This past weekend was wonderful. As a New Year's resolution I wanted to be more active in working on genealogy. Both of my grandmothers have been gone for a while now and with both, I had had great conversations about the gospel with.
So, starting the the new year I began piecing together my family tree...easy? Not so much. Pretty much everyone (with the exception of 1 child per family, per generation) has been divorced at least once, if not twice and some even 3 times and have children with almost each partner..how about that for a family tree. Adoptions here, husband there, unknown father here and unknown marriages there...It's so confusing. Well, luckily for me, my great uncle Bob has done a lot of research and has a lot of family information that he's passed on to me. I ended up going to the genealogy library on Thursday night and I found a line from my grandmother's father's side that goes back to 1500!!! It was great. Work has been done on the line too. Somewhere, someone that I am related to 5x removed or not is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!!! YEA!
So, on Saturday I got our family and some close friends to get together at the temple and do some work for my family. We began with printing the names which we arrived at 10am for, then baptisms at 11, endowments at 3 and sealings following. It was a great day. Justin and I baptized about 30 names, which almost half were immediate family members. We completed 12 endowments and sealed my grandmother and her children with their father. It was incredible. Next month can't come too quick for me.
Having a temple so close is a great privilege and often it's hard to attend as often as we would like. It is and will be a great motivation for us to attend as often as time allows by serving my family and doing their work. I have felt so blessed to be a member of the church and to feel the peace that comes with an eternal family.
As a side note - if you have read Jordan's most recent email he refers to a lady farting....well, while in the Celestial room we were all gathered around as a family and someone, from across the room passed gas that I'm assuming they had hoped would be silent, but it wasn't. Angela and I about died along with Ann, Alisha and Ashleigh on the couch. Angela and I had to find a reason to turn around so that people couldn't see us laughing...things are always so much funnier in places that aren't supposed to be. Also, for baptisms, Justin baptized me and John baptized Justin. Well, being that both John and Justin are quite tall, Justin was trying to help out his dad and would throw himself down into the water which made a huge splash. Justin began giggling and then John and then the rest of us. Justin ended up kneeling down in the font...it was pretty funny.
So, starting the the new year I began piecing together my family tree...easy? Not so much. Pretty much everyone (with the exception of 1 child per family, per generation) has been divorced at least once, if not twice and some even 3 times and have children with almost each partner..how about that for a family tree. Adoptions here, husband there, unknown father here and unknown marriages there...It's so confusing. Well, luckily for me, my great uncle Bob has done a lot of research and has a lot of family information that he's passed on to me. I ended up going to the genealogy library on Thursday night and I found a line from my grandmother's father's side that goes back to 1500!!! It was great. Work has been done on the line too. Somewhere, someone that I am related to 5x removed or not is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!!! YEA!
So, on Saturday I got our family and some close friends to get together at the temple and do some work for my family. We began with printing the names which we arrived at 10am for, then baptisms at 11, endowments at 3 and sealings following. It was a great day. Justin and I baptized about 30 names, which almost half were immediate family members. We completed 12 endowments and sealed my grandmother and her children with their father. It was incredible. Next month can't come too quick for me.
Having a temple so close is a great privilege and often it's hard to attend as often as we would like. It is and will be a great motivation for us to attend as often as time allows by serving my family and doing their work. I have felt so blessed to be a member of the church and to feel the peace that comes with an eternal family.
As a side note - if you have read Jordan's most recent email he refers to a lady farting....well, while in the Celestial room we were all gathered around as a family and someone, from across the room passed gas that I'm assuming they had hoped would be silent, but it wasn't. Angela and I about died along with Ann, Alisha and Ashleigh on the couch. Angela and I had to find a reason to turn around so that people couldn't see us laughing...things are always so much funnier in places that aren't supposed to be. Also, for baptisms, Justin baptized me and John baptized Justin. Well, being that both John and Justin are quite tall, Justin was trying to help out his dad and would throw himself down into the water which made a huge splash. Justin began giggling and then John and then the rest of us. Justin ended up kneeling down in the font...it was pretty funny.
Christmas morning was wonderful. We should have stopped after the stockings and Santa gifts. The boys took forever to open gifts. And between calling parents and webcamming our morning for them and the visit from Grandma and Grandpa Tolman it was almost 11am before we were done. 3 hours of gift opening..it's not like we had that much stuff...it just took forever! Then we headed to Ann and Johns for Christmas Dinner and a very relaxed Christmas Day.
