More than two years ago, I was a curious, nervous girl about to enter the temple for the first time. I’ve known of the temple since childhood. I’ve sung songs about wanting to go inside it. My earliest memories include running around its grounds (which I shouldn’t) or waiting for my parents come out of the only place I was not allowed to enter therein.

At twelve, I got to finally unravel certain mysteries of the place when as a youth I get to do baptisms there but there are still so many questions that I was told I would understand in due time. I waited for that time and always knew it would happen. It finally did one fine December day of 2016 – less than a month before I go on my mission.

Through all my nerves and “cluelessness“, my mother was there helping and guiding me every step of the way. The way she made me prepare for that special afternoon helped me understand the real importance of what I was about to do and finally know after years of just hearing about it. It was one of the defining moments of my life and I never felt so happy after that -sitting on the large couch in the celestial room with my both my parents on either side of me while I was taking in all the beauty around me. I remembered all four of us (my brother was there too!) looking at the large mirror in that room all dressed in white, very happy and comforted with the knowledge that the covenants we made there will allow us to be a family forever.

That sweet memory came back to me today as I sat there by myself in the same couch in the celestial room exactly two years since my mother went to the other side of the veil. That was the first and last time my mother was able to accompany me to the temple and it will always be a treasured memory. It certainly made me sad to think I would never relive that time I was in that same room with both my parents. I admit to crying… but I immediately felt peace. because it is because of that place, it is because of temples that I get to be with both my parents forever. ❤

I almost gave this post the title of “The First and the Last” since that was the time I get to be there with my mother. But I decided on “Only” because that makes that time special, a one of a kind event in my life. Besides, it might be the only time we got to be together there in this earthly life, but we’ll get plenty of opportunities in the eternities. 🙂