Manti Utah Temple

Parents engagement photo

My father trained B-25 pilots during WWII.   While visiting home, during one of his rare leaves, he invited my mother to go on a small airplane ride.  He proposed to her as they overlooked the Sanpete Valley, where they both grew up.  However, he is careful to mention that he neglected to take parachutes, as a means of persuasion!  Soon after the war ended, my parents were sealed (married) for time and all eternity in a beautiful room in the Manti Temple, by my father's Uncle, who had been called and set apart by the Prophet of the church.

In subsequent years, all of my grandparents were called to serve in the Manti Temple, and my father's father received the sacred calling of a temple sealer.  Sealing, or marriage, in the temple, is the highest and most sacred ordinance on earth.  It allows a couple to receive the full blessings of Abraham, to have their marriage honored not only here on earth, but also in Heaven.  And all children born to that couple remain sealed to them for all eternity.  That means they can be a family forever.

My great-great-great grandfather was the original settler of one of the small towns nearby.  And other ancestors contributed to other settlements in the valley.  I wonder how many of my distant relatives helped build or contribute to this temple.  Their stories, and my heritage, fill me with appreciation for their sacrifices and faithfulness.  

The Prophet Brigham Young said, in ancient times the prophet Moroni once stood on this very spot and dedicated the land for a temple site.  It's exciting to know I have stood where these great prophets were standing.  And my life is, in part, a fulfillment of their prophesies.