Day 6, Provo Temple

This morning we didn’t have training so went to the Provo Temple, which is located very near the MTC. For those of you who haven’t been, temples may seem mysterious. They are sacred structures, but if at some time, you go inside a temple, you will find that, except for being strikingly beautiful, there is nothing strange about it. In fact, on the church website lds.org you can see pictures of temple interiors, taken before the temples were dedicated and learn as much about temples as you wish. There is also nothing strange about the ceremony. If you were familiar with the Bible and the story of the creation, you would not be surprised by the proceedings. You would probably take note of the orderly, peaceful atmosphere and the fact that everyone is dressed in white. As we enter the temple, we go to private dressing areas where we change into white clothing to signify cleanliness and reverence; there is a great sense of unity with everyone dressed very much the same. Although there are standards of worthiness to enter temples, they are not meant to be exclusive—the requirements are attainable by anyone who has the desire to be there.

For those of you who have been to the temple in other places throughout the world, I would say that the experience in the Provo temple must be unique or at least unusual. In St. George, for example, where there are many retired church members, almost all of the temple workers are older people and a large share of the patrons also. Provo is a young persons temple I think. It is right next to the BYU campus so at least on this Saturday, almost all of the temple workers were very young—probably age 18 to 25 or so. The young man who led our session was in his early twenties. The same was true of the vast majority of the patrons. Seeing so many bright faced, sweet young people dressed in white, efficiently but reverently going about their duties was like seeing a host of angels. I thought that that is what Heaven must look like.