Donna Grayce Kesler

Thursday, July 14, 2023

The first experience I want to share was Friday morning, June 30, 2023. Those who attended the temple were Lisa and I, Kira and Justin, Ben, Brandon, and Ally. We had a baptistry appointment for 9:00 and we had Justin baptize Brandon for some of Grandmas relatives and then Brandon baptized Ally for Donna. We all stood around the font and enjoyed the amazing spirit that was present. I felt the spirit while Donna’s relatives were being baptized, but the spirit was nearly overwhelming when Ally was baptized for Donna.

Next, we had Ben confirm everyone who had been baptized. Again, the spirit was especially strong when Ally was confirmed for Donna. We sent most of the names that had been baptized in to be recorded but hung onto Donna’s and two of the men’s names to continue to initiatory and the endowment. I took another name who had been previously baptized.

While the girls were doing the initiatory work for Donna, Brandon and Justin did the initiatory work for the two names that had been baptized. We arrived at the endowment room just as the patrons were filing into the room. At first, we just headed into the room with everyone else but then we noticed that the girls weren’t there. We left the room and talked to the workers letting them know that our wives were missing.

The brother worker said that we could wait a couple of minutes for them, but the sister worker said that they had to start the session right now and that we would need to catch the next session.

I wasn’t too worried because we did have time to catch the next session, but we had friends already seated in the session room and I didn’t want to go through the confusion and disruption of pulling them out of the session or even just letting them know that we would be in the next session.

As it happened, the two workers argued back and forth long enough that just as they were about to close the doors on us, the women showed up. It was an amazing session and while I didn’t have any strong feelings one way or the other about Donna’s relative that I was taking through, I did feel Donna’s presence there.

Lisa told me that she had expected to be overwhelmed by the spirit during the endowment session like she has been previously with other special endowments, but she wasn’t. Instead, she felt her mother’s presence but had the impression that Donna was listening closely to the endowment, focused on learning as much as she could. Once Lisa was presented at the veil however it was very different. She felt Donna’s presence so strongly that she could hardly speak.

Finally, we all met up in sealing room 5. We had requested Craig McPhie as our sealer and attending in the sealing room was Lisa and myself, Kira and Justin, Brandon and Ally, Ben, Desiree Heaton and Dave and Diane Evans. Lisa had invited Desiree because she knew and loved Donna and the Evans were invited because they bought Lisa’s very expensive, last minute plane ticket to get Lisa to Canada during covid before she died. That was the last time Lisa saw her mother in this life.

Before we did Donna’s sealing, we sealed three or four other families and various people in the room acted as proxy. They were all relatives of Donna’s, and we did them all as entire families. It was very special, and the spirit was strong.

Finally, we sealed Donna to her parents. I acted as a proxy for Donna’s father, Arthur Kesler, Kira acted proxy for Donna’s mother, Alice Logan, and Lisa acted proxy for her mother.

Lisa thought she would cry through the entire ordinance but instead she couldn't help but smiling. The spirit was powerful. I knew that Donna was there and that she fully accepted this ordinance and the blessings associated with it. After the ceremony I walked over to where Desiree was standing and she grabbed my arm and said, “Fred, I saw Donna, she was sitting in that chair right there with a big smile on her face. She was wearing that yellow dress that she loves.” We briefly talked about that experience when Brandon and Ally rushed over to me and Brandon said, “Dad, I saw grandma, she was standing right next to mom, and she had a hand on moms’ shoulder.” The place where Brandon said he saw Donna was essentially the same place where Desiree said that she saw Donna.

It was an amazing experience.