Since the church makes no bones about the need to indoctrinate the youth, why were youth temple trips so unpleasant?

Think about this. If the church wants the people to go and return often, then they have missed the mark for over 50 years.

Aside from the boring, dull and unpleasant experiences of temple ordinances, the place often stunk!

It smelled dingy. Sort of like a damp, musty place. There was this lingering odor of rot. The carpet always smelled nasty.

Why would I bring up the carpets in the temple?

Because the holding rooms for the youth never had space for proper seating. The two sofas and one high back chair would accommodate 6 people. Most of us had no choice but to sit on the floor surrounded by a 15 year old carpet. Then add to the fact that people (adults too) would get comfortable and remove their shoes after a multi-hour car trip.

It was really rank in there!

Additionally, the church furniture usually had spilled food- think years of Cheerios and stains from leaking baby bottles.

What lead to my unpleasant memories was an article about how Disney uses smellitzers to give patrons a total experience. You would think that telling people that they're happy when they are not would cause them to change the temple experience. I visited several temples and everyone had that musty smell. Not fresh!

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/man-claims-disney-brainwashes-guests-200532589.html

And I never addressed the other obvious problem. They were always dark, very dimly lit. Most halls and rooms. Even the sealing room had its lights dimmed for my marriage sealing.

Everything is unpleasant when planned out by 90 year control freaks stuck in the past.

And they are actually very much like Disney. It's just Disney has better manipulation techniques. They are also like Disney in that they are raking in the dough like nobody's business. So why bother with smellitizers if your profits are already through the roof. Although the endowment ceremony as a roller coaster ride does have potential. No? Veils to the wind, Sisters!

I knew a youth leader who had no problem getting three carloads of kids to make the two hour commute to the temple for baptisms for the dead.
His secret? The bishop paid for everyone to have lunch at ChuckaRama afterwards.

"It smelled dingy. Sort of like a damp, musty place. There was this lingering odor of rot."

They want you to feel like the dead really are near.

Ha! Ha!

We went to the Idaho Falls temple that has this funky stainless steel font with Art Deco oxen. It’s kind of a menacing looking basement room that is muggy and reeks of chlorine.

I only did baptisms for the dead once because I hated the whole experience. Getting dunked so many times felt like I was being drowned. Then I had to sit in this funky stone chair and let the water drain off of me and then multiple confirmations.

That was it. No more for me.

What temple was this? It sounds like an old one that should be condemned but the building is grandfathered and the church is allowed to keep it open.

I know the Logan temple had all sorts of structural problems. Why they gutted it is they had to.

My experience with swimming pools and hot tubs is you really have to keep the water quality up or you are going to have people getting infections from the water. Thinking about those small fonts with so many people going in them makes me cringe.

Rubicon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What temple was this? It sounds like an old one
> that should be condemned but the building is
> grandfathered and the church is allowed to keep it
> open.
>

Oakland

The carpet was never properly cleaned. Hello, Love My Carpet???

I was going through a stack of old church magazines that were in my missionary apartment. There was an article about certain temples getting "new look for 72". And there were photos of the rooms, including the waiting areas. The carpet was that old.

I think the temple presidents (and facility managers) were proud of how long they could stretch church resources.

Instead of telling young people with an acute sense of smell to "hush" it's not proper to say mean things in the house of the lord, the leaders should listen to these honest reactions.

I haven't been in this local stake center in a long time. They were transitioning from rust/brown to mauve sometime when we were going there. There were rust couches and mauve carpet.

As for the temple, it isn't just how it looks, it was those old bitches who bossed us around and made us feel like we were (what's a good word???). As young girls going to the temple, they wouldn't give us a towel until we stripped bare and handed them our soaking wet "outfit." That didn't go over well with most of us. Then in the temple, the bitches were cussing me out for my lace sleeves on my wedding dress--which I bought at ZCMI and the women said they didn't need to be lined as I ASKED. Then my mom walked in, who was not very social, and just the fact an older woman was there, they left me alone. Every time I went to the temple, some old bitch was correcting me for doing something small like my sash wasn't tied in a perfect bow. Now I'm an old bitch.

The girl who does my hair is in her 30s and she works at the temple one night a week. She said they started having younger ones work there for this very reason as there were so many complaints about how rude the older volunteers were to the people.

But they did gut the Logan temple years and years ago and I have pictures of the outside. Only thing left was the rock facade. But that was how long ago now? I'd have to ask my daughter if it is still mauve inside. I think she told me it is. So what 50 years since they changed the colors so you know they haven't changed everything.

I don't remember a time in my life that it was a pleasant experience going to the temple.

I had so many unpleasant trips, and then much later I found out that the bishop handed out money to recompense the temple trip "chaperones" out-of-pocket money from the ward budget. If you offered to drive and put a couple young folks in your backseat, they gave up 50 bucks. Twenty was for fuel costs and the rest was supposed to be for food for the youth.

So somethings started to make sense why Brother Blowhard was such a tightwad. He was pocketing all the church money.

-My very first youth temple trip: Mom offered me to take a 5 bill for lunch. Blowhard told her it was too much. I was sent with 3 dollars and couldn't afford a McDonald's combo. Had to order a burger and fries only. (So did the other teachers/mia-maids). He delighted in watching us drink water from those tiny plastic water cooler cups. Pretty humiliating having to beg for water at the counter (this was before they had all you can drink beverage dispensers- used to be behind the counter- no free refills except for water).

-On my 2nd trip, I was better prepared and took more money. This time it was explained that everyone would be eating in the temple cafeteria. Except he blew up and had us kids sitting in one of those auxiliary rooms while the adults were pantomiming the slitting of their throats in a endowment session. They made us bear our testimonies and I refused. He was so upset and refused to stop anywhere on the going home trip.

One young woman began moaning. She was having pain and needed to stop for a bathroom break. I think she had an accident in the back of the station wagon. I don't think she ever told anyone because she was a very shy person.

My Mom found out that I was denied the basic right to eat. She confronted the bishop. He smiled and told her that it was good for Messy to miss a meal once in awhile~ that he would be fine.

I am still floored that the leaders were pocketing ward money.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2021 01:11PM by messygoop.