Life is good. At the present moment, I am avoiding homework and finals prep. I've been meaning to sign on and write about my feelings involving our temple marriage, like I promised Bro. Heimbeck I would do, but I haven't really had the chance.
Steven and I have been sealed for 9 days now. It's something that I'll never forget. The other thing that I'll never forget are the gobs of people that asked us if we were okay following the sessions. Granted, the ceremonies are nothing what I would've expected. Steven and I both agreed that we never wanted to do anything even remotely like that again, and now we're planning to take some of his family names to the temple and follow them all the way through. I don't think that anything can truly prepare you for everything that happens. I must admit that the temple prep class did nothing. It was nice. It had wonderful lessons. I'm still trying to figure out how they're related.
My parents came down for the event. Dad told me he even bought a new shirt for the occassion (yay?). Bryan Daulton and his wife came as Bryan was Steven's escort. We were sealed by Bro. Kozak who just happens to be the Stake Patriarch as well.
I was totally stressed when the day came. Mostly because I really had no idea what to expect. Elizabeth scared me a little, telling me that I needed to take everything at face value. Unfortunately, I also looked some things up on the internet, in trying to figure out what I needed to buy and came across some not-so-nice websites that scared the living daylights out of me. So, I truly didn't know what to think or do. Steven saw my frustrations a few days before and begged me to tell him about it. I avoided it for a few days and then broke down in tears about the stuff I had found on the internet. He was incredibly nervous too, but thankfully he had one of his BFFs to help him through.
Me, on the other hand, I had my mother. My mother, the temple worker. As if we didn't have enough bad blood between us, she announced to the world that she was escort. It made her beam with pride however squeamish it made me. I don't want us to fight for eternity so I felt that if I turned her away that there would always be thais strange rift between us for eternity. Everything went decently well. Mom continued to plead with me to be honest about my relationship with Steven. She still has this weird fear that Steven is some horrible person that demeans me in all sorts of respects. I have no clue where she got this! If anything, I'm mean and horrible to him! So, she told me that Emily, a friend I used to know realized too late that she was in a bad situation and since LDS don't truly believe in divorce- that she was going to 'stick it out' for all eternity. That's really sad, I think. I feel truly blessed to spend eternity with my husband. He means everything to me. Anyway, aside from my mother badgering me about whether I really wanted to do this (was there any other alternative? I mean, we were already married.) she told me that I was faithless when I asked her some questions regarding the translation of the Book of Mormon. Sadly, I saw this South Park episode (not my idea) that showed the Prophet, Joseph Smith, translating the Book of Mormon out of a top hat. I told the person that showed it to me that it was absolutely preposterous and I searched online to try to disprove it. I wasn't able to. After 4 years of seminary and 3 of institute, never had we discussed it. I read all of the statistics and listened to all these testimonies that were destroyed over this. If the Joseph Smith story wasn't enough of a pill to swallow, this threw many of them over the edge. This was some of the things I was questioning my mother over. She essentially told me that my faith wasn't strong enough for us to be sealed together and that I probably shouldn't have been in the temple that day. It's always nice to sit in the Celestial room in tears.
I had never been so glad as to follow the suggestion to have the sealing another day. We were endowed on the 27th and sealed the 28th. The sealing was much better. Bro. Richins and Chara were there in addition to my parents and the Daultons. We were sealed by Bro. Kozak. He gave us words of wisdom for eternal marriage. One of my favorite parts was that both of us were anointed servants of God and to remember that when we are angry that we agreed not to speak ill of the anointed servants of God which also included us. I thought that was a nice anecdote to keep the eternal perspective.
After all of the temple ordinances, we went outside- newly sealed! I could've killed Steven for forgetting his white tux as we met up with the photographer (our friend Nathyn). I altered my temple dress a little (added a train and matching veil, and a poofy slip) and we had a fun 2 hour photo session taking random pictures around the temple. My parents got a little angry about this, but we had a blast. They left after a bit to go to the bookstore so we could finish up. The pictures were so beautiful. They were actually better than our professional pictures we had for our civil marriage. But, the temple also had prettier grounds, better backdrops, and a nicer day. All in all, our sealing was an amazing time. I'm so incredibly thankful for the ability I have to be sealed to my love, my companion, for time and all eternity.
