Visitors to a Latter-day Saint funeral frequently remark that it does not sound like one, and the reason is doctrinal rather than temperamental. If death is a change of state within a continuing existence, and if the family of a person sealed in a temple expects the relationship to resume, then the service has less to grieve about than most. Latter-day Saints do grieve, and say so, but the framing of the occasion is an interval rather than an ending.
The service is short and plain. It is held in an ordinary meetinghouse where possible rather than a commercial funeral chapel, conducted by the bishop of the deceased's ward, and arranged in most of its practical detail by the ward Relief Society. There are hymns sung by the congregation, an opening and closing prayer, a eulogy or several given by family members, and a talk by the bishop or another speaker on the plan of salvation. There is no requiem, no prayer for the repose of the dead, no incense, no vestments and no liturgical colour.
The church's handbook has long instructed that the occasion be simple and that it be used to teach the plan of salvation as well as to remember the person, an instruction that has drawn a certain amount of affectionate complaint from members who would prefer rather more about their grandmother and rather less about the degrees of glory.