Sunday, March 27, 2011

Monticello Utah Temple

We had a great experience at the Monticello Temple.  This temple was the first of the templatized temples built during Gordon B. Hinckley's presidency.  It is nestled in a small town in southern Utah.  Robyn and I made the trip with our friends Cameron and Tammy.  We drove down on a Friday night and then attended a session the following morning.

The mini temples, as I like to call them, are much simpler in their design.  Robyn and I commented about how it was really neat to be in the temple and not necessarily be marveling at how amazing the building itself was, but to marvel at the spirit that dwells there.  There's something magical about the simplicity of these temples.

One of the other things that I really enjoyed was the small town people that we met here.  This temple is small enough that there isn't a chapel to wait in while the ordinance room is occupied.  So we were waiting in the dressing room after we had changed into our white clothes.  I met a number of the locals and we discussed our goal to see every temple in Utah and we also discussed many other temple related topics.  One man was there because his granddaughter was getting married in two weeks and she was receiving her endowment in the session we were attending.

When we actually went into the session and saw his granddaughter and all the family around her, it made me feel like I was part of the family.  I think that was the biggest thing I took away from this particular temple trip.  We really are all one big family.  We are all children of our Heavenly Father and we are all brothers and sisters.  I love that the temple workers always address me as "brother".  It is one more outward sign that we are truly one big family.  The temple helped me realize that again.






View a gallery of the Monticello Temple

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