BEING MEANT FOR EACH OTHER

By: Norberto Betita

They first meet in a church activity while studying in college. The few personal visits eventually turned into a perpetual stopover and was further transformed into a courting episode. In time courtship ultimately switched to a feeling of devotion and love as for the two beings becoming best of friends.

Jayvee Paeste was fostered by her aunt after her mother died during his early infancy. His father is an overseas seaman, an officer of a ship, which also prompted him to take up a nautical course. He also became a seaman himself which I later learned to be the cause of their break-up.

I first meet Jayvee during one of the tree planting activities of the Surigao 3rd Branch of the church in one of the community near Capalayan, Surigao City. He was introduced to me as the boyfriend of Jusherlyn Mojello, whom I know very well since as a young woman until she became a teacher, being a long time member of our branch. Months passed and I heard rumors that Jusherlyn is already engaged to be married in the temple. All the while I was thinking that it was Jayvee whom they are talking about, but I was surprised to know that the young man was a returned missionary once assigned in Surigao City.

Months later, I again learned that Juserlyn’s plan was deferred and her relationship finally came to a split.

The newlyweds at the temple door

After Jayvee’s breakup with Jusherlyn, and during the time when he was working abroad as a seaman, he likewise got a new girlfriend, but later also had distanced himself from and eventually ended such relationship.

For some space of time they both tended their broken hearts, trying to find relief from heartaches, disappointments and pains, and searching for meaning of such romantic failures. In the course of their individual quest for personal independent directions, their mutual feelings again brought them back into the crossroads where they once meet. The strings of the broken relationship was once again mended and came in perfect tune; and thus the melody of a more devoted and affectionate amorous commitment resound the infinitely wonderful music for the heart.

The circumstance when Jayvee and Jusherlyn first came to a fork in the road was kind of Alice’s encounter with the Cheshire cat in the animated movie Alice in the Wonderland. They were not yet sure where to go, and so it seems that it did not matter to them which road they should take. On the way they found themselves lost from each other. 

Cebu City Philippines Temple

But all along, the longings of the heart appear to reverberate as ever the sweet and lasting memories of yesteryears. As they found their way back to the historic crossroads of their common journey, they discovered themselves both standing at a point where a crucial decision has to be made. Their reunion thus became kind of an spiritual evidence that pierced their consciousness as for them to ultimately realize that they are truly meant for each other. 

Being meant for each other is not to say that the two are soul mates. President Spencer W. Kimball explained, “Soul mates are fiction and an illusion; and while every young man and young woman will seek with all diligence and prayerfulness to find a mate with whom life can be most compatible and beautiful, yet it is certain that almost any good man and any good woman can have happiness and a successful marriage if both are willing to pay the price.” (Oneness in Marriage, Ensign, lds.org). Accordingly, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf added: “Once you commit to being married, your spouse becomes your soul mate, and it is your duty and responsibility to work every day to keep it that way.” – (Is there such a thing as “soul mates”? New-era,LDS.org).

Waiting Area-Cebu City Philippines Temple

The phrase ‘meant for each other’ means being suited for each other as romantic partners. For my liberal understanding of the phrase, it means two people conceiving and formulating mutual intimate feelings towards each other; it is being compatible in an affectionate touch that stem deep from the heart notwithstanding incompatibility in many other things, which differences may be resolved one at a time while in the heart of marital relationship. Interestingly Jayvee and Jusherlyn did just that. While they have the opportunity to find potential marital partners themselves, yet they decided to come back and together reconditioned their feelings and crafted a reciprocal commitment for a lasting relationship. 

Now they know where they wanted to go. Their path to the gates of the temple was paved best to make sure that it will no longer be broken. Jayvee stayed in Surigao City to prepare himself for the grand event in his life with Jusherlyn in which lies eternal consequences. He was eventually called to serve as Young Men President, while Jusherlyn serves as Single Adults representative.

The bride's dressing room

Both Jayvee and Jusherlyn are discernibly growing spiritually and trying to fit Bruce R. McConkies’s description: “The right person is someone for whom the natural and wholesome and normal affection that should exist does exist. It is the person who is living so that he or she can go to the temple of God and make the covenants that we there make.” (Bruce R. McConkie, quoted by Thomas B. Holman, Choosing and Being the Right Spouse, Ensign, lds.org).

Their decision did become definite and immovable and their bond braced as this day, the 30th of June 2018, they knelt before the holy altar of matrimony in the House of the Lord and were pronounced as husband and wife with a covenant and an everlasting promise to have and to hold; for better or for worse; for richer or for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish, for time and all eternity. 

There is no spectacular scene of classiness and elegance of worldly ornamentation. Neither was there a fantastic show of sophisticated processional march into the holy altar of matrimony. Backdropped by the natural serenity and beauty and the peaceful ambience of the Temple grounds, they simply walked towards the doors of the Temple and were ushered by ministering servants---the bride to the bride’s dressing room and the groom to the men’s dressing room. Then they were guided to meet together in the sealing room to kneel in the Holy Altar of matrimony and by the power of the Holy Priesthood received the sacred ordinance and were sealed together in the presence of parents and family and other witnesses, as husband and wife forever. 

Sealing room of the Cebu City Philippines Temple where
Jayvee and Jusherlyn were married for time and all eternity.

The newlyweds will now start a new life together as one with complete understanding and distinct realization, “…that the mere performance of a ceremony does not bring happiness and a successful marriage. Happiness does not come by pressing a button, as does the electric light; happiness is a state of mind and comes from within. It must be earned. It cannot be purchased with money; it cannot be taken for nothing.” (Spencer W. Kimball, Oneness in Marriage, Ensign, lds.org).

For some time having found themselves as being meant for each other, they dug deep into their hearts and build the most solid foundations in a relationship---the new and everlasting covenant of marriage. Now that the foundations are in place, they are on their way to assemble the building blocks that will shape the sacred sanctuary for an oncoming family and establish a home to serve as a shelter from the storms of family life.

MY WARMEST CONGRATULATIONS TO MR. AND MRS. JAYVEE AND JUSHERLYN MOJELLO-PAESTE ON THIS THEIR WEDDING DAY!