Our Temple Sealing

About 4 years ago, the missionaries came to our house to talk to Noah and Buzz about the church. Noah was 9 and Buzz had just turned 8. Sarah and I were not active in our church at the time. We felt like we wanted something more for our family, we knew that we needed a change. We thought that we would give our boys the oppurtunity to see if they were interested in being baptized. Elder Moon and his companion came over and taught us a discussion. At that time he invited us to be sealed in the temple as a family for time and all eternity. He ripped out a page from his flipchart, it was a picture of the Salt Lake Temple. He wrote across the bottom "Our goal 1 year". The spirit was very strong, and we felt it.

From that moment on, even until today, Sarah has lived her life with a very strong testimony of the truth of gospel. I was a little slower to come around. It was another nine months before I was able to overcome some of my vices. About that same time, we moved into Marrcrest. We met with the bishopric, and we really loved the ward. At that time we determined it would be another year before we could move forward with our plans to be sealed.

All along we had the ripped flipchart photo of the Salt Lake Temple hanging in the most visible part of the house. We were constantly reminded of that first visit by the missionaries, the spirit we felt, and our goal to be sealed.

In the summer of 05' (about 2 years ago), we met our one year goal and got called to serve as primary teachers. But our goal to be sealed seemed almost unattainable at that time. In order to be sealed our choices were to do an adoption or get a signed permission letter. The adoption would have been not only costly and time consuming, but unlikely. We were concerned that he would allow us to be sealed, let alone adopt. As we made efforts to contact him, our hopes of getting it done quickly were diminished. He had moved from place to place, had changed numbers and even some of his freinds didn't know how to get a hold of him. This went on for 6 months or so.

We finally did touch base with him, and to our suprise he was on board with signing the paperwork. We typed up a letter, and gave him a copy. We also set a date with the temple, and made some invitations. Although he had agreed verbally, we spent another year trying to track him down so he could follow through, this was one of 3 letters that he agreed to sign yet never returned.

I was especially frustrated one Saturday about the situation. We felt like we had made great progress over our first 2 years, but we felt like we hadn't done much recently. I decided to ask Heavenly Father what I needed to do to improve the deal. I felt very strongly that we needed to be sealed, even if we couldnt get the kids there with us, that at least Sarah and I needed to do it.
The next Sunday at church the Bishop, talked about a daughter that was baptized before her father was worthy to do it, and that it was better for her to get it done as soon as possible rather than wait for her father. He talked about the importance of us doing everything we can today to be in compliance with the commandments.

So, we set the date for Friday May 25, 2007. At this point in time, we did not have a letter of permission, and did not know where to get it. It was the same scenario we had been dealing with for almost 2 years, and we were determined to make it happen over the next 25 days. 3 weeks went by and not much progress was made. We had invited some close family members, but we could not find any new info on how we might get the written permission.

Monday came, and still no luck. Wednesday was coming fast, and we started thinking of alternatives. Sarah and I didn't feel right about getting sealed without the boys, we nearly called it off. Wednesday morning came along and we were to be at the temple at 4:00ish. at 11:30 Sarah's brother had given us a number to call, it was the right one. I had the paperwork signed by 12:00. I couldn't beleive it. I faxed over the information to the temple (it had to be approved), and we got our kids set up for interviews with the Bishop and Stake President. By 3:30 we were on our way to the Timponogas Temple as a family, 4 hours earlier we expected to miss our appointment at the temple.

It was a beautiful ceremony, even with Olivia's big black eye. The sealing room was totally packed and many of the guests hadn't even expected the whole family to be there. It was a very special moment for all of us. I am very blessed, and I know that God made that happen.

Where did June go?

I don't know if it was baseball season or just the heat, but last month was a blur. We are doing well, and if I could think of one thing that happened to us last month I could tell you all about it. I'm sure that it was pretty eventful, Sarah is working like crazy, the kids are busy playing all day. We had a good baseball season, Olivia and Buzz are doing tennis lessons. The boys and I went on an overnight scout camping trip, and have been busy with the young men in the ward. I only played golf twice the whole month of June!? I must have been busy.



Wow, my new years resolution (see 07" post) is failing miserably.