Steven and I have been sealed for 9 days now. It's something that I'll never forget. The other thing that I'll never forget are the gobs of people that asked us if we were okay following the sessions. Granted, the ceremonies are nothing what I would've expected. Steven and I both agreed that we never wanted to do anything even remotely like that again, and now we're planning to take some of his family names to the temple and follow them all the way through. I don't think that anything can truly prepare you for everything that happens. I must admit that the temple prep class did nothing. It was nice. It had wonderful lessons. I'm still trying to figure out how they're related.
My parents came down for the event. Dad told me he even bought a new shirt for the occassion (yay?). Bryan Daulton and his wife came as Bryan was Steven's escort. We were sealed by Bro. Kozak who just happens to be the Stake Patriarch as well.
I was totally stressed when the day came. Mostly because I really had no idea what to expect. Elizabeth scared me a little, telling me that I needed to take everything at face value. Unfortunately, I also looked some things up on the internet, in trying to figure out what I needed to buy and came across some not-so-nice websites that scared the living daylights out of me. So, I truly didn't know what to think or do. Steven saw my frustrations a few days before and begged me to tell him about it. I avoided it for a few days and then broke down in tears about the stuff I had found on the internet. He was incredibly nervous too, but thankfully he had one of his BFFs to help him through.
Me, on the other hand, I had my mother. My mother, the temple worker. As if we didn't have enough bad blood between us, she announced to the world that she was escort. It made her beam with pride however squeamish it made me. I don't want us to fight for eternity so I felt that if I turned her away that there would always be thais strange rift between us for eternity. Everything went decently well. Mom continued to plead with me to be honest about my relationship with Steven. She still has this weird fear that Steven is some horrible person that demeans me in all sorts of respects. I have no clue where she got this! If anything, I'm mean and horrible to him! So, she told me that Emily, a friend I used to know realized too late that she was in a bad situation and since LDS don't truly believe in divorce- that she was going to 'stick it out' for all eternity. That's really sad, I think. I feel truly blessed to spend eternity with my husband. He means everything to me. Anyway, aside from my mother badgering me about whether I really wanted to do this (was there any other alternative? I mean, we were already married.) she told me that I was faithless when I asked her some questions regarding the translation of the Book of Mormon. Sadly, I saw this South Park episode (not my idea) that showed the Prophet, Joseph Smith, translating the Book of Mormon out of a top hat. I told the person that showed it to me that it was absolutely preposterous and I searched online to try to disprove it. I wasn't able to. After 4 years of seminary and 3 of institute, never had we discussed it. I read all of the statistics and listened to all these testimonies that were destroyed over this. If the Joseph Smith story wasn't enough of a pill to swallow, this threw many of them over the edge. This was some of the things I was questioning my mother over. She essentially told me that my faith wasn't strong enough for us to be sealed together and that I probably shouldn't have been in the temple that day. It's always nice to sit in the Celestial room in tears.
I had never been so glad as to follow the suggestion to have the sealing another day. We were endowed on the 27th and sealed the 28th. The sealing was much better. Bro. Richins and Chara were there in addition to my parents and the Daultons. We were sealed by Bro. Kozak. He gave us words of wisdom for eternal marriage. One of my favorite parts was that both of us were anointed servants of God and to remember that when we are angry that we agreed not to speak ill of the anointed servants of God which also included us. I thought that was a nice anecdote to keep the eternal perspective.
After all of the temple ordinances, we went outside- newly sealed! I could've killed Steven for forgetting his white tux as we met up with the photographer (our friend Nathyn). I altered my temple dress a little (added a train and matching veil, and a poofy slip) and we had a fun 2 hour photo session taking random pictures around the temple. My parents got a little angry about this, but we had a blast. They left after a bit to go to the bookstore so we could finish up. The pictures were so beautiful. They were actually better than our professional pictures we had for our civil marriage. But, the temple also had prettier grounds, better backdrops, and a nicer day. All in all, our sealing was an amazing time. I'm so incredibly thankful for the ability I have to be sealed to my love, my companion, for time and all eternity.
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