I feel like most times when I go to the temple, I get this small glimpse into heaven.
Yesterday, John and I attended Stake Temple Day at the Washington D.C. temple. Being in charge of Temple and Family History work as a member of the stake presidency, John was the one to plan and organize it, and it being the weekend before the stake conference when John will be released from the stake presidency, it felt like one of those full-circle moments. It was a last chance to get together with all of his friends from around the stake and spend some time together...like we will in heaven.
I have stacks of temple names that need sealings done, and I've slowly been chipping away at them over the last year and a half. Ask any of the family--anytime we are together, I beg everyone to join me at the temple to do sealings. I could give them away to other people to do, but having as little family as I have, I feel a grave responsibility to do them myself. With no siblings and no immediate extended family who appear to want to either join the church or keep their temple covenants, I worry that I might just be very alone when I pass through the veil to the other side. So I do the work for the generations who came before me and who made it possible for me to be here on the earth at this time (and being the fourth generation of only children, I don't say that lightly). My hope is that all of these beautiful people whose names are printed on those little pink and blue cards will be waiting for me, and that they will take me in their arms and show me the way once I'm reunited with them again.
So yesterday, we were supposed to bring one name to the temple and complete all of the ordinances for that person in one day. However, we attend the temple so frequently, and regularly participate in ordinances other than just the endowment, that we decided to spend more time with our family names in the sealing room.
John has said it before, and I've seconded his thought, but for as beautiful and wondrous and amazing and profound as the sealing covenants and promises are, the ordinance itself is almost too simple. John envisions a bright, thick beam of light coming down from heaven and bonding the people at the altar with God. Yes, something like out of a science fiction movie :-) As the crowning ordinance of our lives, the one that seals us eternally with our family and God, it definitely deserves something like that, and yet it's simple, short and beautiful.
Yesterday, we obviously didn't have any of our children in the sealing room (Ethan and Rebecca are in Utah now, Mark is in Michigan, Hannah is in Ecuador, and Glo isn't endowed yet), so I knew that if I was to seal children to their parents, I would need to share my names. And for the first time, I was okay with that. Why? Because some of the other patrons in that sealing room are members of our stake, and in many ways, they feel like family.
When we first began, we were changing into our temple clothes in a room down the hall, and there was another couple with us. When I heard John say, "Oh hey," I just assumed it was another member of the stake whom he knows, but I don't. When I looked up though, the faces were familiar, and it took me only a second to realize that it was Andy and Louise Williams.
The Williams were a family that we met just days after we moved to Germany. In fact, they were the only family in the entire area who had decided to put their children in German schools (instead of DoDDS schools on base). They became our lifeline for navigating the German school system--Louise took me to Pohl to show me how to buy books and school supplies for all of the kids as well as letting me know that Mark would need a schule tuette for his first day of class. When I couldn't translate the instructions for the homework, I would call Louise. Their two oldest girls, Anne and Sage, became good friends to the boys, coming over to play games and being their friends at school.
So to see them again was (to say the least) a very happy reunion. Of course, I wish I had a picture of them and us to post, but uh, cameras aren't exactly allowed in the temple :-)
So there they were, in the temple with us. And as I sat there in the sealing room, thinking of my blessings and of eternity, I realized what a blessing the Williams had been to us, and what a tender mercy it was for us to meet up with them again.
They needed to leave after an hour, but we went out in the hall with them, and I couldn't contain my appreciation to Louise for all of her help from years past. Of course, she preempted me with her own gratitude of helping her out when Andy was deployed. I'm thinking that we had been having similar experiences of reflection in the room :-) And yes, when they needed a daughter or son for a sealing, they would ask for us to be the proxy....as did we. As Louise said, "The Kennedys are family."
Then, as the hours progressed, I felt such immense gratitude for everyone who helped accomplish so many sealings of ours. Anytime a new sealer would come in, they would see my stack of sealings and put away the temple generated names. It was really beautiful.
