Legacy

In my dad's family, there are five children. I believe that I have 37 cousins. 

And most of those cousins have at least four children, some of them as many as eight. 
There are a growing number of my cousin's children who are married and having children
themselves now!  


At our last family reunion, which was about four years ago, we were 
looking at the masses that were gathered, and noticing how remarkable the percentage of 
temple marriages and missionary service seemed to be. The overwhelming feeling was that
we all felt the pull of gratitude toward our grandparents for those blessings in our lives. 

My grandparents were not the first members of the church in their families. In fact, on both 
sides their families have been in the church almost since it's beginning. And even though my
grand parents were never showy about their faith, and never served in callings of prominence, 
our feelings of commitment to the gospel almost universally turned to their example. 

One story that kept being referred to over and over again was the simple story of how 
grandma and grandpa were married. When they decided that they would be married, it was
in the middle of the winter, and there was deep snow on the ground. They were committed 
to being married in the temple, but the nearest temple at the time was in Logan, UT, which 
was a significant distance away from where they lived in Menan, ID. But because temple 
marriage was so important to them, grandpa hitched the horses to the sleigh, and the two 
of them made the long and cold journey to the Logan temple to be sealed for time and all eternity.

This story was beautiful and romantic to all of us, but many of us remarked how much 
more significant this story became as we studied further in our family history and realized 
that none of my grandparents siblings had been married in the temple initially. In my 
grandfather's very large family, none of his siblings were initially married in the temple. 
They were all married civilly first, and then attended to temple ordinances later. There is 
no doubt that because of the difficulty in traveling to the temple it seemed completely 
reasonable to wait for a more convenient time to make their commitments bound in 
heaven as well as on earth. 

But that wasn't enough for my grandparents. 

Their deep faith in the importance of those covenants, and their commitment to their 
eternal goals for the family they were creating pressed them to hitch up those horses, 
pile on the blankets, and head to Logan whether any family would accompany them 
or not. That story sunk deep into each of our hearts and informed our choices throughout 
our lives.

Ray and Ann Miller Legacy. Miller Family Reunion 2011.