Friend to Friend

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Victor L. Brown

My mother and father were married in Canada before the Alberta Temple was built, and so they were not married in the temple. I was born about nine years before the temple was finished and dedicated, and as a child I had a great desire to go to the house of the Lord and be sealed to my parents. I understood very clearly that without the blessing of being sealed in the temple, I would not be with my family in the life after death.

When my parents made an appointment to take me and my brother to the temple immediately after it was dedicated, I was very excited. But the day before we were to go, I became ill and my mother decided that it might be best for our family to wait until I was well again. I can remember how hard I cried as I coaxed her not to put it off. Finally she consented, and we went to the temple.

Although I still remember how dizzy I was, I waited in the children’s room with my brother and many other children. Finally those in charge came and took my brother and me to the sealing room. There we knelt at the altar together, my brother and I clasping hands with my parents. A warm, peaceful feeling came into my heart as one having authority sealed me to my mother and father for time and all eternity. This was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life, for I knew that if I kept all of our Heavenly Father’s commandments, I would be with my family forever.

The morning after this beautiful experience in the temple, I was ill again. The doctor diagnosed my illness as scarlet fever. How worried we were about all the children I had been with in the temple the night before, but not one of them caught the disease from me. I am sure that because of the blessings of our Heavenly Father, this experience, which I wanted so much, was not postponed, and no one else suffered because of my illness.

If children today will listen to the teachings of their parents and their Sunday School and Primary teachers, they can have the same understanding of their relationship with our Heavenly Father, as well as with their earthly fathers and mothers, as I had. The greatest blessing the Lord has given any of His children is the blessing of being able to continue as a family forever.

Children who have been sealed to their parents will be with their family throughout all eternity if each member of the family keeps the commandments of our Father in heaven and lives righteously.

Children who live in homes where parents have not been to the temple have an opportunity to encourage their parents to take them to be sealed as a family.

If, as children, we learn the lessons taught by our Savior, we will begin to prepare ourselves to some day go to the house of the Lord. Our Heavenly Father’s plan is for each of us to be part of an eternal family. Each of us is a child of God. He loves us and wants us to return to be with Him and with our families forever.