you need to make an appointment to do endowments and you're limited to ten initiatories per visit?

I haven't been to a temple in years, but I never remember an endowment session being more than half full. And the temple workers were always asking people to do initiatories, because too few were being done.

Let's see, pay ten percent to get in, pay to rent funny clothes, sit through an unutterably boring endowment session - and make an appointment to do it at the temple's convenience?

Every time I hear of some weird Morg practice, I think, "OK, this is it. It can't get any stranger/more controlling than this". And every time I'm proven wrong.

You have to rent the funny clothes? No kidding?

Yeah, 50 cents for a pair of white knee highs that are so worn that the elastic is so stretched out of shape that they won't stay up. Can't remember how much for the rest of the costume; around $5 in total as I recall (ugly, one-size fits none white dress, robe, sash, veil, slippers and green apron);it was the knee highs that always gave me the giggles. Five billion dollars for a mall and gouge the faithful temple goer 50 cents for a 99-cent pair of knee highs.

"one-size fits none" ;-)

You don't have to rent the clothes - you can buy your own and bring them. That's why you see people coming and going from the temple with the little travel suitcases or clothing bags. You need slippers, white socks/knee highs, a white suit and tie if you are a guy and a white dress and slip if you are a woman. That's the basic clothing but you also need your hat or veil, your apron, your sash and your robe. Usually that comes neatly packed up in a white cloth envelope.

But the clothes are available to rent if you don't have your own, are on vacation and don't want to travel with your clothes but want to attend the temple, if you are just too lazy or have another good reason. I rented during the years I was having kids because I didn't want to have to buy a maternity dress and I didn't want to have to buy a larger dress between pregnancies when I was chubby. But you don't have to rent everything - only what you don't have so I rented only the dress and slip.

BTW, the rental fee is supposed to cover the cost of washing the clothes. The smaller temples don't have rentals or the laundry facilities to wash clothes - or so I hear. If you want to attend, you have to own your own set.

But it's not because they are too busy.They're not busy enough. They force people to make appointments to be sure that there will be enough there to justify the trouble of opening the place up.

It's an interesting example of PR spin, isn't it:

Can't get enough people to go to the temple, so resort to a reservation system and flip the facts: "we're so busy, blah, blah, blah."

LDS double-think and double-talk ...

Such temples can't offer regularly scheduled times for sessions because not enough patrons show up on a regular basis.

I'm not sure how other temples work but the one I went to required appointments to make sure there would be time for *certain dates*. The temple doesn't have enough to do ever but the Manti temple is one of the more popular temples and is only the second offering a live session so it fills up quickly with kids who want to get sealed on dates like 11/11/11 or 12/12/12 along with holidays or other famous dates. And even I have to admit that on Fridays & Saturdays during popular wedding months (mostly May-Oct) the temple is full inside with brides and dozens upon dozens of wedding parties waiting outside along with photographers.
Of course they don't want to admit being dead all the time, when ordinances are so darn important, they will tell you it's because they are soooo packed....despite the empty temple pews...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2012 01:33AM by fetching49.

How about drive thru temples. Drive up, show your temple recommend, put your hand through a window, give the secret handshake, and drive off with some green jello.

BAHAHAHA
Love this

No Movies = No Popcorn

I wish there was documentation to the info that names are re-cycled.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2012 01:51AM by guynoirprivateeye.

Or how about buying some old drive-in movie theaters so they could show the film? You could rent your clothes at the concession stand, and maybe get some Milk Duds.

I can see it!
It could become a cult-classic like Rocky Horror!

The temple film and the Rocky Horror Picture Show are the only two movies where audience participation is expected.

He he. My TBM Daughter was just whining to me this weekend about how loooong the sessions are, and how they should skip all the instructions for seasoned temple-goers. We were joking about being executive-premiere like at the airlines. You could go through the express line.

You could choose Elect Class, Worthy Class, or Toilet Scrubber Class.

That is so funny!! ;-)

A Drive THrough Temple really gives new meanings and ideas to Pay Lay Ale...........Whew!
I guess at the end you drive through the masonic symbols on the veil.

How about a temple satalite broadcast......watch at home with the blinds closed on your windows. Invite over your friends and make a party of it. But a priesthood holder has to check their temple recomend at the front door like a night club. Hang a curtain up in the hallway from the kitchen to the family room and put in some ugly gold plated furniture and white carpet. We are talking about some cool versions of the celestial room now. Better yet just get gold spray paint and paint all the crap you made at homemaking night with a glitterly gold flake paint.....including the wooden signs with country looking painted words on them.

