Let me tell you about my Saturday.
The time came for my parents temple work to be done. My sister and I had a LOT of questions about the paperwork, the timing, the order of things, etc. I immediately thought of the temple recorder at the Payson temple. I coached one of his sons several times, and I figured he would have the answers. Brother Woodbrey didn't just have the answers. He scheduled everything out, had the living ordinance paperwork done so my sister and I could be sealed to our parents, and had even lined up our good friend Richard Rife to to the sealing. Brother Rife is a lawyer and former mission president, and is probably the most entertaining while being spiritual person I know.
Saturday morning, my son Braden and I met my sister Charlotte and her husband Larry at the temple. Braden did the initiatory for my Dad. While Larry and I waited, you could hear someone's alarm going off in their locker. It was a generic Samsung alarm tone. I looked at one of the workers while it was going off and said, "Well, it could be a worse tone....". He then shared several stories about the dressing room and ring tones. The day was off to a good, humorous start!
Mom had been to the temple herself while living, so we were set for the endowment session at that point. We were joined in the chapel by my wife Lori, my daughter Alyssa and her husband Dallin, Braden's wife Michelle, and my son Jason.
Braden and Michelle are picked as the witness couple. As Jason walks by his older brother, Braden gives him a kick. This is in the endowment room, so the person next to Braden whispers, "Why did you kick that man?". Without missing a beat, Braden's says,"I'm his older brother. Establish dominance.".
Jason and I sit down next to each other, which is a problem. Imagine me, but with a serious amount of muscles. That's Jason. This seating arrangement is not going to work, so we move Dallin between us. We call him "Fun-Sized", just because he is not built like an Elquist man. I then look over and see Lori and Alyssa having a good laugh at Dallin, who is now dwarfed on both sides. We are doing my Dad's temple work, and I like to imagine that, with his sense of humor, he is really enjoying this session. By the way, I'm sure Dallin would like you to know he is 6 feet tall and ripped!
As we near the end, you know the drill. I'm paired with a very, very old temple worker. 5 times he tells me the wrong thing to do or say. I do the correct thing anyway, and I have a very interesting time as the person on the other side keeps correcting the worker. Definitely off script. I'm sure my Dad is in tears at this point. When I am done, I am supposed to keep my Dad's card, but the dear old brother is not having that. Rather than cause a scene, I just proceed. You see, Brother Woodbrey is in the session with us. He asks how things are going, and assigns a temple worker to track down the card, take it down to be recorded, then deliver it to the sealing room.
I did notice at this time that Lori and Alyssa had vanished. Turns out Alyssa, who is 5 months pregnant, had a bad bit of morning sickness in the celestial room. Don't worry, they made it to a restroom in time!
I assumed the sealing would be a quick procedure. Brother Rife had my sister and I share a bit about our parents, then he did what he does best. He had us laughing, while learning a lot about temple work. My Dad was not a church going man in the least, and I worried about if doing his work was the right thing. He had told my sister and I NOT to do it. But he really wasn't himself towards the end, and Brother Rife shared some teachings on how the gospel is accepted in the spirit world. In the end, I felt a great deal of peace. Charlotte and I proxied as Mom and Dad for their sealing, and I swear she has never looked or acted more like her Mother. Larry and Lori then proxied as my parents while Charlotte and I were sealed to them. I loved experiencing aspects of these ordinances that I had not seen before.
Finished the day with lunch at Chubbys, where we met up with Kaylee and Traven, Top Gun Maverick in the afternoon, then roasting hot dogs and making s'mores in the evening.
