Sunday, May 20, 2012

80----------continued----35         THINGS I HAVE DONE WITH MY FAMILY

                                                        Temple Trip

  I think one of the things I remember most is when Arlo and I took our family to Mesa Arizona to the temple to be sealed as a family forever.
     Several things happened before this happened.  Our ward in Manassa had a special program to prepare families to go to the temple.  It was before Monday nights were set apart for home evenings.  We had a meeting each Monday night to help us prepare for this great blessing.  We had been married long enough for Donnie to be getting ready to go on a mission, and I felt so strongly that if we didn't go to the temple before he left home that possibly we would never get out family all there for the sealing.  I was so very anxious for this blessing that I fasted 2 days a week for many weeks, possibly as long as a year.  I started my fast on Sunday morning and broke my fast after we had refreshments after our Monday night meeting.  It was not hard to do this as I wanted the blessing so badly that I was glad to do it.  I fed my family and didn't even feel a need to eat.
     After the lessons were all given,  Elma, my aunt taught a special class on preparing families to go to the temple and challenged the class to prepare to go to Mesa, Arizona to the temple, on the 15th of February 1966.
     We borrowed Elma's car and drove to mesa and were sealed in the temple on that day.  That was one of the greatest blessings of my life.  I pray always that all of us will be worthy for that blessing for eternity.  Donnie had his endowment on the same day.  He was prepared to go on a mission.  He went to the Central American Mission.

                                                       Trip to Los Alamos

     Arlo never seemed to be able to get off work to go with us, so I took my children, Don, Kent , Bonnie and Larry and went on several trips.  The one I will tell you about was when we went to Los Alamos to spend some time with Keith and Erma and their family.  Arlo's brother, Earl, gave Arlo a blue Volkswagen pickup.  It had a back seat.  We had a great time with Keith's family.  Los Alamos, at that time was a restricted city.  We had to have Keith's family come to the station at the gate and make it possible for us to enter.  Keith took us to his work place, where there were interesting thing about the making of the atomic bomb.  It was interesting.  We also went to some Indian ruins, Bandalier.  It was an Indian village built on the side of a mountain. That was fun.

                                                          Trip to Pueblo

       My children and I decided to go to Pueblo, to visit my friend, Nona.  That was a lot of fun.  Nona and I had been friends since I was in the fourth grade.  We had a lot of fun, but when we started home, our car broke down.  Arlo had to come and get us.  Tom Rogers picked our car, (the Volkswagen pickup),on one of his trucks. and brought it home to Manassa.  He later took it to Santa Fe to have it repaired.

                                                   A trip to Los Alamos with my sisters

       My sisters, Barbara, LaRue and Doris Faye, and our children piled into our old car and drove to
 Los Alamos,  We were a little crowded, but it was fun.  The seat belt laws were not in effect then.  At that time all of my sisters lived in Manassa.  As I remember it, Barbara lived in the old Christensen house,  Harold was overseas and LaRue lived in a trailer  house on the lot where we lived and Doris Faye lived in her home there.  I hope my memory is right.  We had a lot of fun together. 


1 comment:

Kent said...

I loved the trips we took as a family. I think those trips helped us feel closer as a family.

On the trip to Mesa to be sealed, I remember feeling insulted that they send us to the nursery in the temple to wait for the sealing ceremony. After all, I was seventeen and didn't think that I needed a nursery. I remember when we had a flat tire and I stayed in the car and didn't help change the tire. That was the wrong thing to do.

That blue volkswagen was a lot of fun most of the time. When we were going up the mountains, though, it was no fun because it had no power and the traffic behind us sometimes became impatient.

I loved Los Alamos. I have some wonderful memories associated with our visits there. My first beau was from Los Alamos. I remember spending one summer there with Doris Faye. Uncle Keith and Aunt Erma had gone to Ohio for some training and had taken the older children with them.

With the trip to Los Alamos with your sisters, you say we were a little crowded. What an understatement! I think we were piled three high in the back seat. Even so, we had a good time and enjoyed ourselves.

I also remember times that we went into New Mexico looking for pinon nuts. All of these memories are pleasant ones for me.