Eternal Love

This is a long post and if you are not interested in my history then you probably want to skip this.

After the comments Kent made in Sunday School and since we celebrated our anniversary this last week I thought it would be a great time to remember our wedding and what we went through to get there. I returned from my mission in late February and by the 25th Kent had proposed. We decided that we would wait about 6 months to get married. This would give us time to get to know each other again and plan the wedding.

About 2 weeks before I returned from my mission The Church announced that men would now have to have previous temple sealings canceled before they could be married in The Temple again. Since Kent had been sealed to his first wife we needed to have this canceled. There were a few obstacles involved with this. The first was we had no idea where his ex-wife even was and the bishop had said that we may need to have a letter from her also acknowledging that there was no chance of them mending this relationship. We decided to proceed without any information from her. After interviews with the Bishop and Stake President Kent was asked to write a letter about why he wanted his sealing canceled. All the appropriate documentation and letters were gathered and sent to Salt Lake City by about the first of April. This was about the time that we needed to order the invitations and make a reservation at the Temple.

My mom was concerned about waiting for confirmation from the First Presidency that his sealing was canceled. We did not have the letter from the First Presidency when we called the Denver Temple to make our reservation. We were told that we could not make a reservation without the letter. We decided that we would have faith to order the announcements with the date and time that we hoped we could get. By the first of May we still did not have a letter but knew we better get the Temple reserved. My mom called the Temple anyway and asked if they would make the reservation without the letter. She was able to talk to a sweet lady that was sympathetic to our story and made the reservation anyway. We promised that we would cancel if we did not get the letter.

Well it was July and still no letter. We were calling the acting Stake President to see if he knew anything. Our regular Stake President was not doing most of his duties because he was battling cancer and was going through chemotherapy. No one knew where the letter was but the acting Stake President had called Salt Lake and found that they had approved the cancellation and we could be sealed. This was wonderful to hear but we knew without the letter the Temple would not perform the ceremony.

Now it was the end of July and the Temple was closing for annual cleaning. It would be open for 1 day before our sealing was to take place and still no letter. We kept praying for this because there was so much riding on the timing of our wedding. We had a deposit on married student housing but we could not move in without being married and we would lose our deposit if school started without us moving in. We were getting married less then a week before school was to start so there was not a lot of extra time.

We had a reservation for a Temple sealing at 10am on 17 Aug and it was about the 13th and still no letter. We needed to consider the very real possibility of not being able to be sealed. We did not know if we should have a civil ceremony and wait a year or cancel the whole thing and wait for the letter. We knew the importance of starting our marriage the right way so we did not want to make that decision. We continued to pray that they letter would arrive and we would be able to be sealed. We had faith that if we continued with the plan of being sealed in the Temple it would all work out some how.

On the 14th we received a phone call from the Stake Presidents wife. She was sorting through some of the stuff that her husband had been receiving during his treatment and found the letter we were looking for. They had the announcement of when we were to be married and knew that we needed this to be able to make our reservation.

We drove out there (they lived on a ranch on the outskirts of town) and picked up this letter and thanked our Heavenly Father that this all was working out. We learned several things through this experience. We knew that we were supposed to be married and that Satan did not want us to be married. From the day we were married we have found that every time we try to do something right we get a lot of resistance. We also can draw on this to know that our Heavenly Father approved of our marriage and we are doing it right. Over the years our marriage has been easy and the outside world has brought a lot of challenges.

Now 15 years later we are more in love then we ever thought possible. We have a great friendship and a passionate marriage. Kent is my love and i treasure all the time we have. No matter what trials we have faced nothing shakes the knowledge that we have a marriage blessed by our Heavenly Father. There is never a day that passes without me expressing my gratitude to Heavenly Father for the wonderful man I married.