FROM JUNE 14, 1961 TO ETERNITY...

Walt Petersen and Eileen Albertson are married for time and for all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple on June 14, 196 1. The flags were out all over the city that day, as they have been for every anniversary since then.

(Yes, it's Flag Day...but we still consider the flags out for our anniversary. Silly us.)

"So in love, so in love, so in love with you am I!"

All I knew, when I came out of that temple for the first time, I wanted to be married to "Mr. Right, in the Right Place, at the Right Time -- AND I WAS!!!

I was now "Mrs. Walter R. Petersen" and I was estatic!

I can remember as though it were yesterday--as my Mom, Dad, and I crossed the street from our hotel to Temple Square--what joy seeing Walt walking toward me as he and his parents had just arrived.

We all entered the majestic Salt Lake Temple together--I, and my Mom and Dad for the first time.

Walt's mother Jane was my escort. My Mom's mother, Ella Huffaker, was her escort. I guess my Mom's Dad, S. David Huffaker, was my Daddy's escort (everything was so new and different to me, I wasn't aware of a lot of things). I had never heard any information about the temple in my home since my Mom and Dad had not received their endowments yet, either.

Our witnesses were Walt's Dad, Ray Petersen, and my Dad, Arnold Albertson.

BACKGROUND ABOUT WHO PERFORMED OUR TEMPLE WEDDING AND WHY:

When Walt was a counselor in his mission presidency in Uruguay/Paraguay (now known as "Assistant to the President"), Elder Henry D. Moyle, then an Apostle, toured his mission in 1956.

At that very same time, the mission president's wife had passed away and President Frank Perry had flown to Seattle to take her remains to be buried in their hometown.

Walt was asked to accompany Elder Moyle on the mission tour to Paraguay, where they met with the President of the Country,

Afredo Stroessner (president/dictator 1954-deposed in 1989), and was Elder Moyle's intrepreter there and throughout the time in Paraguay in zone conferences with the missionaries. They became good friends.

So that's why Walt asked President Henry D. Moyle, then the Second Counselor in the First Presidency, to perform our marriage ordinance.

[President Moyle became the First Counselor in October 1961. He passed away in September 1963.]

Next week...The Bride's Prayer

Then our wedding reception - Saturday, June 17, 1966, in Gooding...

Then the week after that...Honeymooning on way to St. Louis via Yellowstone Park...