2016 Temple Times: Provo City Center and Ward Temple Day

Okay, it's time to start blitzing through a number of things since the beginning of the year. I think I won't do that entirely chronologically, but will go for a more categorical approach instead. Hopefully that won't lend itself to too much confusion!

So first I'll address the City Center Temple Open House. I ended up having the chance to go to that three times, despite the fact that the tickets sold out almost immediately when they first became available. I first went to see it on my own in the middle of the day on a weekday. That wasn't a popular time, so I was able to reserve a spot there of my own in the beginning. Because I'm flexible, I was able to go the second week of the open house. To tell the truth, I'm really glad I got to see it completely on my own for the first time. That allowed me to take the experience at my own pace and to process it all in my own way.

While waiting for people to file in for the video presentation in the beginning, I befriended an elderly couple from Eagle Mountain that sat next to me. They had been in the tabernacle many times before it burned, whereas it was my first time to set foot in the place. I was quite glad I struck up a conversation with them in the end, because in the temple, they pointed out a few things included in homage to the old design that I would have entirely missed on my own, like the spiral staircases in each corner.

The temple is a strikingly beautiful one. In fact, since it has been dedicated, it has been my go-to temple when I haven't gone to Timpanogos. I love how much care was put into its design and details. There are many touches that tip their hat to the tabernacle and its pioneer heritage. The feel of the place is distinctly old, though it is brand new inside. In many ways, it reminds me of the Salt Lake Temple, like how the murals in the session rooms essentially combine what you see in the Salt Lake Creation, Garden, and World rooms all in one flowing design.

During the open house, there were also many interesting displays and artifacts set up after walking through the temple. Since I was alone, I had full leisure to examine these to my heart's content, though in subsequent visits with groups, we always moved through those displays pretty quickly.

The second time I went to the open house was with the full ward. We had a good number of people come, and it was nice to have the chance to catch some things I missed the first time through and to notice specific elements I'd read about since I'd done my research after the initial visit. I was also able to share a number of things that I'd learned or just observed the first time with some of the ward members around me. So I became sort of an occasional tour guide.

To be honest, I wish there was more of that in the temple open houses. In the open houses I've gone to of late, you basically wander through on your own, but I feel like they used to have a guide go through with each group and tell a few things about the different rooms. At least, that's my memory of how it worked in St. Louis. I realize that approach probably takes a lot more time and effort, but it was vastly superior in my opinion. I suppose here in Utah, they're just trying to get people through as quickly as possible!

The third time I went was pretty different than the first two tours. This time, we were invited to do a special women's tour through the stake. That basically meant getting to see the Bride's Room, which you don't see on the regular tour, and go through the dressing rooms, which you also miss. I liked the fact that on the women's tour, they do actually talk to you about the room and marriage in general, all that sort of thing. It was a nice little thing to do, and we were even all given a beautiful, embroidered handkerchief with the temple on it to use at the dedication. I guess this is something special they invite local YW and YSA groups to do or something. I think that's a pretty good arrangement in some ways, but I feel sad that the men never get the opportunity to see the Bride's Rooms on the regular tour. I didn't get the women's tour ever for the Payson open house, so I've still never seen that Bride's Room.

So that was the open house stuff. I also went to the dedication and have had the opportunity to attend that temple many times since it officially opened. To keep on the temple theme, I'll cover our ward temple day in February next.

After our temple day last year completing all possible ordinances for family names, taking one all the way through sealings in a day, Bishop Lemon was asking me how I thought it went the next day and suggested that he thought it could be a beneficial practice to pursue quarterly, which I agreed would be a very positive thing. However, before the next opportunity would have come up, everything got rather taken over by Trek. Trek basically ate up virtually everything else in the ward for quite awhile, so I didn't push about it too much. In between the temple day and trek, however, I expressed to Bishop that I felt our temple emphasis as a ward was weak, and suggested that we do a monthly ward temple night. He agreed that it was something we should do better with, so we did get a monthly temple night established with good success, which I was happy about.

During tithing settlement, along with other things, Bishop again brought up his vision for ward temple day over the remainder of their service as a bishopric. He told me that he wanted to have us do a temple day both in February and in May right before they expected to be released (we've pushed that May date back in to June, as a note. I'm sure I'll talk about that one once it passes.) I agreed to that timeline and had in mind some improvements I wanted to make upon the first time we did it.

One of that big improvements that helped me was that Bishop called two sisters to help me that were really wonderful assistance. Unlike what I got in a committee the first time, both of these sisters were highly capable and passionate about family history work. They even showed me a new tool, Puzzilla, that significantly increased the ease with which we could find names. Though we had less time to get people prepared than we had had in the pass, with this new tool we were able to help everyone willing to put in just a bit of time to find family names, and typically they were able to find more than one. So that one refinement allowed us to be much more successful more quickly.

