Dear Gramps.

I have been married to a wonderful lady for over two years. This is our third marriage for both of us. I hold the Priesthood and have a heart-felt desire to be sealed to this lady. This is where complications are coming in. She was previously married to a member, and made the promise to him that he would always have his two sons with him. He was not an active member. My wife is not sure if she wants to be sealed to me, because of the promise that she gave her last husband. What can I do to let her know that all will be fine?

Dale

Dear Dale,

You didn’t tell me if your wife was sealed to her former husband. Assuming that she was not sealed to him, her promise that he would always have his two sons with him has no meaning. Are the sons living with him now, or with her, or are they on their own?

If she was sealed to her former spouse, families are together in eternity only if they are true and faithful to each other and abide by all the covenants that they have made in the temple. The fact that her former spouse in not active in the Church does not mean that he cannot repent and be forgiven of all his sins. But then, the covenant has nevertheless been broken because they are no longer true to one another.

Now she has married you. It is yet her decision if she would want to be sealed to you for time and eternity. If so, it would be necessary to request a cancellation of her former sealing by the First Presidency. Then, if the cancellation were granted and if you both qualify by your worthiness to enter the temple, you could be sealed to each other. The birth children of the mother in the dissolved marriage who had previoiusly been sealed to her would remain sealed to her and the husband to whom she would be sealed for eternity.

Gramps