Next, came our "family". I could hardly believe it when the Kendalls walked into the room. Like, there aren't words to describe how happy I felt when I saw their faces. They had come in to perform three sealings, but in the end, they ended up staying two hours with us in the room, helping us accomplish so much with my own family.
And finally, the Huffs. Again, they were there for just two sealings (as encouraged by the stake presidency to do), but they stayed also. And one of the crowning moments of the day happened then.
Most of the time, sealings are done one at a time. One daughter to her parents, the next daughter to her parents, the next son, and so on. However, there is a very specific instance when something really amazing gets to happen:
When a patron brings their own names, and that patron is in the room itself, and all of the family is there to be sealed together, and there are enough patrons to do it, all of the children can be sealed to the parents at one time. I believe this is what happens with living families, so it seems natural now to think that this is possible with our ancestral families.
I happened to have a family in my stack (the Revells on John's line) who had seven sons and one daughter. We only had three male patrons in the room, but we had a willing sealer who wanted to make it all happen, so he sent a worker to find four more male patrons. I do believe I hardly blinked, and four more men walked into the room, dressed and ready....and we were told that we only got to keep them for that one ordinance :-)
So, with John and me acting as parents at the long ends of the altar holding hands, seven men and one woman acting as children (and including the Huffs) knelt around the altar, and holding hands themselves, we were all sealed together at one time. It was an unforgettable moment as I looked down and saw all of those hands knit together for time and all eternity.
We ended up spending more than three hours doing sealings, and in the end, we attended a meeting in the Priesthood room, held specifically for our stake. The temple matron spoke, and she told us that the temple represents the terrestrial kingdom (with the telestial being our earth life and the celestial being heaven), and the temple acts as a bridge between where we live now, and where we want to be. Isn't that beautiful? And thinking back on the day, being in the sealing room with my ancestral family as well as my ward, stake and military family, it definitely gave me a view into what I hope heaven will be.
I'm glad to be walking on that bridge.
Yesterday, John and I attended Stake Temple Day at the Washington D.C. temple. Being in charge of Temple and Family History work as a member of the stake presidency, John was the one to plan and organize it, and it being the weekend before the stake conference when John will be released from the stake presidency, it felt like one of those full-circle moments. It was a last chance to get together with all of his friends from around the stake and spend some time together...like we will in heaven.
I have stacks of temple names that need sealings done, and I've slowly been chipping away at them over the last year and a half. Ask any of the family--anytime we are together, I beg everyone to join me at the temple to do sealings. I could give them away to other people to do, but having as little family as I have, I feel a grave responsibility to do them myself. With no siblings and no immediate extended family who appear to want to either join the church or keep their temple covenants, I worry that I might just be very alone when I pass through the veil to the other side. So I do the work for the generations who came before me and who made it possible for me to be here on the earth at this time (and being the fourth generation of only children, I don't say that lightly). My hope is that all of these beautiful people whose names are printed on those little pink and blue cards will be waiting for me, and that they will take me in their arms and show me the way once I'm reunited with them again.
So yesterday, we were supposed to bring one name to the temple and complete all of the ordinances for that person in one day. However, we attend the temple so frequently, and regularly participate in ordinances other than just the endowment, that we decided to spend more time with our family names in the sealing room.
John has said it before, and I've seconded his thought, but for as beautiful and wondrous and amazing and profound as the sealing covenants and promises are, the ordinance itself is almost too simple. John envisions a bright, thick beam of light coming down from heaven and bonding the people at the altar with God. Yes, something like out of a science fiction movie :-) As the crowning ordinance of our lives, the one that seals us eternally with our family and God, it definitely deserves something like that, and yet it's simple, short and beautiful.
