Getting To Know Our New Temple

Well, it's February, and of course I have been neglecting the blog all month, like I seem to do every year. Thank goodness for Nathan and his transcriptions of all the cute stuff our girls used to do when they were teeny-tiny! The delay is also due to some unavoidable technical complications, like the graphics card in our computer finally going kaput *sob*. But the month isn't over yet! Hopefully I'll have time to fill you in on what we've been up to lately.

Way back at the beginning of February 2014, our family took a trip up to the Phoenix area to visit an LDS temple. For once, however, we weren't traveling to see the temple in Mesa. Until very recently, the Mesa Arizona temple was the only temple in the Phoenix area. But no more! Another large (and very beautiful) LDS temple has been built in Gilbert, a suburb just south of Mesa.

When the Mormon church builds a new temple, it traditionally holds an "open house" for the new building. The church invites the general public (young and old, believers and non-believers) to tour the inside of the temple and the grounds. The open house usually lasts a few weeks; shortly thereafter the building is "dedicated" in a formal religious ceremony. After that point, only qualified members of the LDS faith will be allowed inside the temple to do work there.

 

We were very excited to get our first look inside the new temple; we'd briefly glimpsed the outside of it during our family trip to Phoenix in December. We were also very happy for our girls to have a chance to look inside the temple; once it is dedicated, they won't be able to visit it again until they are teenagers. Open houses can be a great opportunity for us to teach our families about temples and what they represent to our faith. They can also inspire our girls to lead righteous, pure lives so as to be ready to enter the Lord's house when they are old enough. That was one of our hopes in making this visit...that, and seeing the finished result of a building that has been many years in arriving!

We got tickets to the open house online before coming (they were free, but limited for the purpose of crowd management). Even with our tickets, we had to wait outside in line for about forty-five minutes! Luckily it was a warm pleasant day and everyone around us was in a good mood. It was nice to stare at the temple while we waited, too.

The girls got to frolic in the grass while Nathan and I stood in line. Ah, the joys of being young.

Before going inside the temple itself, we took a short trip into the nearby stake center (a standard LDS meetinghouse with weekly public meetings). Inside the stake center, visitors were greeted by missionaries and shown a short video detailing the history of the area and the construction of the temple. We got started a little late because of a sound issue; by this point my girls were getting a bit impatient. Luckily, we headed inside the temple shortly after that!

Before entering the temple, we had to put small cloth "booties" over our shoes, so as not to tramp excess dirt into the shiny brand-new building. My girls were totally fascinated by the booties; in fact, it may have been more interesting to them than some of the stuff we actually saw inside the temple itself!

Small design motifs were everywhere, inside the temple and out

Photographs weren't allowed inside the temple, but here's a link from a local news affiliate that contains several interior shots. As is so often the case in these temples, the craftsmanship and level of detail were breathtaking. This is clearly a temple made for Arizona, as many of the design motifs inside and outside the building involve desert plants. One recurring motif is the presence of agave leaves and blossoms. The agave is a desert bush with fleshy leaves; it looks pretty nondescript most of the year, but when the plant flowers, it is very dramatic: a huge stem shoots up from the bush several feet in the air, with lots of colorful flowers bursting in all directions from the tip.

The agave is a very cool plant I've learned to love during my time here in Arizona, so I was very pleased to see reflections of it everywhere: the stained-glass exterior windows; the wooden pews in the Baptistry; the imprinted carpet in the stunning Celestial Room; and even imprinted on each doorknob inside the building. It was really gorgeous. Behind the reception desk in the main entrance, there are several glass windows featuring blooming agave that were so beautiful they took my breath away.

Inside, all the rooms seemed bigger then their Mesa temple counterparts, especially the sealing rooms. There are more endowment rooms, which should make for more streamlined temple sessions (and less wait time for visitors). There is even a large "wedding party lounge" on an upper floor, so family and friends of the bride and groom can sit and visit peacefully before and after a marriage without getting tripped on by other temple visitors who are entering and exiting the building (this happens a lot in the Mesa temple!).

from abc15.com

I thought the baptismal font was quite beautiful as well; the font's interior seemed completely lined with thick sea-green glass tile, and it made a lovely effect with the water. There was only one problem; the font was completely full of water, and there was no gate in front of the entrance, which led my kids to think it was a swimming pool and open for business! Luckily, we were able to grab eager hands and skedaddle out of there before they were able to dive in. It was the only "hiccup" in our otherwise peaceful and spiritual tour.

When we visited the sealing room, we were able to show the girls the facing mirrors, and show them their reflections that bounced back and forth into "eternity" (thus symbolizing the eternal nature of temple marriage). Aurora proudly announced that she would be marrying Benson (her cute little friend from church) in that very sealing room. I sure hope poor Benson will be ready for Aurora's advances!

After seeing all the main rooms, and slowly descending the many large staircases in the temple (the main entry in particular has a gorgeous, curvy main staircase leading to the upper floors), we emerged from the newest House of the Lord, to walk the grounds for a little while and admire the beautiful landscaping and exterior.

This beautiful tiered fountain is a highlight too.

 

 

We were so grateful for the opportunity to visit the Gilbert Temple, and Nathan and I look forward to going inside again soon. I am especially grateful our girls got to see the temple inside and out, and I can't wait for them to be old enough to go inside again and help do the Lord's work. Granted, we may only need to visit the Gilbert Temple for a short time; A Tucson Temple has been announced by the church, and with any luck it will begin construction soon. We have hoped for years to have a temple closer to us and we pray that our city will have its chance before much more time has passed. In the meantime though, the Gilbert Temple will probably make that wait a little bit easier. This weekend, the temple will be dedicated and prepared for use by church members. I am so thankful for this gorgeous building and the blessings it will bring to the state of Arizona and its people.