Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Our Draper Temple Odyssey

Draper Utah Temple, high up on the mountains in Corner Canyon.



Bride's Dressing Room


Sealing Room. They all have bright light coming through their windows...no curtains!




Ordinance Room. I think there are only two or three.



Final ordinance room.



Celestial Room ceiling.


Celestial Room.

We stood in line A LOT yesterday! The Draper Temple open house is going on through mid-March. The tickets our ward was given were for President's day at 1:00 pm. We thought this was great because the kids would not miss school and Dee would not miss work. We left for the temple from American Fork and after a ten minute drive we arrived at the assigned stake center 10 minutes early. I was thinking how great this was! We would be home by 2:30 maybe. Well, apparently 10,000 other people had tickets yesterday as well! We waited 45 minutes for our bus to the temple. Then we stood in a long line at the temple. We were completely covered by tenting to protect us from the wind and cold. They had heat blowing in and we appreciated that very much. That line was about 20 minutes long. When we saw the actual insides of the temple it was very reverent and beautiful. It lasted about 40 minutes. As we wound our way up stairs on the different levels the spirit became stronger until we were in the Celestial room. My children were impressed with the beauty, also loving the gorgeous sealing rooms and ordinance rooms with their murals. Exiting the temple we were shuttled through another tented walkway to a stake center where they gave us water and cookies! Thank You! I had not eaten lunch, thinking we would home before I got too hungry. It was 4:15 when the bus dropped us off at our parking lot and 4:30 when we got home. We chose to drive up and over Traverse Mountain instead of taking the freeway. It was so beautiful but we were all so wiped out!

I wish I could have gotten a photo of us outside the temple but we weren't ever outside of the tents! Just a little advice to those of you who may be going...EAT before you go and be ready for long lines. We smiled and were patient the whole way because we knew what a blessing it was for our family to be allowed to view the Lord's House before it's dedication...but we were faint and weary by the end! I've included some photos from the church for you to see how lovely a place it is.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm re-thinking our trip to the Temple. Maybe we'll just wait until after it's dedicated and attend a session. I'm not big on lines and freezing cold temperatures... we'll see.

☂niki. said...

its beautiful. i love seeing other temples. i've actually only been inside three. my dream is to travel all around the world and do a session in each temple. wouldn't it be glorious?

URFAVE 5+A Few said...

Oh those pictures are just beautiful. The big "rumor" I say "rumor" because that is just what it is as far as I know. I've never heard anything "official" of what our new Gilbert Temple will look like? Have you or Dee? Anyway, the "rumor" that I heard was that it would look similar to the Draper Temple. I think all the temples are beautiful so it doesn't really matter but I do think that the Draper temple is very pretty.
I'm glad that you and had a good experience, despite the long lines and hunger pains.
Love ya, JoLynn

Edwin & Tamara said...

Wow what a wonderful day :) you all had, We enjoyed going to the open house of the snowflake and Albuq, temples, and after they where dedicated, we enjoyed sessions in them also :) :)