Another change I thought was good was that the bishopric gave me a list that time detailing all the temple recommend holders in the ward. Armed with that information, including a knowledge of who had a full vs. limited use recommend, one of the committee members and I were able to go out visiting targeted members each week and talk to them about the temple day and family history work in general. I especially focused on those who had limited use recommends as that was the group we got the least participation from the first time. We had some good discussions through those efforts, and while a number of the ones we talked to didn't actually come, a few did, and others at least found names that they could take to the temple on another day.

The temple day itself also went quite a bit more smoothly, thanks to some things I'd learned from the first time. Because I had a sense of how much time each step would take this time, before the temple day started, I was able to put out a planned schedule of how we would progress. I built in some extra time to give us some buffer space, but made it known that the main goal would be to attend a specific session, thereby giving those who couldn't join us at first a set time that they could join in. As it turned out, we were able to stay almost perfectly on schedule throughout the day, so that turned out about as well as it could have.

Turnout was good. I was hoping for more, but we had almost the same number come as in the first time to start with. Because people had the schedule in advance, though, we had more join us through the day than we did the first time. The baptistry was the biggest hold-up of the day, once again. It took us awhile to even get such a big group down there. While we were waiting to go down, Bishop and a few other men got impatient and decided to go do some initiatories. That caused me a bit of worry as I wasn't sure that those who became separated would be able to join us in the baptistry.

Truth be told, the time we waited was still significantly less than we waited the first time, as once we got down and fitted out, we didn't have to wait much longer. The first time, we were stuck in the chapel for quite awhile as well. Fortunately, as we were heading in to the font, I saw Bishop and the others were just coming down, and they had sufficient time to join us at the font.

Last year, doing the baptisms was my favorite part of the day. This year, I still appreciated it, but it wasn't quite as awesome somehow, perhaps partially because the novelty was gone. We did have three people with limited use recommends come this year, which is more than we had last year sadly, so I was happy enough about that, though I am still working to motivate those people to join us more. There were a few others we found names for who simply had conflicts that day, so that's something too, I suppose.

Doing confirmations was rather more awesome this year than last year because a number of us were in the same room while Bishop served as voice and my newly called male co-chair also helped bless. Last year, they just moved us in and out of the room quite fast and none of our people participated in doing the blessing, so this was definitely an improvement.

The recorder was taking an unusually long time getting the names recorded and out, so I sent everyone else off to the cafeteria while I stayed to wait for all our names. That worked out pretty well, because I was also able to direct a few of the stragglers and everyone was able to get their food and make good progress through it while I waited. I didn't intend to eat myself, so the arrangement worked really well to keep us on schedule. There, I reemphasized that we all needed to be in the chapel in time for the 5:45 session and that we needed to judge how much we could do in initiatory based on that time-table.

Unfortunately, on the women's side, there was an hour wait time before you could even get in to an initiatory booth. I'd budgeted in extra time, but not enough for that, so after some consulting and discussion with the temple workers in initiatory, we decided to each give the one name we wanted to do the endowment for to someone at the front of the line to do so that we could continue on from there. I was sad we didn't get to do the initiatories ourselves, but it seemed like the best solution. Perhaps we would have still made it with the wait, but I wasn't willing to risk having some or all of us miss the established session. We all got dressed, picked up our completed names, and were seated in the chapel with plenty of time to spare. Everyone also had time to run to the bathroom and such as needed.

As the time drew nearer, the men started tricking in. There side had been pretty deserted, so they had no problem getting through their names. It is weird how there are often super-long waits on the women's side without something comparable on the men's. While that could be explained, I haven't seen much rhyme or reason to when or why the lines will get so long, it just randomly happens. I've been in there on a weekday afternoon and had to wait over an hour whereas on some Saturdays when I go, like last Saturday, it's a ghost town at the same time we were there for the temple day. That unpredictability does lead to some headaches in scenarios like the one I was working under!

Everyone made it to the session in good time, and we were also joined by another four people for the session that hadn't been there earlier. I was glad to see that putting the schedule out in advance had made it possible for more folks to participate. The session was nice, of course. I particularly like doing endowments with a lot of people that I know present. It changes the feel of it for me. I always liked when our stake in Virginia would get a special session after meeting in the solemn assembly room. Of course, I didn't know everyone in those, but I knew quite a few, and we all shared a special connection at any rate. The mission was the best opportunity like that. Once a year, we'd do a special session just for our mission. I knew a large portion of the missionaries very well, and we were all also united by shared desires, goals, and purposes. I think I'm always chasing that supernal feeling of Zion these days, hence why I'm so intent on doing ward temple outings!

After the session, we all moved to the sealing office together. Bishop and Sister Lemon had both suffered back injuries recently, plus we would soon be rubbing up against the time the after-temple party was planned to begin at their house to include those who couldn't enter the temple, so after seeing us all settled, they left. The rest of us were all given a sealing room together and were joined by another single brother from our stake who happened to arrive at the same time and see some of his high school friends in our group.

Last time, only a handful of people stayed to do sealings, and I didn't end up with them as I was with Dad and Grandma. The three of us got assigned to a different sealing room, so while it was nice, I'd never had a chance to do sealings with a lot of ward members, though I'd once had a chance to go with three ward members, which I'd really enjoyed. This time was even better, with every participant being a YSA and virtually all of them from my own ward. It was an intensely spiritual and awesome experience.

