Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Est Aug 23, 1978

To all my kids,

It started out with my brother driving me to Oakland. He would have been my best man. It was early in the morning of the 23rd. Raquel did not think I would make it. The water at the fountain was turned off. Apparently with a water shortage, neighbors thought the temple was wasting the water. They did not know it was pumped over and over. The Oakland Temple has a mural on the front side of Jesus and the twelve apostles. On the South side of the temple was a mural of Jesus the the 12 disciples from the Book of Mormon. Visitors can easily go up and walk around. Up on top on the south side is a brass marker. They use this marker to measure how much the faults move on the east range and the west range mountains. It is pretty cool. Apparently the church purchased the land in 1943, and then took time to get it just right. Dedication was in 1964. 

The Oakland area performed an indoor pageant which we attended in July. It was after coming home from that pageant that I proposed to Raquel. [After 2007 the pageant was not performed.]

The sealer was Bro Gingler. Jim and Rosalie had the Temple President seal them. The room was kind of a small one. Remember there was only side of the family there. There was a few from my ward. Bro Fox, Bishop Houghton. I was too busy staring into Raquel's eyes to notice many others. 

At the time the temple only had two big ordinance rooms. Now there are four.

When we walked out, my father was speaking to the attendant. I think he was trying to get in. But later he asked the same man for the address for a good restaurant. It was really cool to see mom and dad there, since we did not really invite them. They then took us out to eat lunch. It was there way of making is special for us, and being with the bride and groom.

Also when we came out of the temple my brother drove up in a blue Lincoln he rented for us on our honeymoon. Remember my car at the time was a 1972 blue Torino. It was a real treat to have a Lincoln to drive around for a few days.

Our reception was at the home of Dick and Rita Caldwell. They lived in the Lodi area in a place called Acampo. This was all in the Lodi School district and the Lodi wards. They were good friends of the Nelsons. The picture in our bedroom with the pink roses was taken at that reception. [The Petersons had their reception at the Peterson Home in Morada]. They had two daughters about the same age and got married that summer/fall as well. He was a former Bishop. They had a pool in the back yard. One of the sons thought it would be fun to bolt a iron ball to my ankle. So there is a picture of me with a ball and chain. 

At the end of the evening we drove through Tracy on the way to San Jose. Our honeymoon was held at Marriott Great America. Now it is called Great America. It is a theme park in the Bay Area. We took a picture there. It is found the the family room with a old time wood frame. The print is on a piece of metal. There are other pictures of the Oakland Temple on that wall. 

Then on Saturday we headed back to the Oakland temple to witness the Peterson sealing. They asked us to be the witness couple. That was cool. Then it was back to home. That evening we went to Morada to the Peterson home. This is where it all started. A few months earlier I was visiting with my new friend Jim Peterson. I told him I was going to propose. So here we were again at their home. The home never looked better. Jim took a lot of time to groom the grounds. 

A few days later we all stuffed our cars and drove to Provo. Jim had made an earlier trip to deliver furniture. I asked him to find us a place to live. He found an apartment that had a wall to wall bed. His imagination got away from him. The apartment had one bedroom built from a converted porch. The bed was a twin, and it was a small room. It was hard to make the bed. But there we lived and returned to school. This was our new life together. 

Hope someone prints this out to save it. Oh, and if Raquel has a different story, remember my was first.

Love,
Dad

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