Put your mate first

We had the privilege this week of being guides for two sweet sisters from the panhandle of Florida who came to be married to their sweethearts. They had at least a dozen relatives with them.

They had been endowed the day before. Getting them ready for the sealing was an adventure. They must not have read their letter carefully because their dresses were both short sleeved, LOW necked, and covered with sequins! Sister Condie advised that they be sealed in temple dresses. One accepted that just fine, but the other was in tears. So we compromised with a cover up top.

We were invited into the ceremony. Brother Mann, a patriarch in the Nauvoo Stake, was the sealer. I can only remember one thing from his pre-sealing advice to them. "Put your mate first." I have thought a lot about that since and have concluded that that is not my first inclination! I would much rather have my own way in a lot of things. So I want to put higher priority on his comfort and happiness and well being. It might just yield great dividends!

Brother Mann explained the sealing has two parts. The first being the promises made by the couple to each other. The second being the promises and blessings from the Lord if they keep their promises to each other.

We were glad to be a part of their excitement and hope for the future. One couple was going to St. Louis for their honeymoon because she wanted to go to the zoo. She and her husband are both school teachers and he served a mission in San Francisco, which he said is shut down now because of wickedness. The other couple had to get home for work. He is a convert of a year. They're having a joint reception in Florida in a week.

Two more stories. Eldon officiated in a session yesterday where there was a woman receiving her endowment after 17 years of inactivity. Her visiting teachers were with her. They had not been invited in for years until one time the visiting teacher felt inspired to take her baby with her. That broke the ice, they were invited in, and reactivation began, culminating in this trip to the temple!

The last story. We're in the process of changing coordinators. The old ones have been training the new ones to take over. The Memmots were to take over the Saturday morning shift from the Krumpermans. Brother Krumperman fell out of a tree this week and broke several ribs and his pelvis so was laid up. The Memmots were forging ahead working on the schedule (a complex process at best.) They stayed up late the night before working on it and then said a sincere prayer that they would receive help. They arrived early (6 am) to print it off and couldn't figure out how to do it. The Rockwoods (old coordinators) showed up and said, "In the middle of the night the Spirit told us to come early. How can we help you?"