Thoughts on the Draper Temple Open House

Saturday started early. We spent the morning talking about stories from family history. There were so many stories related that I can hardly remember even one of them. I will endeavor to write them in the coming months as I have felt the need to write my parents history.

About 1:00 pm, we headed over to the Draper Temple open house. As expected, it was beautiful. The tour started in the wedding waiting room. We went to the instruction room where we saw a 12 minute video on the purpose of temples and the history of the church in Draper. We proceeded to the baptistry. The sister who presented the video mentioned that there are compass motifs in the baptistry and through out the temple. In fact, the oxen are standing on a dial of a compass.

We do baptisms for the dead because it is a necessary ordinance in order to enter into the Kingdom of God. As many inhabitants of the earth have not had the opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ or to receive baptism in His church, baptism for the dead is necessary for the salvation of mankind in the God’s kingdom.

We then moved on through the locker rooms, past the instruction rooms, and made our way through the ordinance rooms where the endowment is presented. It appears to me that this temple will have two sets of ordinance rooms and that endowment will unfold in two rooms. The first with beautiful murals of woods and mountains will depict the creation of the world, the Garden of Eden, and the Telestial Kingdom. The next room will depict the Terrestrial Kingdom. It was done in off white colors. The drapery leading to the temple veil was a forest green. We then went into the Celestial Room. This was a most spectacular room. The room was from twenty to thirty foot square and about fifty feet high. A massive crystal chandelier hung from the center of the ceiling. This room reminds us of the potential we have as children of God and the peace we will have when we enter back to His presence.

While baptism is necessary to enter into the Kingdom of God, the endowment is necessary to understand the purpose for coming to earth and to understand the nature of God and our relationship to Him as well as what we need to know to reenter into His presence. Just as an endowment at a university is a gift of money, the endowment in the temple is a gift but of knowledge of God and His power. The endowment starts with the creation of the earth and the condition in which Adam and Eve found themselves when they were in the placed in the Garden of Eden.

The endowment explains the fall of man when Eve and then Adam partook of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil and why the fall was necessary for the progression of Adam and Eve, for them to have children, and thus for the creation of mankind. Because of the fall, mankind became ineligible and unworthy to enter back into the presence of God. As a result of the fall, God presented the plan to send Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, to make us eligible to return to Him and be forgiven of our sins. To be eligible, we must follow Him, pray to the Father, and sacrifice all we have been given to Him. We are taught how to pray and what we need to know to enter back into the presence of God. We are then allowed to enter into the presence of God as we enter into the Celestial Room.

The endowment is an ennobling experience and is beautiful. It is through the endowment as weel as the other ordinances of the temple that we learn what we need to become as our Father in heaven and achieve our full potential.

We reverence what we learn in the endowment by not discussing the specifics of the ordinances outside of the temple. We do on the other hand invite all to attend the temple and participate the ordinances found there. That is the reason we as a church work so hard to preach the gospel and nurture members of the church so they can enter the temple to receive these ordinances.

The next room we saw was one of the ceiling rooms. We filed into the room and sat down. The rooms were like all the other rooms in the temple, simply beautiful. Like the Celestial Room it was done in shades of white. The room was about 30 by 30 feet and about 30 feet tall. There was a crystal chandelier above the alter. There were beautiful mirrors facing each other on both wall opposite the alter much like the one in the Celestial Room but smaller. The mirrors reflect off each other and help us imagine eternity. I reflected that the feeling I felt was much like the feeling I had when I attended each of Richard and Barbara’s children’s temple weddings. The feeling was of complete joy and peace.

How grateful I am of the promises we receive as we marry in the temple. The promise that the familial relationships will continue through eternity; that the love we share one for another will not end.

The tour then made its way to the recommend area or the lobby of the temple. Because Linda and I had taken our time going through many of the rooms, Jan and Richard were ahead of us. I took my time because I wanted to drink in the architecture of the temple. I tried to understand what the designers intended as the temple was designed. When we got to the recommend area, Jan and Richard were seated and waiting for us. We joined them in the conversation as they talked about the purpose of the temple and the Plan of Salvation. Richard explained how after this life if we have not received our temple ordinances that when we go to the spirit world we will be assigned to the spirit prison until we hear the gospel and the temple ordinances are performed on our behalf. I so appreciated hearing Richard talk. As we were growing up, he was the example of our family. He was the priesthood holder who blessed us in many ways. For me, this was one of the sweet moments of the day.We left the temple and went to the stake center across the parking lot and had some refreshments. Richard picked us up in the car and we went back to Richard’s where we met up with Barbara.

We spent the afternoon and then met Mark and Elizabeth at Fong restaurant for dinner.
After dinner we returned to Richard and Barbara’s, to watch the infamous wedding videos of me giving Andy and Ashlee advice. The shot is of me, Elizabeth, and Mark. I was waxing long in my advice. I was giving what I thought was very deep wise advise. You can see Elizabeth looking around waiting for me to finish looking at little bit board. Elizabeth then gives her advise that she should listen to everyone’s advise and then do what in the hell you please. I guess the funniest part is hearing Richard give the introduction to the video segment and then the blow by blow comments. While on the surface one would guess that Elizabeth’s comment stole my thunder, I think it has been played so many times that I would bet that Andy and Ashlee will remember what I said. For that, I thank Elizabeth for helping get my segment played so many times.
We then saw the photos that Richard had scanned of my parents and the early years of our family. We left for Mark and Elizabeth’s place around 9:10 pm.
Sunday morning Mark and I went to the Priesthood Leadership Session of their stake conference. I enjoyed the session very much.

During the general session of the conference their stake president was released.

After conference, we went home, Elizabeth made dinner, then she did studying while I read emails.

Later in the evening we went back to Richard and Barbara’s. Austin and Meagan were there and we had a chance to visit and get to know their two kids, Houston and Taryn. Kelton, Adam and Aubrey’s boy, was also there and we got a chance to see him. Not long after they left Andy and Ashlee came over. They didn’t want their picture taken. So in exchange they promised to come and visit us in Maryland next year.

I am grateful to my cousin Linda for arranging this trip that has been filled with many happy moments. She invited Jan to come for the temple open house and then encouraged me to come. I was fortunate that I could time this in conjunction with the IMAPS conference in Scottsdale. Much good has come out of her efforts.