Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Married For Time and All Eternity

It has been such a whirl wind as I watched and listened as Richard and Rhonda prepared to go to the temple. Autumn, Richard and Rhonda received their Patriarchal Blessing.

Richard received the Priesthood, first he became a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood. Then on Saturday, November 22nd in Stake Conference he was sustained to received the Melchizedek Priesthood and was ordained an Elder later that day. From what I heard the blessing was amazing.

My mother who has been inactive for over 35 years also went back to church and received her temple recommend. She missed mine and my sisters temple weddings and she didn't want to miss Richards. It was exciting that she has also become active and was able to attend the temple with us.

As a side note, my father passed away in 2004 and he started to turn his life around before he passed away. He was re-baptized before he died but not all of his blessing were restored. It is something our family will work on completing for him.

Almost all of our empty chairs are full in our family. My older brother Lyle is the only one who is not active yet. You can probably guess that there will be lots of prayer in his behalf. We want all of our family together forever.
Richard and Rhonda took out their temple endowments on Tuesday, November 24th. Unfortunately I was unable to take the time off work to be there with them. My mother was there with them as they attended the temple - which was very exciting.

Rhonda was really funny as they called her by her maiden name. She kept saying, "that is not my name". Richard and Rhonda have been married for 20 years. But, they were not married for time and all eternity in the house of the Lord.

Saturday, November 28th they were married and Rhonda recieved Richard's last name (again- LOL). They were a little surprised that they were getting married. They just knew that their children would be sealed to them.
The sealing room was full of ward members and family. There was not a dry eye there. Then they brought in the girls. They were all dressed in white and beautiful. They knelt with their parents and placed their hands  on theirs - with our little 5 year old Hope's hand on top (she could barely reach). It was a tender moment.
Autumn wore her great grandma's temple dress and Rhonda wore her sash. It's exciting to know that she was there in the temple knowing that they were wearing her clothing. It's very endearing to link to our past generations and know that the veil is thin and relatives are cheering on the other side.
Rhonda's brother Rory and his wife hired a professional photographer to capture these beautiful pictures and memories.
I didn't know that there was a visitor center at the Idaho Falls temple. Beautiful pictures in the arms of our Savior Jesus Christ.
A wedding isn't complete with pictures of the lucky couple. Their daughters are Autumn, Tymber and Hope.
I am a lucky sister - in - law to have Rhonda part of my family forever. I sure love her and their family.
A sweet family sealed together forever. They are all very happy and will be blessed by their faithfulness in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's even exciting that they are both willing to serve in callings. Their ward is thrilled that our sweet Autumn's family has become active. We are all supportive and excited for the future that lays before them. Congratulations Richard, Rhonda, Autumn, Tymber and Hope. Together forever!

5 comments:

Welcome to the Garden of Egan said...

That is so beautiful! What an experience.
We had a similar one in July when our oldest son and daughter in law were sealed and had their four children sealed to them.
Unbelievable.
A glimpse of eternity.

Scrappy Girl said...

I love the picture with Jesus behind them...made me tear up.

The pics through the tree branches are so neat too.

Happy for your family!

Ann Marie said...

Oh how I love the Temple!
What a happy and joyful day!

I love Autumns dress! What a special thing to wear that!!

Valerie said...

What a gorgeous family! And a wonderful day was made even more special with your mother there. That is such great news. I've been to that temple and visitor's center before. So pretty.

And I just can't get over how awesome it is that Autumn and Rhonda got to wear pieces from their great-grandma! My parents are the first generation members in our family so we don't have anything like that.

CB said...

That is SO NEAT Sondra - that all this has just taken place! What blessing for your entire family!! I love that your "chairs" are almost full!
I love the pictures, they turned out so nice - a beautiful family.

I am still surprised because I have never seen anyone outside the Temple in their white clothes - I just didn't know you could do that. But I love how the pictures turned out :D

I am especially excited for their children who will now grow in the Gospel!

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