Okay, I guess I am on a roll, here. For some reason my brain is full of these today.

A person will only do "temple work" for themselves once, correct? Or do they have to go back and do it once a year? Once a month? When they "feel" they need it? If they go back for their own benefit, do they go through the whole shebang - washing/annointing, movie, tokens/signs, veil, celestial room, or do they just proceed to the celestial room?

Whey they do proxy work, do they go through the whole ordeal each time for each person, or do they have several people that they can do "ordinances" for at once, like the youth do with baptism?

how many sessions are there in a day? Morning/afternoon? Do you have to sign up ahead of time? Can you just show up, because you felt like it? Can you do more than one session in a day?

If you are a temple-endowed mormon, and you are attending a sealing, do you have to go through the entire session, or do you just proceed to the celestial room and have a seat, waiting for the bride and groom?

For that matter, if the bride and groom are already endowed, do they have to go through the entire process on their wedding day, or do they just get to put on the temple garb over their wedding clothes and proceed right to the sealing?

Do the bride and groom wear their wedding clothes under the temple clothes, or just temple clothes?

And, kind of temple related - isn't "ordinance" military-grade explosives? These are called sacraments in the rest of Christendom, and "sacrament" is called "communion". Does anyone know offhand why JS used a different term?

Thanks in advance. Just crazy curiosity, I suppose.

I'll answer those that I know, a couple I'm not sure on.

You only do your temple work once. Once you are initiated (which used to involved getting touched while naked under a "shield") you get your own endowment and then when you are sealed, you only get sealed for yourself once. There isn't a need to ever get your endowments taken out for yourself a second time. Even after excommunication or resignation, if you are re-baptised, all blessings are automatically restored. I can't think of any reason why you would be re-endowed for yourself.

When you do proxy work, it is the whole kit and caboodle, with a caveat. Each "ordinance" can be done by a different person. i.e. The kid who did the baptism doesn't need to do the initiatory, nor the endowment. Adult A can do the initiatory, afterwhich adult B does the endowment, afterwhich adult c can do the sealing. (note, there is no proxy work for the second anointing, either you do that for yourself while alive, or you don't get it done). The only exception to this is baptisms and confirmations, both of those are done by the same person, usually a kid.

Sessions are scheduled on a temple by temple basis. Just like a movie theater, it depends on how many endowment rooms they have and what their hours are. The information can either be found online (I believe) or by calling the temple. At the provo temple, they run all day every day... As a missionary we were encouraged to do as many sessions as possible on our P-Days while at the MTC. When my parents (who are determined to visit as many temples as possible) visit a temple they often do 2 sessions in a day, some people do as many as 3. As long as the temple is open and running sessions, you can do as many as you want. The only time you should call ahead and schedule something is if you are doing work for yourself or for a dead loved one to make sure that everything is set for your trip.

Fun fact, temples are running out of names to do proxy work for. Now, names are being re-used over and over again to give people something to do. Famous examples of this are Hitler, holocaust jews, and several other well known people, each of which have been baptised multiple times.

For temple-endowed mormon's attending a sealing, I believe this was changed recently that you do not have to go through a session prior to attending the sealing, but it is strongly encouraged that you do. I think at one point you had to, but I believe I heard that this changed. I could be wrong on this one. Note that Sealings are not held in the Celestial room, it's usually attached, it's always very close, but I think that's not always the case. (again I could be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure that's right).

If you are being sealed yourself, you will most likely do a session. In most cases women have not had their personal endowment done until their wedding day because according to mormon rules, there isn't a need for them to do so until that point. Missions and marriages are usually the reasons why you get your endowment. If you get to a certain unspecified age, you might talk to the Bishop about getting that taken care of. My wife was initiated, endowed and sealed all on the same day. By the time we were at the alter, the look of exhaustion and confusion on her face was palpable.

Note too that there is no "wedding clothes". The man almost always will wear temple "whites". The woman can wear her wedding dress if and only if it is "temple appropriate" My wife did not have a wedding dress, we both rented clothes at the temple. Not having a regular wedding is one of the biggest regrets that I have about being a member of the church.

I don't have an answer as to why JS used different terminology. In mormon lingo, "ordinance" is any special priesthood ceremony/blessing. The "sacrament" is eating bread and water on sundays. The first time I heard "sacrament" used in the way that most other churches do, I was very confused, I didn't understand "communion" at all for a long time.

Thank you so much for answering. It makes it easier to follow some of the discussions here if I can picture all of this in my head.

Oh, and just so I am clear - the "initiatory" is the washing/annointing, and the "endowment" is the movie/signs/tokens lesson?

Correct... Soon you will be an expert!

