Eternal Families

Kent and I had a marvelous experience at the temple today.  We went to do sealings with David, Sharon, and Lee.  David had lots of Barrus family names and had them organized into family groups.  Recently, the temple made a change so that if you bring in family names, they will seal multiple children to parents at the same time, provided you have enough patrons.  We had only three women initially, but we had six men, meaning we could seal two daughters or three sons to parents at a time.  While I know that every time we seal a child to a parents, we are creating an eternal family, seeing more than one child being sealed at the same time really struck me. 

At the end, Sharon pulled out a family that had four sons and two daughters.  While the parents were being sealed, I walked down the hall and found a man waiting with his wife and asked him if we would come and help us be a son.  They both came, so we had enough men to do the whole family at the same time.  With the parents at the head and foot of the alter, and with six of us acting as proxy for the children, we surrounded the alter, filling up all the space, and sealed the whole family at once.  It left most of us in tears.  It was so moving to be part of sealing that family, uniting them forever together.  The men in our session who were not related to us were all young, in their early twenties, and looked clean and fresh and good, and the whole session was just fabulous.  It was truly a moment where our testimonies of temple work were both strengthened and reaffirmed.  I know "families can be together forever through Heavenly Father's plan," and I'm grateful for that testimony and that blessing that is effectual in my life.