Perhaps that doesn't make much sense to most, but perhaps it helps to realize that doing sealings while single is often not super popular. While I love doing sealings and participate in them on my own regularly, the good experience of temple work is co-mingled with some discomfort and sadness when you're single. There is virtually always a piercing reminder of how single I am as I sit awkwardly among a number of married couples. Those feelings of isolation are manageable when I just have daughter sealings, since I'm able to participate in those with whatever married couple is available. If I have son or couple sealings to do, however, I basically don't get to participate in doing work for my own family. Instead, I just get to watch while strangers act as proxy for my relatives I have worked hard to find. The rare exception is when, joy of joys, there happens to be a single brother present as well, but that hardly ever happens if I'm not in Salt Lake. Up there, more elderly single brethren come to participate in sealings, so I have better luck.

That is my personal experience in doing sealings, and in talking with my single friends, I find my feelings about it are very common. In fact, from what I can ascertain, the majority of singles completely avoid doing sealings almost always, unless they happen to come with a family group or something. Personally, I think that is a total shame. In fact, I think there is a great importance for single members to participate in sealings, despite the discomfort that often entails. I think it is important primarily because regularly doing proxy sealings, even if I only get to witness others participating most of the time, gears my mind and heart more fully toward receiving that ordinance for myself in time. Even the pain of it can be motivating in it's own way, I suppose.

Still, the times when it isn't painful, but just wonderful are pretty precious to me. On those occasions when I don't feel like an unneeded and unwanted interloper, the sweetness of the sealing ordinances isn't overshadowed, so my appreciation and hope in it are substantially heightened. Being with so many ward members and friends that I mostly knew quite well was a wonderful opportunity.

I had a big stack of sealings to do, as I've been stockpiling them for awhile. I thought we'd get through a lot of those, but it turned out others had names ready to go as well. A few weeks before the temple day, I'd done sealings in the Salt Lake temple and learned that it is possible to do proxy sealings in the same manner that live sealings are done, meaning that all children are sealed to their parents in at the same time rather than repeating the whole ordinance for each individual. In fact, this is standard procedure in the Salt Lake Temple, as it turned out. I was really excited by the idea of this, so I'd started to arrange my sealings in family order that this kind of sealing would be ready to go at a moment.

I told our sealer that I had one of these families ready to go and asked if we could do the sealing all together like I'd seen done. He said they don't usually do that there, but that it could be done, and he was willing to do it since I'd requested it. He didn't seem too excited about it, but I certainly was, so I was satisfied. I had one family, that of Louis Xavier Maier, that had been sitting around waiting for sealings in my file since 2011. I was eager to get that family's work done, so after I participated in the sealing of  Louis and his wife Mollie, we reconfigured ourselves and 6 other ward members joined us at the altar to serve as proxies for the children. That was a wonderful experience, and I was so grateful for all who helped participate. It allowed me to feel much closer not only to my ward members, but also to that family as we all knelt around the altar.

So there were a number of contributing factors that made the sealings my favorite part of the day by far. The Spirit was very strong, and I could see that everyone else was effected by it as I was. My only regret was that the Lemons couldn't join us. Next time, hopefully they will be able to along with many others.

We finished sealings at about 8:45. I felt a bit bad about leaving the Lemon's to deal with setting out all the food that we had brought by earlier in the day, but I figured they were competent enough to handle it. Still, I was eager to get over there as soon as I could to see if I could help. There weren't as many people there as have typically come to ward prayer, for example, but I was pleased that a good number had come, and that about half of the folks who came to the temple made an appearance also. I think that the plan of gathering afterwards to involve others turned out pretty well, as a result.

When I came in, I found Sister Lemon sitting in the front room and chatted with her a bit to see how things were going. She said that everything had run smoothly so far. I'd been a little concerned with if they'd be able to locate all the food since neither parent had been home when I dropped it all off, so I just found some space on the counter among a bunch of water bottles Sister Lemon was in the process of assembling for a stake activity and made room in the fridge for the perishable stuff as best I could.

One of the things I brought was several pans of cinnamon rolls that were leftover from a breakfast the RS had provided for those who helped clean the church that morning. Sister Lemon told me that somehow, her kids and Bishop had managed to get into and eat a whole pan of those before she'd gotten home from a baseball game with one of the kids. I thought that was pretty funny, and assured her that no one could deserve them any more than her family, even if it was before the scheduled time!

I talked with a few other people for about an hour as things wound down. After helping clean up what could be cleaned, I ended up being one of the last to leave. It had been a long, but very rewarding day. I was really grateful that everything ran as smoothly as could be hoped and that we'd had good attendance. We'd gotten it down to as much of an art as possible, and I hope that the upcoming day in June will go at least as well, though I have high expectations that it will be even better! So that covers the biggest temple happenings of the beginning of the year. Next time, I will go in to the various conferences I've attended in the past few months, as there has been an unusual number of those for me recently.