Yesterday, we obviously didn't have any of our children in the sealing room (Ethan and Rebecca are in Utah now, Mark is in Michigan, Hannah is in Ecuador, and Glo isn't endowed yet), so I knew that if I was to seal children to their parents, I would need to share my names. And for the first time, I was okay with that. Why? Because some of the other patrons in that sealing room are members of our stake, and in many ways, they feel like family.
When we first began, we were changing into our temple clothes in a room down the hall, and there was another couple with us. When I heard John say, "Oh hey," I just assumed it was another member of the stake whom he knows, but I don't. When I looked up though, the faces were familiar, and it took me only a second to realize that it was Andy and Louise Williams.
The Williams were a family that we met just days after we moved to Germany. In fact, they were the only family in the entire area who had decided to put their children in German schools (instead of DoDDS schools on base). They became our lifeline for navigating the German school system--Louise took me to Pohl to show me how to buy books and school supplies for all of the kids as well as letting me know that Mark would need a schule tuette for his first day of class. When I couldn't translate the instructions for the homework, I would call Louise. Their two oldest girls, Anne and Sage, became good friends to the boys, coming over to play games and being their friends at school.
So to see them again was (to say the least) a very happy reunion. Of course, I wish I had a picture of them and us to post, but uh, cameras aren't exactly allowed in the temple :-)
So there they were, in the temple with us. And as I sat there in the sealing room, thinking of my blessings and of eternity, I realized what a blessing the Williams had been to us, and what a tender mercy it was for us to meet up with them again.
They needed to leave after an hour, but we went out in the hall with them, and I couldn't contain my appreciation to Louise for all of her help from years past. Of course, she preempted me with her own gratitude of helping her out when Andy was deployed. I'm thinking that we had been having similar experiences of reflection in the room :-) And yes, when they needed a daughter or son for a sealing, they would ask for us to be the proxy....as did we. As Louise said, "The Kennedys are family."Then, as the hours progressed, I felt such immense gratitude for everyone who helped accomplish so many sealings of ours. Anytime a new sealer would come in, they would see my stack of sealings and put away the temple generated names. It was really beautiful.
Next, came our "family". I could hardly believe it when the Kendalls walked into the room. Like, there aren't words to describe how happy I felt when I saw their faces. They had come in to perform three sealings, but in the end, they ended up staying two hours with us in the room, helping us accomplish so much with my own family.
And finally, the Huffs. Again, they were there for just two sealings (as encouraged by the stake presidency to do), but they stayed also. And one of the crowning moments of the day happened then.
Most of the time, sealings are done one at a time. One daughter to her parents, the next daughter to her parents, the next son, and so on. However, there is a very specific instance when something really amazing gets to happen:
When a patron brings their own names, and that patron is in the room itself, and all of the family is there to be sealed together, and there are enough patrons to do it, all of the children can be sealed to the parents at one time. I believe this is what happens with living families, so it seems natural now to think that this is possible with our ancestral families.
I happened to have a family in my stack (the Revells on John's line) who had seven sons and one daughter. We only had three male patrons in the room, but we had a willing sealer who wanted to make it all happen, so he sent a worker to find four more male patrons. I do believe I hardly blinked, and four more men walked into the room, dressed and ready....and we were told that we only got to keep them for that one ordinance :-)
So, with John and me acting as parents at the long ends of the altar holding hands, seven men and one woman acting as children (and including the Huffs) knelt around the altar, and holding hands themselves, we were all sealed together at one time. It was an unforgettable moment as I looked down and saw all of those hands knit together for time and all eternity.
We ended up spending more than three hours doing sealings, and in the end, we attended a meeting in the Priesthood room, held specifically for our stake. The temple matron spoke, and she told us that the temple represents the terrestrial kingdom (with the telestial being our earth life and the celestial being heaven), and the temple acts as a bridge between where we live now, and where we want to be. Isn't that beautiful? And thinking back on the day, being in the sealing room with my ancestral family as well as my ward, stake and military family, it definitely gave me a view into what I hope heaven will be.
I'm glad to be walking on that bridge.
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