Though we had just been there a week and a half ago for ward temple night, Mr. Handsome and I felt that gentle tug to return to the temple again last night. His parents are both temple workers on Tuesday nights so we made the extra effort to get there on a Tuesday (despite the babysitting and scheduling challenges) in the hopes that we'd get to run into them. And was I ever striking out on finding a babysitter! And then the companions who had planned to join us had to one by one drop out of the plan moments before our departure. Handsome even suggested 1/2 an hour before we were scheduled to leave that perhaps we should just try for another evening.
But we persevered.
And it paid off.
We asked at the front desk if we could do sealings. I mentioned that it was our anniversary last week. The nice man behind the desk positively beamed at the idea and walked us all the way back to the sealing office himself. Where we suddenly ran into my mother-in-law in the hall way. She looked utterly radiant with that sweet temple worker glow about her; I gave her a big hug.
We were the only couple to do sealings right then so they went very smoothly. The sealer was very kind to me and kept checking on how I was doing (in my condition and all). One of the witnesses who joined us just happened to be my old stake president (and dentist) so that made for a sweet reunion as well. After we were done, we had a few moments with the celestial room all to ourselves. We even sat in the same chair we had 13 years ago when I'd gone through the temple for the first time.
As we were leaving the celestial room, still standing at the top of the staircase, my mother and father-in-law both unexpectedly walked by again. I squeezed Mr. Handsome's hand; we waved to them from the top of the stairs and they walked up to join us. Again, a sweet moment.
When we stepped out of the temple into the hot Mesa night air I was jolted back into reality. Sirens were ringing. A police car with lights flashing. A helicopter right over our heads careening to some emergency. If you know downtown Mesa then you realize that sadly, I am not exaggerating. The contrast was stark.
The world can be a dreary place.
But the temple is sweet.
2 comments:
Sounds like a perfectly wonderful evening. What a great way to finish celebrating your 13th anniversary at the very same temple where you started it all.
Has it really been 13 years? I do seem a lot older, you don't, but where did all those children come from? I guess it really has been quite a while. Glad you were able to celebrate your anniversay much the same way we were with all of you in July. That Arizona summer heat does jolt one back to reality pretty quickly.
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