Some 14 years ago I began worshiping in temples. It began with periodic visits to the baptistery to preform ordinances for those that couldn’t do it for themselves. These trips were largely to the Jordan River temple, with a few trips to the Salt Lake temple and Bountiful. Then as a carless freshman the frequency spiked with a commitment between friends to walk up the hill to the Provo temple every Friday. We didn’t quite do it, but we often did. 8 years ago I gained access to the rest of the temple and was able to participate in other ordinances. This began a vague dream of visiting temples where ever and when ever I could. Growing up I heard many stories of people with goals to visit every temple, those stories disappeared when the number of temples went from the 50 or 60 of my youth to the 170+ today. I content myself with just acknowledging whenever I passed near by a house of God.
There is so much I wish I could articulate about temples. I’m not going to try to say it all. This is a list of the 14 dedicated temples of Utah and a few memories of each. Just a snapshot, in a few months Payson will make 15 then Provo City Center and then Cedar city sometime in the years ahead. Others will join it too. I took all of these pictures because I was there. I hope I can always be worthy to be there.
My first endowment. Unique as the largest temple of the church it also has a unique angel statue and all kinds of cool architectural details. I watched friends and family get sealed there. When I went there the first time I met with the temple president, Walker. He is notable as the spouse of President Hinckley’s daughter. He told me a story about how when he was first called he and his wife spent a Sunday exploring every room in the building. They even made it out on the roof wearing their white clothing when they realized two white-clad people on the roof of the temple are likely to start all kinds of rumors.
This was the temple of my childhood. I went there on youth assignments for years. I remember particularly late start days when the best of the high school students would use their extra hour to do a run of baptism. I joined them once. I wish I had done it more. The angel on this temple is holding the gold plates. It was done by Avard Fairbanks and is the same design as the DC temple (although the DC temple one is the tallest at 18 ft compared to Jordan River’s 15’2″).
I spent my college years here. Before my mission I did baptisms here. Afterwards Endowments. I was able to meet with presidency members over the years, President Bateman, Daines, and Ashton. I worked there during my master’s degree, volunteering once a week for 2 1/2 years. It was the best class I had in grad school. Provo temple has roughly the same blueprint as Jordan River and Ogden, although it looks much more like Ogden use to. It is also the only temple in the world to start an endowment session every 20 minutes. 5000 workers keep it very busy. Most of the time. One Thursday night it was quite still with only a handful of people attending. BYU football night. Occasionally we would have outbreaks of miller moths. The temple workers would try to squash them but mostly we ignored them. After a few weeks we were asked to avoid squashing them on the draperies as that required expensive cleaning. The grounds also had outbreaks of rabbits which the workers tried hard to control.
This temple once looked just like Provo, a sort of Stonehenge/birthday cake looking thing. The extensively remodeled it and now it looks more like a modernized version of Jordan River. I attended the open house and simply couldn’t find the words to transmit how important that building was to my 4-year-old niece with whom I walked through it. I noticed a certain skyscraper look to the chandeliers. This is apparently a reference to an old architect that designed many of the old buildings in Ogden. I watched the re-dedication via broadcast.
I only attended the open house for this one. It reminded me greatly of Rexburg just with an extra spire. I remember the pride with which the ushers pointed out the peach blossoms which were symbolic of their community. There was a strong sense of rural ownership over their modern pioneer temple. From the freeway it certainly anchors the city nicely. I was able to watch the dedication via live broadcast from Provo.
This temple is perhaps one of the most unique experiences I’ve had for an endowment. Its live, and is the only temple aside from Salt Lake that does that. Except the workers all come from the small Utah towns around so some of them have wonderful accents. It also has fantastic murals inside from Minerva Teichert. The big eye popper is that there are people in the paintings. Lots of temples have murals and sometimes there are animals in them. (I guess a few have people too) but Manti is in a completely different league. It also has cool staircases, and a retired Holy of Holies (which means you can go in it if you are lucky). Very cool temple.
