Sacramento California Temple

We really enjoyed our trip to the Sacramento Temple.  It's a beautiful temple and we had a great experience. 

Enjoy some of our pictures from this temple below.

Gotta do the picture next to the sign

Isn't she cute with the pretty flowers?

The Angel Moroni

Selfies are important

Holiness to the Lord

Star Valley Wyoming Temple

 We loved visiting the Star Valley Temple.

It's very small, and only does a few sessions a day.  We actually weren't able to get into an endowment session because it was Memorial Day weekend and they were packed.  So we did some sealings instead and that turned out to be a great experience.

We ended up having to wait for there to be workers available to be witnesses.  So the sealer just visited with us for quite a while.  He told us some neat things about the temple.  There are large stained glass windows that feature a pink flower.  He explained that the flower is a local plant commonly known as fire weed.  It is a local plant.  Whenever there is a fire, the fire weed is the first thing to rise from the ashes and begin anew the process of bringing life to the forest.  I thought that was pretty neat, both in how the temple incorporated some local flora as well as the powerful symbolism in how the Savior is able to renew life.

We had a great experience at this temple.  We loved getting to know the people and seeing the symbolism depicted.  And we also really enjoyed the setting of this temple, nestled among the beautiful mountains of Wyoming.

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Los Angeles California Temple

The Los Angeles Temple is beautiful. But one of the most interesting things about visiting this temple, was the extreme contrast that we experienced in one day.  We spent the morning at this temple and then we drove to Hollywood for the evening.

There were some neat famous landmarks in Hollywood, but there was a very noticeable difference between the temple and the big city night life.  I was happy to have experienced the peace of the temple.  I'm glad we were able to visit this beautiful House of God.

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Provo City Center Temple

The Provo City Center Temple is really special.  I have lots of memories of coming  to the tabernacle for various choir performances or other events.  So it was really neat to be able to go inside and see how it has been transformed.

Robyn and I did this temple as part of our Anniversary trip in October.  (I know, I'm really slow about updating this blog.)  It was super neat to see not only how the inside has transformed, but the outside as well.  The underground parking was particularly interesting, with the main entrance to the temple being underground.  I don't think I've ever entered through an underground entrance before.  (The Salt Lake temple has an above ground entrance that sends you underground to get to the temple, but that's the closest I can think of.)

As I was in this temple I spent a lot of time thinking about transformation.  The temple has transformed from a tabernacle into something greater.  I think each of us go through that transformation in our lives.  It's excited to think that the temple itself aids us in our transformation as we try to become more like our Heavenly Father.  It truly is an amazing place.

The underground entrance

A selfie in front of the entrance.  Sorry it's so dark.

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Payson Utah Temple

The Payson Temple is very beautiful.  We were lucky enough to have 2 neat experiences at this temple.  Our first experience here was to attend the sealing of a little boy to his parents.  He was adopted, so this sealing was to bring them together as a family for eternity.

It was a special experience for us because we are looking to adopt as well.  It was so neat to be there with them as they brought their family together.  They were so happy.  It was the firs time I have seen a small child sealed to their parents.

Robyn and I with my little sister, who also attended the sealing.

About a month later, we went back to this temple again.  We hadn't yet had the opportunity to do a session or to see the celestial room.

We came with our friends Tammy and Cameron.  They seem to be always selected as the witness couple.  This time we were asked to serve, so it was a big surprise.

One thing that was funny about the session was that I was sitting in the ordinance room trying to figure out where the veil was.  I thought it must be in a different room.  At the end of the session we could here the wall being pulled away behind the curtain.  And then the curtain was pulled up and there was the veil.  It's quite a contrast to some of the temples that were built in the 1800s.  But it's neat to think that while technology has made it so the temple can be laid out a little more efficiently, they had all of the blessings that we have nearly 200 years ago.  That's pretty cool.

Once we got to the celestial room I loved the flower theme that fills the room.  There are flowers in the patterns of the furniture, in the stained glass windows, in the ceiling, and of course there are real flowers in pots as well.  I loved that it was an homage to the beauty of God's creation in nature.

Here are a few pictures from our 2 visits.

Since I mentioned the flowers in the celestial room, I had to put a picture of the flowers on the grounds.

Robyn and I at the back of the temple.

The flag near the front.

The fountain.

We always need a picture by the sign.

Robyn and Tammy.

Cameron and I

With this visit, we can once again say that we have been to all of the temples in Utah.  It's been a great experience seeing them all.

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Spokane Washington Temple

The Spokane Temple is very beautiful.  It's one of the mini cookie cutter temples, as I like to call them.  That means that the layout of the interior as well as the features on the exterior are not unique, but are identical to several other temples I've been to.

One of the things that I enjoyed about it, however, was that even though the temple itself is identical to others, the grounds are completely unique.  The flowers on the grounds were beautiful, and the whole area where it is located is filled with big trees and heavily wooded land.  It's a residential area, but it almost feels like an area where you could go camping.

This temple was a unique experience, because my wife wasn't with me this time.  Instead, I attended with my Mom, which was a great experience.

Mom at the back of the temple

Me at the back of the temple

Trying to get artistic with the flowers

Moroni and the flag

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Boise Idaho Temple

The Boise Temple is very beautiful.  It was surprisingly similar to the Portland Temple, which we had visited the day before.  The main difference being that it was much smaller.  We had driven from Portland that morning and came to this temple in the afternoon.  It was a welcome experience to enjoy the quiet peace of the temple as opposed to the sometimes hectic experience of driving (particularly in Oregon traffic.)

This is not one of the small cookie cutter temples but it is roughly the same size.  The celestial room was like a small living room with just a few couches.  The intimacy of it was kind of neat.

The most surprising thing about this temple was at the beginning when we were sitting in the chapel.  They had us divide up between men and women before going into the ordinance room.  I thought that was super strange, until we walked through the dressing room to get there.  That seems like somewhat poor planning as far as building layout, but the big thing that occurred to me is that it's not about the building or how it's laid out.  It's about the Spirit of the Lord that resides there.

Looking up at the angel Moroni.  The spires came up from the ground instead the top of the building, which was kind of neat.

Me with the sign out front.

A silhouette of the temple.

The obligatory selfie

A shot I took walking around the side.

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