, just after the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, the first temple built after the restoration of the gospel.
Your effort in behalf of your ancestors is patterned after the work of the Savior, although on a much smaller scale. The Savior enables all of us to return to Heavenly Father’s presence through the Atonement, and you help your ancestors receive the blessings of the Atonement by making ordinances available to them. You do a saving work for them that they cannot do for themselves.
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that Latter-day Saints are to become saviors on Mount Zion. He explained: “How are they to become saviors on Mount Zion? By building their temples, erecting their baptismal fonts, and going forth and receiving all the ordinances … upon their heads, in behalf of all their progenitors who are dead, and redeem them that they may come forth in the first resurrection and be exalted to thrones of glory with them."

Temple and family history work unites families. Husbands and wives, parents and children can be sealed through sacred temple ordinances. The goal of this process is that “the whole chain of God’s family shall be welded together into one chain, and they shall all become the family of God and His Christ” 
To learn more about Mormons and LDS temples go to Mormon.org or watch this video on YouTube. : Why Mormons Build Temples