Sisters

During our temple visits, Kevin and I do a lot of sealings. With the headaches being as unpredictable as they have been, the sealing sessions have been a good fit for us over the last little while. It is a shorter session so if I’m headachy, I can get back home a bit sooner. And while reservations for endowment sessions can be very hard to make unless you are doing so months in advance, we can almost always find a sealing session at a convenient time within the next week or less. Which means that if I’m having a hard headache day or week, we can easily reschedule. And honestly, every time we walk in and ask to do temple names instead of family names, the temple workers get excited. There are so many people who are waiting for sealing ordinances, whose names have been printed or waiting in the queue for a long time. It is wonderful that there are so many people taking family names to the temple, but it can also be really neat to do temple names. I’ve had some really amazing experiences performing ordinances for strangers.

For many years, Kevin and I did mainly endowment sessions with occasional trips to do other ordinances. I think a lot of people do the same. But I have really loved participating in so many sealing sessions. It is an opportunity to listen to the words of the ordinance time and time again, which has given me a chance to really learn them, to ponder on the covenants I’m making, and to find joy in the promised blessings. And while it doesn’t happen in every session, there are times when the sealer running the session will impart some knowledge they have learned over the years or invite us to think about one particular part of the ordinance. For example, today our sealer talked about the fact that in the sealing ordinance we “receive” our spouse as opposed to the commonly phrased “take” your spouse that is used in many other religious or even civil marriages. Think about that. There is a world of difference between those two words. 

We have also learned about several differences in the way sealings can be done. First of all, you don’t have to kneel if there is a physical reason you can’t. Those nice cushions that surround the altar can be lifted out so that a chair or wheelchair can be placed right beside the altar. Makes sense, right? Another thing we have learned that I suspect many people don’t know is that if there are multiple siblings that need to be sealed to their parents, the ordinance can be done once to seal all of them instead of doing a separate sealing for each sibling. The ordinance is valid either way, but it can be kind of neat to have an entire “family” gathered around the altar at the same time.

I have been able to stand as proxy in such a sealing several times over the years, and today I had another chance to participate in this less common type of sealing. Kevin and I were proxy as the married couple as two sisters were sealed to their parents. And as I knelt at the altar, the Spirit reminded me in a powerful way that because I am sealed to my parents, I am also bound to my sisters with the same eternal, unbreakable bond. Everything that has happened with Esther in the past month has been a harsh reminder of the fleeting nature of mortality. And this morning the reminder of the eternal nature of my family was a blessing. We are sisters. Always have been. Always will be. And that is a joyful thought.

A Summer’s Work

Just about as soon as school got out earlier this summer, Daniel and Nathan headed to the temple. They made it a priority, and both went as often as they could with an ever-rotating group of friends. They didn’t limit themselves to once a week but went as often as the fancy hit them. I think Nathan went five times in two weeks once and Daniel went four times last week alone. Matthew went several times as well, although he was not able to get there as often because he doesn’t drive yet and was not always included in his brothers’ trips.

Early in the summer, Nathan found an entire family’s worth of siblings, five brothers and two sisters, that all needed their work done. He printed the names and we set to work with the goal of finishing them in time for a family sealing session my dad had scheduled. The boys worked together to complete the baptisms (Daniel had a female friend do the baptisms for the two sisters), then Daniel did the initiatory and endowment for the brothers and I did the work for the sisters. He did the last endowment yesterday, so we were all ready for this evening’s sealing session.

I love doing sealings because they are the culmination of all the ordinances we do in the temple. It is the one that binds families together. Doing a session with Kevin, Daniel, my parents and my sisters and their spouses was fantastic. It was the first time Daniel has done a sealing session so that made it an even more amazing experience. I know this isn’t the first time I’ve said this, but I love being in the temple with my family. It just reminds me that family is really what it’s all about. And the officiator for our session was so personable and really helped invite the spirit to be with us.

For the names Nathan had discovered, Kevin and I were proxy for the parents and Daniel was proxy for all the sons. One of my sisters was proxy for the daughters. We did all seven names in a row, binding those children to their parents. It made me smile to think about all those siblings rejoicing as they were finally sealed together as a family. I may even have been grinning like an idiot. When we finished the last name, my thoughts suddenly turned, and I had the thought that we were missing someone. I felt a need to check and make sure. The feeling didn’t wane as the session continued and with all the great technology we have, I was able to check as soon as we got back to the car. What I discovered were three more siblings-one brother whose name had been reserved for nearly two years but the work not completed, a sister (the youngest sibling) whose death date means we aren’t able to do her work yet, and the oldest brother for whom no work has been done and whose name is unreserved. Daniel immediately reserved the oldest brother and his wife and printed the cards as soon as we got home. He plans to get the baptisms done tomorrow morning at his next planned temple trip. And the reservation on the other brother will expire in October if his work remains unfinished so I will keep my eye on that to make sure he can join his family as well. As for the youngest sister, we’ll have to let time pass until we can do her ordinances.

To me, having the spirit speak to me about those missing siblings is yet another confirmation that all this is true. These aren’t just random names on paper. They are real people and the work we do for them is vital. The sealer in our session assured us that the acceptance rate of the gospel is far greater on the other side that it is here. Without the veil clouding all we once knew of where we came from, I very much believe that to be true. And I believe this particular family, whose last name is the same as ours, is so happy and so anxious for the remaining siblings to be sealed to them as well.

My boys have been such an amazing example to me all summer. Their desire to be in the temple is inspiring. Their willingness to devote their time and sacrifice other activities be there is humbling. I feel blessed to be their mother.

(Nathan has kept nearly all the name cards he has done baptisms for this summer. He has seventy cards in hand and about thirty more that he doesn’t have the cards for. That is an amazing amount of work done in one summer.)