I only attended the temple on an open day, so never got to experience the 'true blessings' of passing through that building.

I have a question. The Celestial room. Can you sit down on one of the luxurious sofas and chill out for a bit? or do they just move you along at break-neck speeds to serve the others that were behind you in the queue?

Thats the confusing aspect of the temple for me: all that furniture for no purpose other than to look good!

in a while, you'll get one who would let you just sit for a bit.

Yes you can. They don't like you to linger for some reason. I know it is a nice place to wait, me for my wife if they didn't need me as a veil worker, and her for me if they did. But you will get asked to move along so they have room for the next session if you take too long.

The biggest paradox for me when I look back, it there is not a good place to go and pray if you are facing one of life's challenges. Very strange.

luminouswatcher Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes you can. They don't like you to linger for
> some reason.

The Celestial rooms are tiny compared to the rest of the temple. There are only a couple small couches and a few chairs. Not enough for everyone who was is the session. Most leave shortly after entering.

We had to move out to clear the space for the next group of recitalists.

You know, “what is that? It’s my hand dummy, oh, I mean the first token of the lobonic priesthood”.

“what is that? My wrist, uummm, the second token of the moneymaking priesthood and sure sign of being nailed”.
(I cracked myself up with that one!)
And so on.

Then in the Celestial room I could never think of any spiritual questions so no answers came. Guess that was my fault. I was thinking things like “these hats are frikin ridiculous! And these aprons, thank god no one else on the planet can see us! God is no fashionista!”

“Those mirrors are so cool, I can see myself forever”.

“What the hey is everyone whispering about? Oh that’s where we’re going for Pie afterwards, cool.

Let’s get out of here.

Check the box! We are the tippy top of the righteous! I’ll have mine “ala mode”.

Thanks for the laugh. I just can't imagine how ridiculous the fairytale really is once you are there.

As a nevermo, I always wondered whether temples were used for anything other than baptisms, wedding, and endowments. For example, can someone who holds a recommend just go to meditate or pray? Are there meeting rooms? Or, as I once heard them described, are they just "ordinance machines"?

There is really no place in the temple to pray and reflect on life in private.

Depending on when you show up and when the session starts is not much time for this kind of thing and you will not be alone.

The session is both busy and boring at the same time but is no place for serious prayer and reflection either what with all the videos starting and stopping and the standing up and sitting back down again, the passing of sacred handshakes and the memorizing of the words that go with them and the moving your clothing around.

The Celestial room time is short as discussed above and you are never alone.

If you want to just hang out to ponder and pray the staff would, after a while, think somethin’s up and ask you to leave.

The Kirtland temple (the first one) was basically a meeting room. It had a podium with seats at both ends, the important melchizedek priesthood people on one side and the important aaronic priesthood people on the other. The rest sat in the middle. The larger temples have this setup too, and they hold what is called "Solemn Assemblies" there. These are just big group meetings were "special" instructions can be given by the GA's to those in attendance. The Kirtland temple also had offices, but no endowment or sealing rooms as those had not been revealed ("wink" "wink") to JS yet.

The large temples have offices, a laundry, clothing inventory and rental counter, cafeteria, locker rooms, a chapel (used for congregating/loitering until they get you for an endowment session), bridal changing rooms, the usual utility rooms, and the ceremonial rooms of different types. In the older temples, the endowment rooms have different scenes panted on the walls and the patrons would travel from room to room (garden room, telestial room, terrestrial room, and celestial room). The early Nauvoo temple used partition walls and potted plants, etc to achieve the equivalent.

Mormonism is about busy, busy, busy. There is no place to just hang out (unless you are a temple worker in the staff room), and no real serious pondering and praying is accommodated. This makes sense if you think about it. You don't really need any real answers from god, as he has given you living prophets to make speeches and write articles both in a generic way, while they refuse to answer a personal letter. Your problems are silly really, all you need to know is that you pay your tithing, clean the building, do your callings, and be grateful. Nothing to pray about here.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2010 08:24PM by luminouswatcher.

Yeah, you are to pray to get the "spirit" moving in you and to accept the LDS church as the true church, but where is this quiet, reflective place to truly tune in to God? Oh, right....they are an organization- not a church. Therefore, no place will work. Hence they do the Temple garbage instead where you make promises and marry the organziation.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2010 11:08PM by honestone.

Thats a good question, Oddcouplet. One that is on my mind too.

I mean, the temple is the house of the Laaaard, right? What do you do when you visit someones house? If its a good host, they will nearly always say "make yourself at home", so in this instance, I would suggest to anyone reading this who is going to the temple any time soon, to leg out on one of those sofas in the celestial room, read some scripture, or an ensign, or better still, sneak a non-church magazine in there! Or leg out and have a nap. After all, that is the purpose of sofas!

I can't remember much about my visit to the temple (it was the Preston, UK temple) except for the Masonic symbols on the architecture, the sealing room and the afrementioned celestial room with its fancy furniture. It left me with the impression of being so sterile and so lifeless, that finding enlightenment in there would be impossible.

Does the temple still get pros? Or volunteer "specialists"?

For oddcouplet and Nealster--

I've posted this before--but I will again. I always wanted to be able to go and meditate in the temple. (I had some big life issues facing me--like the fact my husband was gay.) I thought for sure if I could just sit in the temple for a while, that I'd find some peace at least.

The most peace I ever had in the temple was the lsat time I went. I got pulled aside to do sealings (as someone didn't show up) and my husband went to a session. I was waiting for him IN THE FOYER and I spent a good 45 minutes to an hour just sitting and THINKING. I never went back.

I never once sat down in the celestial room. The 'ritual' I had to go through at the veil always stressed me out and I was the last one through the veil every time (the whole 4 times I went). By the time I got to the celestial room, my husband and anyone else who was there with me--were waiting and everyone else had been rushed off and then we were rushed off.

The temple "seems" peaceful as it is quiet in there, but it is all busy work--stupid, stupid busy work.

Yup, like a bad high school history class.

Thanks for your reply, cl2. Very insightful, if somewhat unsettling.

I remember being taught that the spirit 'flows' in the temple. That some people 'see' dead relatives. Stuff like that, Im sure we've all heard it before.But I guess going there you only get let down, kept busy, and get thrown out before you start thinking wtf.

All I need to know about the temple is a line I read in the blurb about the opening of a new one somewhere: "The temple is open every day, except Sunday."
Seemed fitting somehow...

Anyone here been a temple worker? How do they stand it?

Yes, I was a temple worker in three different temples for over 10 years. I loved the temple before it opened in the morning when I could go to the Celestial Room and sit and pray. It was silent, beautiful and I felt the Lord there. I also loved the temple after it closed, for the same reason. I have NEVER been asked to leave the Celestial room for any reason, nor have I ever asked anyone else to do so. Of course, I worked in the large temples, with lots of sofas, chairs, and divans to sit on.

I will miss the silence and the beauty of the temples in the future. I cannot go there any longer because I cannot say in the interview that I know that the 15 men in power are "prophets, seers and revelators". That alone will keep me out, even though I keep the commandments of God the best I can.

Cyn--I only attended the Logan temple and the Idaho Falls temple. I was never allowed to even sit down in the Celestial Room.

I'm so sorry about that...sometimes temple workers are officious, rude and condescending to the patrons. That ALWAYS made me angry. Of course, those particular types are officious, rude and condescending to other workers too!

I guess I needed to become a temple worker to be able to sit down in the celestial room. Only place I was ever able to meditate was while I was in the foyer . . .