Don't forget to serve triscuts and cheese crackers and kool aid in the celestial room after the movie.

Then really make it fun and step it up with a seasoned members adult session......go for the polyandry wife swapping (wife stealing) ordinances that Joe used.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2012 07:37AM by upsidedown.

The reason for having to make an appointment is because they aren't busy. They need to make sure they have the staff in place for your visit.

"what time is the next endowment session?"
"what tine can you get here...?"

In about 1975, my father attended a "solemn assembly" in Michigan. In those days, the FP would do a road show meeting with church leaders. One of the ideas floated by SWK was small temples, based in stake centers. A single room would be dedicated for such use, with a portable veil. The idea was to get temples close to people. Only endowments would be done there, since that is the bottle neck. Necrodunking, lube jobs, etc., would still be done in regular temples. People would have their own temple clothes, so no rentals required.

Idea not well received. At the time, people loved the big, Utah sized temples, so the idea died. Fast forward a few years, and GBHinkster comes up with his "revelation" to have smaller temples. As it turns out, it was a hybrid idea.

Small temples cost less to build than stake centers, and get used much less. If you look at temple schedules on the church web site, you will see that most of the smaller temples are by appointment only, so they can scamble to get together enough for a bridge game. Funny, first they pound on people to contribute to build a temple, then tell you how god and the church has blessed you with a temple (that you did not want or need, but paid for anyway), and then berate you for not attending enough to keep it busy. Oh, and they recycle names.

Hmmm.....

Never heard about the idea of bringing temple ceremonies to churches. Makes the "revelation" about smaller temples make sense. Thanks for sharing that info.

JAN- a long while back it had been a long time since I went through the temple even though I always had a recommend. A "friend" in my ward convinced me to go with her in a sort of "you'd be helping ME" kind of way because she didn't want to drive, so we went.

I felt like a foreigner, so much had changed. When we went to RENT the clothes (I owned my own temple clothes but couldn't tell you where they were, also, she told me it was inexpensive and easier to just rent them there).

I was concerned about size and asked her about the dress, "Do you think this will fit me?" She seriously replied, "It's a tent, it will fit everyone!" I got the serious crying-type, loose control giggles and could not compose myself through the entire session including at the veil as I giggled my way through having the matrons continue to repeat what I was supposed to say. I kept apologizing and saying that I was nervous. That was it for me!

The OP reminds me of a cold war joke: why are there no lines in front of stores in the West? Because they have nothing to sell.

And since we're on the topic of the cold war, did you hear the one about a race between a US and a USSR horse?

The American horse won, so the American press said "Russians lose". The Russian press reported: "American horse comes in 2nd to last".

Ah, the cold war, good times...

they had to invent a calling for the students living there. You know because students have so much spare time on their hands...anyway the calling is "Temple Patron" and the job is to attend the temple, as a regular patron, weekly. That's it, attend the temple...

Yup, the temples are SO BUSY they had to invent a calling just to help fill seats, in the provo/orem area-the highest mormon-per-capita community in the world.

That's really interesting. But then why are they working on a second temple in Provo?

They are restoring the Provo Tabernacle (assembly hall) which was nearly destroyed by a fire. Are they planning to convert it to a temple? If so,the capacity could not be very large, it's not a factory-style design like the Provo temple.

My son lives in Provo and says the temple is so busy they can hardly get anyone in. I took a family member there while I was in Provo and the parking lot was crammed at 9 a.m. on a weekday morning. So I do think the temples in Utah are busy.

They weren't patrons they were member/cleaners...

I was in manti for two weeks during the summer. My sister and I wanted to go do a session so we could see the art work. They told us it was closed for renovation. Those two weeks we were there we never saw a single vehicle there.

When we got our new temple and only had to drive 2 hours instead of 10, nobody went any more than they did before. Many times we had combined RS/PH meetings on the importance of temple attendance. This is not unique to our area.

No, it was made clear over the last couple of years that appointments were required for temples that had very little activity.

Actually, JoD raises a good point (and not for the first time I might add...)

If temples are really that busy, shouldn't Bishops be standing up at Sacrament Meeting and telling people to ease off going because there's no time slots left?

Stumbling Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If temples are really that busy, shouldn't Bishops
> be standing up at Sacrament Meeting and telling
> people to ease off going because there's no time
> slots left?

They should. But they aren't. So they needn't.