The Temple Was... Nice

People always ask the same question: How was the wedding? the endowment? the mission? I never know what to say so I mumble that it was nice and tell who was there or launch a spiel about how friendly Brazilians are. Every now and then I try to say that it was horrible, but I can't do it with a straight face yet. Sometimes for sealings I report, as solemnly as possible, "They both said, 'Yes.'"

What can you say? On the one hand the experience is near ineffable--how do you describe the eternal sealing of people you love? On the other, it is completely routinized--exactly like every other sealing I've attended. On the one foot I am forbidden to say what actually happened. On the other, what I can say requires hours if not weeks, and I don't think that's what they want. Further, sometimes the experience is less than "nice"; sometimes folks really struggle--and you can be sure I'm not going to tell you about their difficulties. If we're talking about my own then our relationship is way past how-was-your-mission.

Of course, sometimes there are interesting goings-on suitable for chatting. I can always move a how-was-your-mission conversation along with gastro-intestinal tales. At one sealing I attended the groom's father had a cardiac "event" right there in the sealing room (he recovered). At another the (very shy) bride was surprised to learn, at the alter, that she would have to kiss her husband--in front of everyone! It was an uncomfortable few minutes (we tried really hard not to laugh, I promise).

But mostly it's just... nice. Yesterday I and a few other family members were with one of my brothers as he received the endowment. I missed the siblings who couldn't attend (not yet endowed, live too far away, no babysitter, etc.) but it was nice all the same. It is nice to be together. It is nice to be in the temple. To be together in the temple is "nicer" than anything else I've ever done.