Why Angela and I have decided to live a celestial marriage

Some of you may already know this, but for the rest this is probably going to come as a big surprise. We spent many hours discussing how we were going to tell you, and thought it best to perhaps to do it on this blog and give you all time to take it in before personally discussing it with any of you. We realize that probably most of you will have strong feelings against this and don't want this to fracture any relationships with our families. At the same time, we feel that we need to be honest and open about this decision. Living this as a secret and/or lie will ultimately rupture our relationships even more.

In the second book of Nephi the prophet Jacob says that the Lord, at times, directs his people to live plural marriage in order to raise a righteous generation (2:30). Through much prayer and fasting, Angela and I believe God has extended this call to us. Compared to many of our friends, we are a getting married at a much later age, making it difficult to safely build the large family we hope to raise. By bringing in another wife into our marriage we will be able to increase our posterity and have the type of celestial family we have always dreamed of. Also, with an extra spouse both Angela and I will be able to have still have kids and continue our higher education without having to leave our children in the hands of caretakers.

With that in mind, we are happy to introduce you all to Rachel.

Rachel has been a great friend of mine that I have known for several years now. When Angela and Rachel first met a couple years, they quickly connected and seemed as though they had been friends since birth. When the call came to Angela and I to enter into celestial marriage, we both instantly saw Rachel in our minds and knew she was the one that was meant to help us expand our family. Now I'm sure that you can all easily understand how nervous we both were to approach Rachel and tell her what we both knew in our hearts. We were both scared of rejection, certain that she would find us absolutely crazy. If Angela and I hadn't felt so strongly about it ourselves, we would probably think that the other was crazy! However, when we met with Rachel and told her how we felt, she felt the call at that moment as well and didn't hesitate to give us an excited YES! - though we still told her to think it over and make sure she felt it was right and that it was what she wanted to do.

Angela and I are still planning on getting married (just the two of us) on June 19th. This will give us some time to make up for the long separation we have had to endure over the last several months. We will be adding Rachel to our marriage later in the fall. We hope and know that once you get to know her you will love her just as much as we do.