For a lot more information, including links to the text of each of the "ordinances" see: http://packham.n4m.org/temples.htm

Even now, I wonder how I went through the temple and still believed... So much weirdness. I went through, my first time, in the early 90's when I stood naked under a poncho (shield) and some old guy touched me various locations while mumbling some prayer. I'll never forget standing there thinking, "It's OK, my parents said that this was 'right' and they wouldn't let me do anything wrong." Because it did feel wrong, it went against everything I knew to have someone do that, and it just got weirder from there.

Correct.

The "sealings" are done in the sealing rooms (most temples have 4 to 8 sealing rooms) which are nearby to the Celestial Room. They can be small like 15 X 15 feet, or quite a bit larger to hold a wedding party of 50-60 individuals. An alter is in the center of the room with padded kneeling benches on either side. Mirrors are on the walls behind the kneeling benches, giving the illusion of eternity. There are chairs for the person conducting the sealings, two witnesses, and more chairs around the room for individuals acting in proxy for the dead. You are sealing husbands and wives to each other, and children to their parents.

For a living couple's temple wedding/sealing you would have your family dressed in Sunday Dress without shoes wearing white booties watching you get sealed to your significant other. Except of course for the evil unworthy people (like my father), they waited in the visitor room by the lobby. These of course were the smart people. To this day that is my biggest regret, not having a parent there for my wedding. He didn't see the need to pay tithing since he found the temple so creepy. He went through before 1990 when the death penalties were still in the endowment session.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2013 05:18PM by bizquick.

Yup, except the "endowment" isn't always a movie...in SLC and one other temple (St George or Manti I think..) they are "live sessions".

In other words, you get a group of "actors" often too old to remember thier name repeating long and complicated scripts. It can be very long and extremely boring listening to monotome voices try to remember lines over and over again. And sometimes you will get another "actor" prompt them for lines, or have them do part of thier "scene" over again because they got it wrong.

Another of the reasons I didn't go often..

Finally Free! is spot on.

Initiatory = washing/annointing

Endowment = movie/signs/tokens/veil

A lot more women are getting endowed for purposes other than marriage these days, so there isn't the expectation to do an endowment session the same day you are sealed like there used to be. I was endowed after I graduated from college and started my career. I married many years later. My husband and I did a short veil ceremony so I could tell him my new name right before the sealing. If the woman is endowed within a week or so of the sealing, her fiance can "pull her through veil" and learn her new name at that time. I think women who are getting endowed to get married are generally doing it a couple of days before the actual wedding so the wedding day isn't as long and stressful in the temple.

The rules as to accessing the celestial room have relaxed a bit. I was a temple worker a few years back and if an endowed adult comes to do any ordinance, they are allowed to sit in the celestial room to meditate.

Thanks again so much for all your answers, everyone.

Just some clarifications on Free's response from what I've experienced.

Kids don't baptisms aren't always baptized and confirmed for the same people. When I went with a large group, they split us in half so that half did confirmations first while the others did baptisms, then we gradually traded places. The names being confirmed for don't have to coincide with the names being baptized for.

As far as guests attending a sealing, normal Sunday clothes were the norm. Guests could go through and do endowment sessions before or after, and it was okay if they showed up to the sealing in their white clothes (not ceremony clothes, just white), but otherwise normal Sunday clothing was fine. When we attended another sealing, we did not have to attend an endowment session at all.

The temple where I was sealed has sealing rooms all over the place, not close to the celestial room at all. Ours was down the hall a good bit from the celestial room. The sealing we attended was held in a room up a couple of flights of stairs, near the top of the "birthday cake" construction.

We did _not_ do a session on our sealing day, and were actually discouraged from doing so because of the length of time and the added stress it would be. The clothing worn under the temple garb just has to be white, so I could have worn my wedding dress if I had wanted (of course, with the nice little dicky insert to make sure I was covered from collar bone to wrist bone). I opted to wear my temple dress instead. If the groom happens to have a white suit as his wedding clothing, I'm sure he could wear that as well.

Thanks, it's been a while... Thankfully!

You do your own endowments once. After that if you go to a wedding or attend a friends endowment or just want to do temple work(Gage) you go as proxy for someone else. the rites are the same you just carry someone elses name. I dont think you have to make an apt.to go. It seems to me I just showed up. (when I was going through my divorce I tryed to go alot. Thinking it would help me.). PS. didnt help a bit.

New temples in high traffic areas sometimes require an appointment during the first month or two of being open. When the Rexburg temple opened, it was a huge crush of everyone and their dog wanting to do a session, so they did it by appointment only until the enthusiasm died off a bit.