Special Needs and Physical Needs Proxy Temple Baptisms

[nuclearfuels]

Hey there fam - 

I'm writing a realistic fiction story about a Force Reconnaissance (Special Forces) Marine who's injured in combat.

As he's recovering from a fused vertebrae surgery, a senior missionary and his wife reach out to him. 

He learns more, was born and raised in Utah, but hadn't been to church in +10 years.

The Senior Couple teaches him about proxy Temple baptisms, and proxy eternal marriage.

He learns more, prays about it, studies it out in his mind. 

He asks the Senior Miss' if he can be sealed or eternally married to his fiancée who was killed in combat (where he was seriously wounded, so she recently passed away.)

They get approval and tell him: yes, you can.

He baptizes the senior couple Sister on behalf of his fiancée.

QUESTION (finally, right?  ) - for people with limited use of their legs, can/does the Temple provide a chair they can sit to baptize a person? The senior couple Elder is also in the font, to help the Marine raise up the senior couple Sister out of the font's water. For you Temple workers, how realistic is this? (I get it - liability policy and all but....)

 

[rpn]

Yes temples can accommodate disabled people (often by having someone else be proxy who isn't disabled, but I don't see why someone with artificial limbs wouldn't be able to do it.

But I do not think you can do proxy sealings to people you were engaged to at this point.    Recently, the church has made it possible after every one of those involved has died to be sealed to everyone who was in any of the special relationships.   So a woman after she and her spouses are deceased can be sealed to all of them (and even a longtime partner she lived with but never married).    And men and women can also be sealed to women and children or parents  who they had a parent/child/partner relationship while they lived.   Presumably so that the ordinances are in place for all of the possibilities.

[halconero]

Yeah, as a former ordinance worker, we made a variety of physical accommodations.

As rpn said, your big limit would be the nature of the relationship.

[Calm]

There have been stories I have heard of sealings to fiancés who died on their way to the sealing ceremony and a few other exceptions when not only the intended spouse, but the family of the deceased appeal for such, but not sure it’s been documented as actually happening.  

Being sealed to someone you weren’t intending to be sealed to, but just marrying, a nonmember….I don’t believe I have ever heard that condition in a story.  It requires the assumption that not only does she accept the gospel, but that she would choose to be sealed to him eternally.  It’s not much different than what we do when all are dead when the marriage is in place, but it’s assuming she would go through with the marriage when she might have changed her mind last minute.***

Plus if she is from a nonmember family, not very realistic them pushing wholeheartedly, writing letters to the First Presidency, etc to allow for the sealing to take place.

***if you are going to go with the idea, I would have her from a faithful member family…though then you have the problem with her willingness to marry outside the temple without a sealing which imo now I think about it would likely be a deal breaker for leadership because in all the stories I have heard there was the intent to be sealed.

If you are going to ignore that issue, then you might push the idea of the intended marriage by having them about to have the marriage and then being called out to an emergency (their base is attacked perhaps?) for the combat where she is killed assuming this works on the military end of things.  Would they be allowed to get married in such circumstances by their bosses?

And my guess would be there would be at least a year wait after he reactivates, if not much longer for it to be approved if he was a member, but lapsed.

Edited January 30, 2025 by Calm

[CV75]

Maybe you can address the unanswered questions as a series of dream sequences and the reader never knows which one is real.

[Rain]

You would need first presidency approval. I know of a daughter who was sealed to parents she never knew (her sisters were adopted by them after her death and all were sealed to them). I suspect there are a number of situations that we don't know about. So just make sure the couple gets first presidency approval and know that it may take a couple of years and multiple letters to get it in unusual circumstances.

 

Edited January 31, 2025 by Rain

[Dario_M]

I mean...more ways lead to Rome right. Are there not more then one options to baptize somebody? Maybe we should look at the Catholics. They baptize baby's only with i little bit of water on their little heads. Is something like that not just possible with this gentleman as well? To just cover his head with a little bit of water. 

[DispensatorMysteriorum]

I had a woman in my ward be sealed to her deceased fiancee, and their child sealed to them.  In her case, the bishop and stake president had to send a request to the office of the First Presidency for approval, which they granted by sending a letter to the stake president with instructions that the woman take the letter with her to the temple and give it to the temple recorder. 

[Calm]

6 minutes ago, DispensatorMysteriorum said:

I had a woman in my ward be sealed to her deceased fiancee, and their child sealed to them.  In her case, the bishop and stake president had to send a request to the office of the First Presidency for approval, which they granted by sending a letter to the stake president with instructions that the woman take the letter with her to the temple and give it to the temple recorder. 

Was her deceased fiancé a member of the Church and if not, did his family have to give approval?

[DispensatorMysteriorum]

On 1/31/2025 at 7:44 AM, Calm said:

Was her deceased fiancé a member of the Church and if not, did his family have to give approval?

He was a member, and his family did give approval although I'm not sure if that was required. I just called the family and they said they approved, and so I included that in the letter I wrote the First Presidency (I was the bishop)

 

[Calm]

2 hours ago, DispensatorMysteriorum said:

He was a member, and his family did give approval although I'm not sure if that was required. I just called the family and they said they approved, and so I included that in the letter I wrote the First Presidency (I was the bishop)

 

Interesting story.  Very glad they did approve such a sealing, given there was a child involved.