Bismarck Temple

Today, we took the family on a little road trip to Bismarck, ND. It's been a while since we made it to the Temple and the Primary Presidency were providing child care so we loaded the whole family in the van for our little 9 hour road trip. It definitely makes us more appreciative of our Utah days when we made a 15-30 minute drive to any of the 5 surrounding temples in the area. I wish we would have taken a little more advantage of that when we were there. Sometimes you don't know what you got til it's gone, I guess.

This time, Brett and I got to do a Sealing Session. The Sealer was the Temple President, President Reese. Man!! It was so wonderful and a great spiritual experience. We even got to witness a live sealing. (Well, sorta) An elderly gentleman had done the Temple work for his parents who have long sinced passed away. Today, he and his wife stood as proxy for his parents to be sealed for time & all eternity and then he got to get sealed to them as well. They have waited a long time but now are a FOREVER family. It was really neat. It was also very special to hear again the covenants that Brett and I made to each other 13 and 1/2 years ago. I believe it's been 4 or 5 years since we have done a sealing session so I really appreciated the opportunity to hear it all again.

The Temple is one of the greatest things about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It allows individuals through Jesus Christ to be endowed with power from our Heavenly Father and gives families the opportunity to be sealed to God and each other for all eternity. That's a long time! LOL! We are so grateful to have our little family sealed together. It is a blessing and comfort to know that as long as we are righteous and faithful to Jesus Christ and his commandments, we can and will return and live with Him and each other again.

We know it can be an extra long day for 4 kids but we hope that Liberty, Justice, Victoria and Glory will grow to know how important the Temple is and have a desire to enter and make covenants themselves. We always take the opportunity to walk the kids over and let them touch the Temple while we are there. We know that it may seem just like a building but there is a special feeling felt on the Temple grounds. Victoria is always reminding us that she will get to go inside when she is twelve (that's when youth can get a limited-use recommend and participate in Baptisms for the Dead.) She is very excited!

I always feel uplifted and renewed in my tesimony when we go as a family to the Temple and know it is worth the sacrifice to give up a Saturday here and there. I am so grateful we got to go.