by Vickie Gallegos
Published with permission

When I was 12 years old my mother divorced for the second time. She and I moved to California to live near her two brothers, both of whom happened to be LDS. Later that fall my uncle baptized me. As I came up out of the water, I couldn’t remember ever feeling so clean and pure.

My mother was invited to attend a singles group where she met Joe. One day while driving with him, he asked me if it was okay if he married my mother. Not really wanting a third “dad”, but wanting my mom to be happy, I said yes, but I will call you Joe. At that time, I didn’t know how important Joe would become in my life. He baptized mom, and a year later they were sealed or joined together for eternity in the Los Angeles Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In the church we believe in temple marriages because it is only in the temple that families can make covenants or promises with God that last forever.

Through my high school years, when I was headed on the wrong path, Joe would guide me back with all the love of a father. I still only called him Joe. When I went away to college I missed him terribly, and then regretted never calling him Dad. One day I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to tell him how I felt. I called him and said, “Joe, I hope you know when I call you Joe, I mean it with all the love and affection as if I were calling you dad”. He simply said, “I know.” From that day forward he was my dad.

My life moved on, Joe had cancer and during his illness he took me aside and asked me to really pray about taking out my endowments which is a ceremony where I make covenants with promised blessing from God What a blessing to listen to Joes’ guidance and follow through. I still had one regret; I was never sealed or joined together for eternity to my parents. I thought I was too old, and I could not have the blessing of an eternal family, until one of my ministering sisters in my church said, “yes you can”. I was flabbergasted!

April 2024, at the age of 67, with both my mother and Joe deceased, I was able, with the help of church friends, to go to the temple and make covenants as an eternal family with Joe and my mother by proxy. In the temple I could feel the Holy Spirit so strongly that it gave me goosebumps. I am thrilled that finally after all these years, I feel at home and am part of an eternal family, forever. The joy I feel in my heart cannot be compared to anything else in my life.

It’s never too late to feel the promptings of the Holy Spirit and the desires to return to our heavenly home as a family through temple covenants and promises with God. If you have not done so, what are you waiting for? I encourage you to start the process today.