Philippines Highlights Cebu Temple

     In thinking about how I would approach the task of documenting our vacation here the question of what order I wanted to present things kept recurring.  In the end I think it makes little difference where I start, so I will start with the most tender moments.

Daisy standing at the entrance sign of the Cebu Temple

Cebu Temple Spire and Inscription

     On Friday, June 19, Daisy and I rose early to drive with Elder Perez to the Cebu Temple.  With all the nonstop activities we had not yet had a chance to visit the temple and actually go inside.  We arrived about an hour before the Temple opened and met up with Rita Cuevas and gave her a package from her sister Fe (Martin) back in the States.  After taking care of some other things, we proceeded to the Temple with Rita to complete some important work for Daisy's Parents (who both have passed away).
     Several years ago after Daisy's parent passed we had the opportunity to go to the Temple at home in Ogden and do proxy baptisms for both of them.  Later on after the Cebu Temple opened in 2010 Daisy's sister Emmie Macasero was the one who went there and had them Sealed (Married for eternity).  Now it was time to Seal Daisy to her Parents.
     In LDS (Mormon) culture, being sealed to ones parents is often 'Automatic' since they were often married in the Temple right from the start and therefore their children are born into a Sealed family unit.  In Daisy's case her parents were not baptized members of the LDS faith and this is the reason for all of these proxy ordinances on their behalf.  It is an entirely different blog to go into the details of what we believe about proxy Temple work and I won't go into it here, suffice it to say that this is something very important in Daisy's life.
     As we entered the peaceful silence of the Temple's central hall we were greeted by another long time friend Marc Dumas who is the Temple Clerk.  He helped us with the paperwork to be able to perform the ordinance and served as my escort for our work.
     As we began I was to be proxy for Andres Aro (Daisy's Father) and Rita was proxy for Felicidad Petallar (Daisy's Mother).  As we went through the very short Sealing ordinance I thought to myself what Daisy must be feeling and how I know she has been looking forward to this day.  As we completed the work and stood again I felt a great peace knowing that we had accomplished something that my Sweetheart has been looking forward to for many years and that we had taken another big step in binding their family and our family together for eternity.
     We decided to stay and perform a few more proxy Sealings using couples provided by the temple and then left.  It has been a while since we have been to the temple together and it was wonderful to feel the peace and calm that is always there for me when I enter the temple.
     The rest of the day was spent in shopping for all of the things we needed to bring back home for our friends and family, and then capped off with a Birthday party for Daisy (but all that is another blog post).