I lived in Utah until I was 10 years old and probably passed by the Salt Lake temple many times. To me it was just another church building until I was able to go inside the Los Angeles temple before it was dedicated in 1955. I found out that a temple is much more. When I went to BYU for college in 1960, I learned more about the history and purposes of temples. They are sacred places of instruction on how to return to our Heavenly Father, and where families can be sealed together and couples married for time and all eternity. That became my goal in life to be part of an eternal family unit.For those who have been to civil marriage ceremonies, the words “till death do you part” seem very startling and sad. If you love someone enough to marry and live with them your whole life and have a family together, you can’t picture not being with that person in the next life. My father died when I was 5 years old and I certainly want to be with him and my mom in the next life but they weren’t married in a temple. When I found out that temple work could be done for my dad and he could be sealed to my mom so we could be a family forever, I was excited. The only problem was my mom didn’t believe in this doctrine. My mom died last year and it is now time to do her temple work, and she can accept or reject it.
Experiences of this past week have confirmed to me that my mom is now ready and willing to have her temple work done for her. So next Tues Jan 15th I will be making a trip to the Mt. Timpanogos temple with friends and family to become an eternal family, sixty-three years after my father’s death. I know my parents are together now and reunited in their love, only waiting for this temple ordinance so we can be an eternal family.