Joyous day!

Talofa!




We were honorary Samoans yesterday, and I think we can continue to claim that status until the orchids fade and die.









We were invited to the temple with a Samoan family Saturday because Hubby had been instrumental, at the request of their bishop, in sorting out some legal issues for them.  I realized at the temple that I didn't remember their name if I had to tell a temple worker who we were there for, so I stuck close to my other half.  I was definitely only blessed to be there because he was asked to come, and I was grateful for an experience that I wouldn't have had otherwise.  This husband and wife, native to Samoa, were going to the temple for the first time, and so were their two twentyish adult daughters, so that they could be sealed to their parents. We have a Samoan ward in our stake, so there was a large group with them.  They used to share our building, so we know a lot of them on sight and a few by name and conversation.

Four new endowments for one family!  That's enough light, love, and joy to sell megawatts off of.  The session was at 8 a.m., about when I might normally be getting out of bed on a Saturday, then the sealing was directly afterwards. That was a radiant, marvelous event.  There are other grown children, not ready to be there yet, but the sealer assured them that Heavenly Father will go to work, and this was the beginning point.  When he had pronounced the sealing of the two daughters, he congratulated them all on being the very newest eternal family in the Church.  It brought tears.  The gifts and promises are the same for all of us, as the links are forged through ordinances that eventually bind all the generations together until they bind us literally to God as His family.

Seattle Temple, (c) Ashley Tautfest

Afterwards, everyone was invited to a lunch back in Tacoma.  To my surprise and delight, we were given these beautiful orchid leis when we arrived.  Candy leis in colored cellophane were given out generally, but we received orchids along with the family members.  Again, that was due to the gratitude they offered Hubby, because of his personal service to them, which had helped bring them to this day.  I didn't do a thing to deserve yesterday, except in sharing a place in the Kingdom of God.

During the session, I only saw one person with a headset for language translation, everyone else was fine in English, but at the luncheon it was all in Samoan language.  I glanced around, and we were the only Anglos in the room.  We couldn't understand a word of the remarks that were made as those around us smiled, nodded, or laughed, but it didn't matter.  We were sitting with two of the three guest couples that we actually knew, so that helped us feel comfortable, and one of those sisters leaned over and gave me a little bit of explanation. But again, it didn't matter.  The welcome, the happiness were tangible.

Then we came home to welcome Carole for the rest of the weekend, as the closest she could come to my birthday earlier in the week.  She and I went to the annual Relief Society broadcast from Salt Lake, with time to socialize afterwards.  That was a wonderful, spiritual program, and then Carole had a chance to see many people from other wards that she doesn't normally see when she comes down.  It was a perfect end to a wonderful day.