Temples

This week we've had a couple of opportunities to visit temples in Utah. I thought I should share some of those experiences on my blog. First, on Monday evening we had family home evening with the Gardners at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. Doug's mom asked me to share some experiences since I have a long history with this temple, so this is what I shared:

When I was a little girl, I remember driving by this piece of property many times (it is near my grandmother's home, where my mom was raised, and across the street from the place where both of my grandparents worked). My mom would tell me about how it used to be a church welfare farm and her ward would come work there often harvesting food for those who were in need.

Right before I left on my mission, they announced a new temple in Utah County. Knowing that the church owned this property and that it was a perfect location for the temple, I wrote in my journal that this is where I thought it would be. Six months later, at my first general conference in the mission, they announced the location.

After I got home, I would go to this spot occasionally to take pictures of the building progress. As it got close to being finished, I signed up to help with the open house, where the public tours the temple before it is dedicated. I worked a couple of times playing the organ in the chapel as people walked through, a couple of times standing outside the exit to answer questions as people came out, and a few times cleaning at the end of the day. Surprisingly, some of my most special experiences were in the cleaning assignments. My first time cleaning, there were several of us from our single's ward, as well as others. Cleaning didn't start until fairly late at night (I want to say 10:00 p.m.) so that all of the people would be gone by that time. We gathered in our chosen location and were told that some of us would be needed inside the temple, and the others needed to stay and clean the tents (where people viewed a short video about temples while waiting for their tour). Of course everyone wanted to go clean inside, so a few of us agreed to clean the tents. We vacuumed and straightened up chairs, dumped garbages, etc. and then we were done. After it was all cleaned, the lady in charge told us there was still some cleaning needing done inside the temple, so we went in to help with that. Our assignment after the tents was to clean the Celestial room (the most beautiful and spiritually significant room in the temple, signifying our return to God). Most people were gone home by then and it was very quiet, and my job was to wipe up the floor (the carpets were covered with plastic covering to protect them). It was very peaceful and nice in there. The best cleaning time I've ever had!

Just before the temple was dedicated, my bishop called me into his office and said that he was given four tickets to the dedication, and he and his wife would be going. He wanted me to have one of the others, and gave the other to a guy that I was "sort of" dating and that I think the bishop wanted to push the issue with (lol!). So, I was able to be there in the Celestial room when President Hinckley stood 5-10 away and dedicated the temple to the service of the Lord.

After it was dedicated, I returned often to do temple work, and occasionally again returned for cleaning assignments. I have spent a lot of time in this temple. It's a beautiful place.

One of the funniest stories of the temple, kind of embarassing, but it is what it is so I should share it I guess! Doug and I had been talking about getting married, and had kicked around a couple of dates. I knew that I wanted to be married in the Mt. Timp temple even though Doug's family had a strong tradition of Salt Lake Temple weddings, and that's where my parents were sealed as well. We had "sort of" decided on January 10th as a date, but nothing was official. So, I went to the temple to do a session, and as I walked out, I decided to just stop by the scheduling desk to see if that date was available. I asked the lady at the desk about the date, and she said there were two openings left that day. One was really early in the morning (I want to say 7:00 a.m.) and the other was in the afternoon. I told her I'd take the afternoon time slot, and gave her mine and Doug's information.

When I got home, I went over to Doug's apartment and told him what I'd done, and he said, "Well, does that mean we're engaged then?" So yeah, that's how we got romantically engaged (he did ask me officially and gave me a ring on bended knee a few days later).

We were married in this temple on January 10, 1998 and since then the kids have come and it's hard to get to the temple often. However, I loved living close to the temple when we lived 1/2 mile away for 5 years. Didn't get there as often as I would have liked, but it was so wonderful to have it close by.
Here is our family in front of the temple where our family started!

Then, Wednesday night we were able to go up with the Gardners again to visit the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. This was a great opportunity, as open houses are the only time the kids can see the whole temple before they are adults. They had a lot of questions and we tried to answer them as we went through and explained what happens in each room and why it is important in our religion. The girls all felt a very special spirit there and even asked me if they were dreaming (so cute!) They told me that they all want to go to the temple one day to be married as well. I'm proud of them for making that a goal in their life.