A Family is Forever

It's been some time since I have posted here, and I was challenged to share my personal testimony of the temple on Facebook, so I thought I'd write it here, where I can refer back to it easily and it will be more permanent. When I was a small child, once in a while, my parents would take me to church at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Both my parents were inactive members, meaning, they were baptized as members, but they did not live the standards or attend meetings. But in those few times I went I remember learning about the temple. I remember learning that my family could be together forever through the sealing power administered within the walls of the temple. I am not sure why that seemed so important to me as a 4 or 5 year old child, but I knew it was true and I knew I wanted my family to be together forever, so I started making sure my parents knew that that was what I wanted. My dad's mom, the only grandma I really knew early on, started telling me about the temple almost in place of bedtime stories. She told me about the people there, all dressed in white, beautiful rooms trimmed with gold, and she would show me pictures of the Salt Lake Temple. She told me it was a castle and that I was a Princess and so I would go there someday.

(This photo is not my own) I always knew that is where I wanted to go and that I wanted my family to be forever, but the pressures of teenage life did their best to keep me from it. Nearing the end of my senior year in high school, I made the decision to grow up, and find my way back to the path that would lead me to the temple and eventually to my forever family. I went through a lengthy repentance process, breaking bad habits and asking forgiveness and for the grace of the Savior's atonement to help make me all I should be, to enter into that holy house of the Lord. No other hard work has ever been so worth the effort. After I turned 21, I started dating the man who would become my eternal companion. It was a whirlwind of a courtship. As I sat in the room of the baptismal font, of the Jordan River Temple, inspiration came flooding in on me and I knew that Neil would be my husband. This was only a week after our first date, so I thought I would keep that to myself for a while. Two weeks after we started dating, he knew as well and came to me to ask if we should pray about getting married and so we did. The next morning, watching our General Conference broadcast together, an image of the Salt Lake Temple cam on the screen and Neil knew, too. One month after our first date we were officially engaged. At this point, I called my parents. I told them I was getting married and I would not settle for less than a temple marriage; that I hoped they would be able to be there for that sealing ceremony, but if not, I would still be married within the walls of the temple. They set to work right away and four days before my wedding my dad and I received our endowment on the same day, and directly afterward I was sealed to them as their daughter for all eternity. It was the blessing I had hoped for since I could remember. On the 13th of August, 2003, Just short of 11 years ago today, I knelt across an altar, dressed in white, and gave myself to a man whose soul I think I have known forever; and to whom I will remain at his side in love and equality, for time and all eternity. I know that the power of that ordinance has no end and cannot separate us, even in death. I could not know as a 5 year old child that the sealing power of the temple would come to mean so much to me, in my life as a young mother. I could not know the day Neil and I were married, that it would be the most important decision I could make for my children. I could not know that my faith in that power, to bind families together, forever, would be tested to it's limit. But I would come to know, after carrying our third child, our first son, for 9 months, and holding him in our arms for 11 hours, that death is not the end. That I will see my baby boy again, and he will be mine. He will be Neil's. And I know that the ordinances of the temple give me peace and understanding. I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who has helped me every step of the way. I am greatful for President Hinckly, who saw the vision of temples dotting the Earth and went to work to make it a reality. And I am thankful to my dear love, for his faithfulness and devotion, to me, to our family and to his faith- for his example to me and I say these things, in Jesus' name, Amen. If you want to learn more, I would be happy to answer any questions I can. You can also refer here forcommon questions answered.