Flashback Friday!

This is a photo taken in June 1998 the day my grandfather went through the temple for the first time. My mother was raised by two less-active LDS parents. They were great people, to be sure, who taught her many wonderful things, but did not go to church. She went to church alone until she married my father in the Mesa Temple. None of my grandparents was able to attend, but my parents understood the importance of a temple sealing. After a lifetime of prayers on behalf of her parents, my mother was able to see her father go back to church and eventually to the temple. He was eighty years old.

I remember how nervous and excited Grandpa was. (And a little frustrated when my dad accidentally locked the keys to the rental car in the trunk when we were supposed to be leaving--oops!) Anyway, it was a beautiful day. One of my sisters and one of my brothers (with his wife and newborn) flew to Arizona as well as Michael and I and my parents. My mom was able to stand in as proxy for her mother in order for her parents to be sealed; I was able to stand in for her mother in order for my mother to be sealed to her parents. Those are tender memories.

From my grandfather I learned that it is never too late to make changes in your life and to become the person you want to be. From my mother I learned that you don't give up on people you love and that even if you have a less-than-perfect example, it is not an excuse to live your life that way. My mother has a perfect testimony of temple marriage and ordinances and really instilled that in all of her children. We are better for it.