Wedding/Baptism Weekend

Columbia, SC LDS Temple

On Saturday, August 17th, we were able to witness two wonderful people be sealed for time and all eternity in the Columbia, SC LDS Temple. Colt and I were so excited to attend this ceremony for several different reasons.

First, the bride is a dear friend of his from college, and throughout time we have grown very close to her family; they've kind of adopted both of us into their family, which is nice because our own families are several hours away.

Second, I love weddings. Everything about them just makes me happy, aside from the overwhelming stress that pours down upon you in the last days before the event :/

Third, this was the first wedding that Colt and I were able to witness, in the temple, since our own on March 30th. It brought back many wonderful memories, and reinforced why we chose to be married in the temple versus having a civil ceremony.

One of my favorite things about our faith, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is that we can be married forever. We don't believe in "'Til death do you part", we believe in an eternal family. Colt and I want to be together forever, and we want our children and other family members to be with us forever. We can only receive that opportunity through the blessings of the temple.

Here's a video which helps explain the blessings of the temple:

I'm so grateful we were able to watch as Katie and Diego made this important decision to unite themselves eternally. It was a very sweet ceremony, followed by a beautiful and fun reception!

Colt had a little too much fun decorating their car too....I guess it "depends" how you look at it...  ;)

After the reception, we drove up to Virginia for our niece, Jesstyn's, baptism. Again, as part of our faith, we believe that baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, by someone who is worthy to hold the priesthood of God and administer such ordinances, is necessary for us to return to live with our Heavenly Father. It is only one step, but it is one of the most important steps. We were very proud of her for making this decision.

Here is an excellent video explaining a little bit more about baptism in our faith:

It was wonderful to visit with friends and family this weekend, we wish we could have stayed longer :( 

However, school starts this week!!! Colt's technically been working for a while, what with band camp and teacher inservice meetings during the last several weeks, but he officially starts back up on Tuesday. It will be exciting to see where this school year will take Colt and his band. We are so excited to have such an awesome group to work with in this band! They are all awesome and work so hard! It's going to be a busy next couple of months, but very fun!!! Can't wait!! :)