My husband, daughter, and I recently attended the Rexburg Idaho Temple Open House, which went on during the month of January. For those of you who may not know, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (nicknamed the Mormons) builds temples for the performance of special religious rites which are not open to the public. However, whenever a temple is first completed or has been newly renovated, they will for a time host tours and invite the general public inside.
Because of restrictions on the number of people per tour, we had to obtain tickets online ahead of time. Our trip to Rexburg was last minute, so our tickets were for an 8:10 AM tour—not exactly sleeping in on your day off, but more than worth it! The last time I attended a temple open house was the Columbia River Temple in Richland, Washington, October 2001. They don’t happen very often, so I wanted to share a few of the highlights of our visit.
When we arrived we were directed by volunteers to a parking spot at a chapel adjacent to the temple property. I didn’t expect to see so many local church members braving the cold for the sake of orderly parking, but each was intent on his or her assigned task and didn’t seem to mind. We were guided to the appropriate entrance where a volunteer took our ticket and showed us into one of several video rooms set up to accommodate the various tour groups going through. Just to be clear, the “video rooms” were simply church classrooms set up with several rows of chairs all facing a sizeable television positioned at the front of the room. We were greeted by a sister missionary, who took a few moments to greet the group and explain what we could expect on the tour. We then were shown a 10 minute video about the purpose of temples.
After the video we were introduced to our temple guides, a man and his wife who were also local members volunteering their time. They guided us out of the chapel and up a walkway about 100 yards or so to the rear temple entrance. The walkway was completely enclosed by a white canvas covering, like a long tent with plastic windows and large portable heaters to keep out the cold. The middle of January hardly seemed like the ideal time to host an open house, and the effort that went into having one in the winter impressed me. The message was clear: Some things are too important too wait for nice weather.
Just before entering the temple, there was a wide tent enclosure where more volunteers waited to help us into disposable foot covers or “booties” as they are often called. Our gentleman guide explained that the booties had no religious significance, but were merely used to keep the new temple carpet clean.
The Rexburg Idaho Temple is one of the larger temples I have visited, standing five stories high. On the main floor of the temple is the front desk, where temple workers check the credentials (known as recommends) of members to make sure they have approval to enter. One of the first rooms we were able to view was a room known as the baptistry, where a large round font of water rests on 12 statues of oxen, all facing outward. The oxen, one of our guides explained, represent the 12 tribes of Israel spoken of in the Bible. The font is used for church members to perform baptisms on behalf of deceased ancestors. While Christ was on the earth, he taught that baptism was prerequisite to salvation (see John 3:5.) Church members research their genealogy so they may perform baptisms in behalf of ancestors who have never been baptized.
The main floor also consisted of separate changing rooms for men and women. The rooms had rows of private stalls with lockers where patrons could change their regular street clothes for the white clothes worn in the temple—the men wearing white shirts and slacks and the women wearing white dresses. Our guides indicated that white clothing represents purity and equality in the sight of God.
One the second floor we saw one of several instructional rooms, sort of like a small movie theater but with the look of a nice chapel. The highlight was the celestial room, which is essentially a large sitting room, tastefully decorated with vases, flowers, and chandeliers, as well as couches and chairs situated around the room. The celestial room is the Mormon conception of heaven on earth, a place where one may sit quietly and feel God’s presence near.
The third floor had several of what are known as “sealing rooms.” These are rooms where couples come to be married. Together man and wife kneel at an altar and are pronounced man and wife for eternity. Couples that have not been sealed previously may come with their children and be sealed, thereby becoming an eternal family unit. There are a few rows of chairs on the each side of the sealing room where invited family members and guests may sit and observe the ceremony. The décor of these rooms is very similar to the celestial room, elegant and invoking a sense of reverence.
By this time my poor husband’s arms were about to fall, and for good reason. He’d been carrying our little girl the entire tour, including three flights of stairs. Luckily we were almost done. Our guides took us back down to the main floor of the temple, out to the tent where volunteers helped us out of our booties, and we made our way back to the church building. Our final destination was the gym, where they had tables and chairs set up and served cookies and punch. Sister missionaries wandered the room, visiting with guests and answering questions.
We passed on the idea of cookies before breakfast and collapsed into the last two available chairs, taking a moment to fill out a comment card while a sister missionary chatted enthusiastically with the people next to us about the quality of the wood and tile in the temple interior. A few moments later we gathered up our things to go, eager to get on with the rest of our weekend plans. Our feelings, however, could well be summed up by the note we left scribbled on our comment card: It was worth the trip.
