This year was Trent and I's 5 year anniversary. Since I'm pregnant we couldn't really do anything too spectacular, but I planned a little one night get away and my parents said they'd watch Brenika. We had tickets to the U2 concert that was on the night of May 24th, so I just planned it for that night even though our anniversary is on the 26th. After the U2 concert we headed up to Wolf Creek up Ogden canyon to stay in a condo for the night. Then the next day I had planned on going to the Salt Lake Temple to do a session. I had planned it for seriously MONTHS!
When Trent and I first got married we liked to temple hop. HAHA That first year I wanted to go to all the temples and do a session because we live by so many of them. We somehow never went to Salt Lake! Weird. We'd gone to a few sealings there... but never done a session. It's a live session too, and we'd done those in Manti tons of times... since Manti is where we got married. So, I have been dying to do a session in Salt Lake for quite some time now.
So 4 or 5 days before the concert.... my Grandpa Meibos was taken to a Care Center where he would only live a few more days. He'd been on a feeding tube for over a year. They transported him to a hospital in Salt Lake and found out he had an infection so the family decided to keep him up there and just not put him back on the feeding tube. It was time. I was worried that he would die before the concert but either way.... I knew it would be fine. My mom had been at the center with him everyday so when we left for the evening it was just my Dad taking care of Brenika. He is so great to do that for us. Seriously. haha
So.... the morning after the concert Trent and I drove to the Salt Lake temple to do a session. We got there in perfect timing to not have to wait too long in the chapel. When I sat down by Trent... he leaned over and said "They're going to ask us to be the witness couple." I looked around and saw no other married couples haha. He was right, they asked us. I was like... SWEET. It's fun to be the witness couple and no one even knew we were celebrating our anniversary. The session was awesome, as always. That temple is so pretty. I love all the old original temples. I love the hand crafted work and all the old murals. Beautiful. My boss at work cleaned the Salt Lake temple for 5 years or so. She has told me lots of really neat stories about the temple and experiences she's had there. So, I was excited to be there. I couldn't wait to go in the Celestial room to see a few things she had told me about.
I got in the Celestial room before Trent did and I immediately was like.... WOW... it is so pretty in here!!!!! And then..... it was different. Something was different. It was my Grandma Meibos. She was there. I work in the temple every night and I have NEVER ever in all the sessions I've done and temples I've been in, have ever felt someone's spirit that strongly. I got all red eyed and choked up and sat down and tried REALLY hard not to break down hahahaha. I just knew she was there, and I knew she was in there waiting for my Grandpa. When Trent came and sat by me he could see I was all emotional but he didn't ask. haha I couldn't tell him either or I would lose composure. So we started talking about other things. There are a few sealing rooms in the celestial room. One is really small that is open off the middle. We were admiring it and that beautiful picture of Joseph Smith they have in it. Then there is a staircase that leads into another sealing room so we were talking about it. It'd only been a few minutes and one of the Ordinance workers came up to us. He asked if we would be willing to do some sealings. We'd never been asked to do sealings right after a session before. Of course I said yes! He said it would only be 10 or 15 minutes. It was totally random. They took us in the room with the painting of Joseph and the doors slide out from the wall to enclose it. Such a tiny room! We did a few names and then we were done. Still no one knew we were celebrating our anniversary. It was really awesome.
(That small open room is the sealing room, and the small staircase leads to the other one. This image was on the church website.)We left the temple and I still didn't say anything to Trent haha. My mom had texted me while we were in there and wanted us to stop at the care center and say hi to my Grandpa. So, we did. We were telling my mom about the session and how they had us do sealings and my mom said, "Oh! Grandma and Grandpa were sealed there you know, but I don't even know which room they were sealed in." She said it had to have been a small one because there wasn't many family members with them the day they were sealed. She called a bunch of her siblings and no one else knew which room it was either.
A while ago while at work, one of the temple presidency members at Oquirrh Mountain temple, came to talk to the volunteers and us before we started cleaning. He talked about how there are always spirits in the temples. He was saying how when he's there by himself and no one else is in the temple, he'll go into a room and say "Excuse me" because he knows they are in there working. Doing work from beyond the veil. When my Grandma Meibos died last year I thought about that.... and she had been an ordinance worker in Provo. I thought.... I bet that's where my Grandma is all the time. So, when my mom said they had been sealed in the Salt Lake temple.... I was like ... OH... that's why she was there waiting. Salt Lake is her temple, not Provo!!! I sat there thinking about it while she was on the phone trying to find out which room they were sealed in. I still didn't say anything to her or Trent. I should've with my Grandpa there... even though at this point he was incoherent. I still regret not telling her then. HAHA I should've.
Later that night on my way to work I decided to text my mom and tell her. They had scheduled a family prayer for my Grandpa a few hours earlier and then I sent her a text telling her that my Grandma was there in the temple that day. She read my text to my Grandpa and her siblings that were with her. My Uncle, who was once a member but isn't anymore... said, "I believe it, that temple is amazing." He had done work there while in the MTC before his mission.
My grandpa died that next morning, on our anniversary. My mom talked to me in the morning and said she kept thinking about my experience. She said she knew that my Grandma was there. She said it was probably her that had them ask us to do sealings because she wanted us to know that that is the room they were sealed in. I totally believe it. My grandmother LOVED the temple. She worked there every week and would fill in spots for people all the time. The year before she died, Monica and I went to the Provo temple to do a session on my birthday. My grandma was there and it wasn't her day to be there. It was so great to see her. She was all excited and was telling everyone that her granddaughters were there. A few months after Trent and I were married my Grandma had some family names that needed sealings done. So a few of us in our family went to do them. My aunts and uncles and cousins and siblings were there. My grandma was so excited that it was our first time doing sealings she kept telling everyone and had us be the first couple. She was so excited to share that with us. I can just imagine her being the same way that day in the Salt Lake temple. Her spirit so strongly telling them to have us do sealings because it was our anniversary. My mom later talked to her sister, Shelly. Shelly said that was the room they were sealed in, that small room off the celestial room. My grandma had told her when they were there one time. I know she did that just for us. I know she wanted to share that with me. And I KNOW that she was there waiting for my Grandpa to join her. A few hours later was when he passed away.
I am so grateful to have had that experience. It was simply amazing. Even though my grandparents are both gone now, I know they're together for eternity. They are working and serving just like they always did.
After Trent and I had left the temple we walked around the temple grounds before leaving. When we got to the gate there were a few sister missionaries. As we approached them to leave... a big gust of wind blew as we were nearing them. They jokingly said to us.. "Wow, you must be filled with the spirit to bring that wind with you! Did you just do a session?" We laughed and said yes, and I said... "It's probably just this unborn child.... maybe his spirit is really strong!" Even though that is just funny, I really was truly filled with the spirit at that moment. To have an experience like that is one that not everyone gets to have in this life. I am so grateful. I love being able to go in the temple. I love the purpose of them, and that I am worthy to be there. There is no other place on this earth that you can be as close to Heavenly Father and those on the other side. I will forever cherish this experience and am so glad that my eternal companion was there to share it with me.