She wasn't even a girlfriend...
we went shortly before her mission, and because we were together we got recruited to be the witness couple. Maybe they thought we were married, dunno.

Actually it was pretty fun. It's the only way to go through the ceremony WITH a partner instead of split up.

You sit in the front row across the aisle from each other, and every time they call the witness couple up you go kneel at the alter together and you do a bunch of grips together, quite flirty really if you're not actually a couple, kinda like sealings with another woman, which I've also done. I think I recall that the witness couple goes through the veil together too.

So yes, you did miss something!

No, unless you happen to enjoy sore knees, the next day, along with stiffness in the small of the back.

I always got a kick out of checking out the witness couple from behind. One of them usually had something tucked in wrong or something sticking out that shouldn't have been. Good times.

it's entirely possible I'm now married to an elderly stranger living in the Oakland Temple district. I was part of a witness couple on a weekday at the Oakland temple about 15 years ago. There were only about 6 people in the session besides me...4 elderly women, one elderly man and another who was just about to elderly. They chose him and me to be the witness couple, even though we'd never met. Probably because we were the only two ambulatory people in the whole session.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2010 12:00PM by CA girl.

Funny, you should mention that, CA girl . . . the first time I did proxy sealings (marriage), no one had explained the exact process to me. I don't remember what the phrase was that caused me to instinctively jerk my hand free from the "husband", a complete stranger to me, but I do remember feeling rather alarmed, thinking that I wasn't about to allow myself to be sealed to anyone other than my now ex-husband. The officiator reassured me, of course, and we proceeded with the session.

We were doing a long list of Spaniards, 1700s. I got so tired towards the end, I could hear myself answering with an insistent "Si. Si." I suppose that was acceptable since it didn't disrupt the ceremony. But, after that rather unsettling experience I would only do proxies for family, or friends.

Eh, it's all hocus-pocus, mumbo-jumbo to me now, but in the moment, considering the cult's history with polygamy, the dark and sordid rumors re: events that went on inside of temples, I had no intention of getting any further entangled than I already was.

and was informed that there is no requirement that the witness couple actually BE a couple. The way I asked the question was, "what if there is a "stake RS night" at the temple and 50 women patrons attend without husbands (because it's an RS activity), where do they get the witness couple? The answer was, they may end up asking any male and any female patron to serve, and quite often they do NOT know each other.

Even whe I was a missionary, a sister missionary and I were the witness couple. That tripped me out.

My ex-wife and I are both very tall, blonde, and she is gorgeous. Often, as we waited in the chapel, we would notice a worker's eyes light up. It always reminded me of how superficial it all is. It actually kind of surprised us how often a different couple was chosen.

First--I laughed when I read your subject line. They couldn't get me to be witness couple if they paid me. I don't like being in a situation where attention is on me.

As for proxy sealings--that was the LAST TIME I went to the temple. I was pulled aside because someone didn't show up. I don't know why they didn't pull my husband along with me. I had a lot of "odd" guys who followed me in the singles' ward (and, yes, they were odd--I'm really not a judgmental person, which is probably why I had so many follow me and want to marry me). So--it just so happened that the guy who I got to be sealed to OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER again was a guy like this. He stared at me with this big goofy smile the entire time we did the sealings. Talk about making your marriage seem of no consequence. THAT BLEW MY MIND. I never went back to the temple. (And I just talked about sitting in the foyer in the past week meditating--it was after this visit that I sat in the foyer for 45 minutes to an hour--had a lot of time to think about this experience.)

I was a witness couple w/ my wife a couple times. I didn't particularly like being up front and being the center of attention.
These other stories remind me of being in the Provo Temple doing sealings w/ a sister mish in the MTC. As a mish in the MTC, I was forced to go to the Provo temple on a weekly basis, against my will I hated it everytime. And of course, my comp insisted on fasting before going to the temple, so i had to fast too. One week, we decided to do sealings, so I was paired up w/ one of the the sister mishies in our district. For that, I was grateful, maybe half because she was sort of good-looking and I got to hold her hand, but mostly because it meant that I did not have to sit through a 2 hour endowment session. Anyway, I fainted about 1 minute into the sealing deal. Fell backwards while I was on my knees. I remember when I came to, that the temple worker who was supposed to be doing the sealings wasn't too happy. Apparently, fainting was a common problem among mish trainees in the Provo temple. He complained about the fact that too many mishies fast before going to the temple, and the MTC should've instructed mishies NOT to fast prior to doing temple work.

Well, it broke up the boredom of the session because you got to move around a lot.

I mainly remember worrying about everybody in the session thinking my butt looked big in all those temple clothes. (Cuz, well, that's what *I* was always thinking when I looked at the backside of the kneeling lady in the witness couple).

And once, I remember thinking that being "called" as a witness couple was a sign from Gawd that I shouldn't divorce my husband (which I was seriously considering at the time). Sigh.

;o)

It was early in the morning and most of the men there were missionaries. I was the only woman.

Imagine my embarrassement as I stood, bowed my head, and said yes all by myself when they had me covenant to not have sexual intercourse (that's how it used to be worded) with anyone but my husband to whom I was legally and lawfully wed.

I was still very young and hadn't been married very long. Embarrassing!!!!! If that were to happen now I'd just turn around, smile and wink at all those mishies ;)

TG

Misfit wrote:
>He complained about the fact that too many mishies fast before going to the temple, and the MTC should've instructed mishies NOT to fast prior to doing temple work.

Except that D&C 109:16 REQUIRES you to fast: " And that this house may be a house of prayer, a house of FASTING, a house of faith, a house of glory and of God,..."

LOL! So many of these stories could have been my own! My hubby always LOVED being the WC, but he is slow as molasses and rarely got into the chapel before one was picked. He's quite tall, chiseled, and striking looking, so I can totally relate to the superficiality of it all. I didn't mind doing it, but it creeped me out to be kneeling at the alter and being eye level to the old temple-worker's junk (if you know what I mean!). Also noticing any stains on their white suits (happened quite a bit, actually). I totally remember thinking if anyone else was looking at my arse, just like I would do when we weren't the WC. I don't remember, however, going through the veil together, just first (which allowed us first entrance into the celestial room, of course) but it was nice to be able to sit right next to my husband instead of that stupid segregation.

My husband and I were witness couple more often than we weren't.Again I think it was because we were pleasing to look at. Shallow, shallow, shallow. Didn't particularly enjoy it, but it did help pass the time. Stopped me dropping off. One time I'd gone to the temple without husband and i was asked to be the woman witness with a very, very old man who I ended up having to help get up and down from kneeling at the altar.

Sad experience in the temple, when the woman witness went to stand at the veil, she had blood all over the back of her skirt. Obviously her period had started. Afterwards my husband urged me to try to find her so she would know she hadn't been bloodstained all through the entire ceremony but, not surprisingly, she had disappeared. Poor woman, she probably thought she had been sitting and standing for an hour or more in that state, rather than just at the very end. Now why would God let that happen, humiliate someone who was saving the dead?

http://packham.n4m.org/templex.htm

This is a report of several ExMos who crashed the temple. Some were endowed, some were not. None of them were married to each other. Two of them were asked to be witness couple. The woman was not endowed and was not even wearing garments during the ceremony. She was able to "fake" the tokens by following the lead of her male companion, who was also a crasher but at least previously endowed.

After having read this board for a decade, "Adventure At The Temple" is still one of my favorite essays.

Yes, you missed the further exhilaration of arrogance and self righteousness!!! I would never have described it that way back then, but that's what it was!!