When we were deciding where to get married it came down to between the Salt Lake temple and the Bountiful temple. We ultimately decided to get married in the Bountiful temple and do an endowment session with our families the day before in the Salt Lake temple. That ended up being the best decision in terms of photos because the snow storm that made our photos so gorgeous at Bountiful would’ve made photos impossible at Salt Lake. In terms of the ceremony though it wouldn’t have made a difference.
Temples are one of God’s greatest blessings to us here on Earth. In temples we can make sacred covenants with God as we progress towards exaltation, sealing us together as a family never to be separated, not even and especially, by death. And even more, we can act as proxy for our ancestors who have died and give them the chance to make those same covenants. How great is the love of our Heavenly Father that he does not deny anyone the opportunity for exaltation!
Anyway. We were doing some temple work with our families the day before we got married (seven years ago today). Most of the women in our families had met the night previously at my world’s-greatest-bridal-shower belly dance party. Brett’s oldest sister hadn’t made it in to town until that morning though so she hadn’t met my mom yet. We were all in the locker room of the temple, having changed out of our street clothes and into our white dresses to prepare to serve in the temple. I made the introductions. “Sharon, this is my mom. Mom, this is Sharon, Brett’s oldest sister.”
To which Sharon replied to my mom, “Do you have a name?”
My mom, thinking that while she’d been known for over 30 years as “Lisa’s Mom” probably should also be introduced with the name her parents gave her said, “Yes, it’s Elizabeth.”
Sharon then held out a handful of pink papers with the names of their family’s ancestors who needed someone to be proxy for them in the temple and said, “No, I meant a name to do in the temple.”
We sure love Sharon and we’re sure our ancestors love her even more because she’s always working to make sure they get every chance they can to have their work done in the temple. I know that when Brett and I are heading to the temple and I can pretty much always shoot off an email to her and get the records for some family we can help. Only now I’ve started doing some searching on my own side and have records for my own family I’m sending to my parents and siblings to work on when they serve in the temple.
Yes, I have a name (several in fact), and I’m honored that I get to discover the names of my ancestors so that they too can make covenants and be with their family, including me, for eternity.
I am an educator and PhD. I quilt, belly dance, run, read, and try to grow things. I am a Mormon. I am infertile. I am a daughter, sister, aunt, grand-daughter, friend, wife, and mom.
Brett L. Dennis
Mama g
Giggles
AmandaStretch
I am also known as Grandma, Nama, and Sister Primary.
my name, Denice came from a dream my mother had. My parents picked out Dee Ann for me until Mom dreaded my name should be Denice.
Why have I never heard that? :brett:
It’s amazing how much about your family you’ve learned since marrying me. :lisa:
I taught Gospel Doctrine on Sunday about the name of Christ (I can’t remember how much of it Lisa was there for between running back and forth to the nursery). But we discussed how taking on us the name of Christ is the same as taking on us the way of Christ. I think the concept of names and all they represent is much broader than we sometimes think about. :brett:
I recently heard someone say they like to say they are taking a person to the temple instead of a name. Our names are very important, but there is more to us and to our ancestors than that. I like the approach of family history of gathering stories and photos instead of just names and dates. It’s why I love reading census records – they can give a lot of information about a family and a person in just a few columns. No matter how you approach family history or genealogy, the temple is an important part!