At the Temple

Some of you may have heard already that a new LDS temple has been built here in KC. (For more information, here is a helpful article:
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-kansas-city-missouri-temple-open-house

Each of the local congregations was asked to help with the public open house by volunteering to work there at certain times. We were assigned to work two weeks ago.  Curmudgeon was out in the cold rain for 5 hours helping with parking; Alys was cleaning bathrooms mostly.  Alys also got to go with some of the tour groups that day.  Curmudgeon went later with some friends from work, then again with his parents and Happy.  Happy was super quiet and well behaved with only a little preping from mom.  The temple is beautiful.  Open houses are not to be missed.  You get to see all the rooms - janitor closet excepting.

It's very special for us to be close to a temple. When were married in the temple in Logan Utah, we made an eternal promise to each other and to God that we would be faithful to each other and that our marriage would continue throughout eternity and that the relationship that binds us to each other and our children in this life would continue infinitely beyond this life.

That, essentially, is what temples are for. In them, we can participate in sacred ordinances like marriage and baptism which bind us to God and to our families across generations. We believe the family is the most important foundation for humanity and that our families, which are so essential to our happiness in this life, will continue to be the basis for our happiness and progress in eternal life. 

As we continue to attend the temple (we hope to attend often) we continue to participate in ordinances that teach us more about our relationship to God and his eternal plan for His children. The temple is sacred and that quiet and holy place is an ideal setting for prayer and contemplation. 

Allow us to share a very special and personal experience with you. It was in the Columbus, Ohio temple, after participating in proxy sealing ordinances (where members are able to perform eternal marriages and seal children to parents for their ancestors) that we both got a strong feeling that we should start our own family. We had only been married a few months and had intended to wait for Curmudgeon to finish school and for Alys to work for some time before having children-- at least a couple of years. But we both (independently) felt very strongly that someone special was waiting to join our family and we shouldn't wait for our own purposes, but trust that if our Heavenly Father wanted us to have children immediately that he would provide means and help for us to do that. Less than a year later, we had our beautiful little Happy. We have been so blessed by our children. And yes, it has been difficult and sometimes we think we must be crazy to want more :) but we know that our family is the only thing that really matters. It is eternal and our children will be ours forever. That is why we have temples.