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What It’s all About: Family

The family is central to everything.  That’s why we are here on earth and that’s why it is so important for us to go to the temple as much as possible.

Today I had the experience to witness T.J.’s cousin marry and be sealed in the Mt. Timpanogos temple.  In the sealing room, the two families sat across from each other, disconnected.  But once the couple entered the room and knelt across the alter from one another, not only did the couple unite, but also the two separate families became a link in an eternal chain.

What a great blessing it is to be a part of that.  As I grew up, I always envied the big families with lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins.  It is what made me want to, one day, have a large family of my own so my kids can feel the love and happiness of a large family.

T.J. has a great-grandfather who is over 100 years old.

But now, my family and I have eternally been joined into another large family, one that keeps growing as others marry and have children.  T.J. has countless cousins, aunts, uncles, and extended family.  It is truly amazing to me that I now have all of those cousins, aunts, uncles, and extended family as well.

Before the sealer began, he asked if there were any grandparents witnessing the sealing. Both sets of the groom’s grandparents were in attendance.

Both sets.

This may not seem unusual for a lot of you.  But for me, just to have grandparents this late in life, is unbelievable, seeing that mine have all been gone for a while.  And then, to have them there with you for the most exquisite day of your life is also remarkable.  If they wouldn’t have been sealed years ago, none of this would have happened today.

To finish, I just want to communicate to you all the importance of family.  We need to make sure our family relationships are strong because those are the ones that mean the most.  It doesn’t matter who they are–parents, siblings, cousins, in-laws.  We need to continually build all of those relationships because we will have those for eternity.

Anyway, I know this post was pretty scattered, but I just had to share those thoughts.  Do all you can so you can always be worthy to enter the temple.  That’s where the family starts.

“Why did you get married now?”

At my reception, I had a lot of high school friends and other non-LDS friends/family attend.  Outside of BYU, clearly it is not normal to get married while you still are in school and are just 21 years old. So, I kept getting asked, “Why did you get married now?”

Other than the fact that I love my husband more than words can describe, there is a lot more that goes into it.  So from the perspective of a Mormon, here is my answer that I gave to a few people:

“It all can be wrapped up these few paragraphs in the Proclamation to the Family:

http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,161-1-11-1,00.html

To me, my role in the family is the most important role I can have. Being a student is great so I can have a career, being a friend is important too so I can serve others, but what I really believe is my central role, is that role within the family.

So I found someone who believes that same thing, and we want to have our own family. (I’m not saying I want to have kids right now or even soon, our little family of two right now is good). But now we can fill these rolls in the family together as husband and wife, and later as a mother and father, more fully as we have been married for eternity in the temple.”

I have to admit, it took a lot of courage at first to send that as a message.  And after a few days I was nervous that I said too much and might have made some people feel uncomfortable.  But ultimately I realized, there is no reason to be ashamed to share the gospel, especially through a personal experience like this.

Going on a little bit of a tangent, both of my parents were converted to the gospel when they were in college.  I have realized that when kids move out of their homes and start a new life for themselves, they also try to find out who they are and some desperately seek for guidance but don’t know where to find it.  It is important to stand up for what we believe because, who knows, it might just be what the person needs to hear right then.  Just like my parents when they were in college, many young adults are trying to find a direction, a religion, or a hope in this world, so we need to stand as witnesses of this gospel.

I hope by sharing the Proclamation to the Family with others, I have helped someone understand what their purpose is and who they are in this world.  If you would like to learn more, write me an email or check out Mormon.org.