St George feels like a modernized version of Manti. It still has a very pioneery feel inside with ornate carvings and fancy ceilings but it also feels like its been gutted before and all the carpet replaced. The rooms were rearranged for a film endowment. It also has more sealing rooms than any other temple. It’s also very white. I know all temples are white but…only sort of. There is a wide spectrum of creams that get mixed in there. The St George temple is whitewashed white. Really makes it pop out of the red rock surroundings. I remember seeing cotton planted in front of it. I picked a bit and stuck it in my suit coat. Its been there for years.
This is the next pioneer temple in Utah. It looks a lot like Manti unless you put the two of them together then you see that Logan has a darker, more castle like appearance. For being a pioneer temple it has a strange 70’s feel to it. Something about yellow carpets maybe. It does have a feel of history to it. My grandparents grew up here. My grandmother was even baptized at 8 inside the temple. my great grandparents even worked here. A painting my grandmother made of it hung in our house for many years. It will always remind me of family and the generations that came before me more than any other temple.
This temple was built while I was gone from the valley of my youth. It was suddenly there when I came back from my mission. I love the paintings inside which depict the mountains above it. It is also nestled at the foot a difficult chunk of trail that caused me much effort as a teenager. The south-facing slope leads to the summit of the granite Lone Peak and makes for a very exhausting dry hot climb. The name of the trail is Jacob’s Ladder, referring to the dream Jacob had of angels ascending to heaven. A very fitting place for a temple.
Someday I will learn how to spell this. Today I looked it up. This was also built while I was gone but I returned in time to attend the open house. I love the open central hall of the temple and the dark wood accents. I returned to do baptisms there later and still look forward to an endowment. I actually also attended the dedication of this temple in one of the sealing rooms. It was broadcast to thousands but I was inside the building. For one session anyway. I think of this as a prairie temple. Up on that hill it just feels way out in the open with sweeping views in all directions. Also lots of grass and only small trees. Maybe that view will change in time.
I managed to do baptisms and endowments at this temple. I even attended a sealing here. It feels light. White walls and clear skies it is perhaps one of the few places in Utah with a horizon not bordered entirely of mountains. The sun sinking into the Great Salt Lake is an awesome sight. I actually remember attending the open house for this temple although I was only 4 at the time. It is perhaps one of my earliest temple memories. It’s visible from the airport and from the freeway and is tied to returning to the Salt Lake valley in my memory.
Timpanogos is the sister temple to Bountiful. Many photos of the two are confused. I can only tell them apart by using the background or if I remember that the Bountiful temple as a pyramid steeple while the Timpanogos temple has a rectangle one. I vaguely recall the dedication of this temple although at five years old I probably wasn’t old enough to be there. But I have a memory of Thomas S. Monson dressed in white and a room full of people with white handkerchiefs. I particularly like the blue glass of the windows. The Celestial room also stood out to me because it is designed like a large cross or nave. I suppose other temples are too but this one was particularly noticeable.
This was once the smallest temple in the church in a small town in a region of small towns. It was also very hard to get to. They expanded the temple after deciding it was too small. The chapel next door is probably bigger. I managed to finally make it there after giving up on finding someone to go with me and spending two nights sleeping in the back of my car in the desert. I was able to stop off at a national park visitor center (it was closed for the winter but the bathroom was open) and clean myself up for the trip. Of the 4 brothers in attendance at my session I was the only one who has not a temple worker. It was not the smallest endowment I’ve been in though. That prize goes to the Draper Temple. I particularly liked the paintings which depicted the surrounding countryside…the Plateau Province. Also very friendly. I got to slip into a wedding picture as I went in the door.
This was the last of the Utah temples I visited. As of Feb 2015 I have been inside all 14 of the operating Utah temples of the church. In three months Payson will come online and I’ll have more work to do. It took a special 9 hour trip to drive out to dinosaur country and visit this converted tabernacle. Its a smaller temple although it doesn’t feel cramped inside. There are lovely white paintings on the white walls. It’s also made out of brick so instead of the white that usually prevails it has a decidedly red rock appearance to it. I suppose the upcoming Provo City temple will look similar. Visiting this temple made me think about veils again. I should write about them in more depth someday. In the celestial room there is a large mural of the second coming. Because this is a converted tabernacle the mural rests over a door on the exterior (west side) of the building. The door is sealed and has no door handles.
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