I hope my daughter felt the same thing. She is a convert and told me two days before going to the Temple that she was going. I told her nothing spiritual was going to go on there and I felt very sorry for her. So if she had the thoughts you had I'd sure be happy.
K, any minute now a camera man and a bunch of my friends are gonna jump out and start laughing. This can't be serious. Oh, wait, it is serious because god will not be mocked and certainly-No loud laughter!
Love it....yes, don't laugh although you must have wanted to. The Candid Camera reference would be what I would think of as well. And it just goes on and on being ridiculous generation after generation. Don't you guys talk to your parents about those odd statements? Or aren't you allowed to?
They time the endowment perfectly so you are on your way out the door, to a mission or a marriage. There really isn't a way to bring it up years later without seeming like a doubter.
I kept wondering if I would have to repeat the thing from the beginning every time I messed up a word, the way they make the poor Priests do over the sacrament prayer.
New Name: Rev 2:17 "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it."
What a farce!
So no MAN knows the name expect the one who receives it!
of Houldah on my wedding day in 1985 when I had to give the new name upon the five points of fellowship through the veil. I thought, "OMG, I'm going to nearly have sex with someone that I can't see." It's okay to do that, but don't think about sex outside of marriage. Okay, I don't believe in that crap any more. Whew!
My boys yell it in Walmart when they can't find me. My never-Mo husband (second marriage) tells me to "holda his rod." I've never been struck for lightning either.
Yeah, the perfect end to a really stressful screwed up day.
I was on my way to going on a mission and being the new missionary in the session they had me go up there in the prayer circle to learn the true order of prayer WITH MY MOTHER. Fine and dandy, but I had just been in a fight with my mom before we showed up at the temple and I was really ticked off at her. "Only the best of feelings should accompany those who are in the prayer circle, blah blah blah..." I'm thinking, great, now I'm really going to hell. I'm raging mad at my mother and I have to stand with her in the prayer circle.
Then we top it all off with the nonsense at the veil.
Out of curiosity I looked up online the endowment ceremony before I went (secretly of course). Unknowingly, I read the Pre-1990 version, so the whole endowment was a lot less weird than I was expecting.
In hindsight now, i think it's so stupid. How about spending A few hours doing something of real value like mentoring kids, or community service. Heck, even taking care of your yard to keep the neighborhood home values up would be better!
I always thought the temple was kind of mystical and spooky, in a witchcraft sort of way. The whole thing really scared me the first time so by the time I got to the veil, I was just so relieved it was almost over and it wasn't going to get even weirder. Even in the days when I more or less liked going to the temple, it was never spiritual. More ritualistic - like Druids or something.
...and remember, this was after pantomiming my own violent demise three times, finding out my new name was the name of a girl I hated, realizing that I wasn't going to learn any secrets of the universe, doing the most sacred thing in the world--changing my robe to a different shoulder, and all the other total nonsense, my brain was so numb that all I could think was "WHEN will it be over." I was so glad when I got back to the locker room so I could cry where no one could see me. The only thing going through my head was "WHAT the heck was THAT?"
NormaRae Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- doing the most sacred thing in the > world--changing my robe to a different shoulder, > and all the other total nonsense,
NormaRae Wrote: realizing that I wasn't going to learn any secrets of the > universe, doing the most sacred thing in the > world--changing my robe to a different shoulder, > and all the other total nonsense, my brain was so > numb that all I could think was "WHEN will it be > over." I was so glad when I got back to the > locker room so I could cry where no one could see > me. The only thing going through my head was > "WHAT the heck was THAT?"
The whole thing was completely baffling to me...I kept thinking THIS is what I have been told is so "sacred and special" that it can't be spoken of?
I had always wondered about the term "taking out your endowments" and had in mind some kind of physical object that I would take home with me. I still came out of the temple wondering what "endowments" were.
After all the other folderol, the new name was nothing!