I've been a regular reader/occasional poster here since 2000. So I've had ample opportunity to read both pre- and post-1990 versions of the endowment, and have listened to older, existing audio recordings of the endowment (a 1984 recording and a post-1990 recording, the latter of which contained a "recent changes have been made" preface).

But until the recent full-length video version (brunette Eve) was posted on YouTube (still there, search "mormon temple ceremony" on Youtube), I had no idea how boring and mind-numbing the film is. Written transcripts and audio recordings simply do not do justice to its "so bad, it's good" quality. It was all I could do to sit still for it for 75 minutes. I could imagine sitting through it, in full temple regalia, in person on a monthly basis. And I'm aware that certain recent simplifications (robe no longer placed on both of the shoulders at various points) make it a bit less stilted than it was before.

The portrayal of Adam exchanging tokens and signs with Peter, James, and (?) Michael was hysterical, plus they need a good film editor because I didn't catch any point earlier in the film where anyone formally taught the signs/tokens to Adam or Eve in the first place.

It seems to have been made by trolls.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2012 08:18PM by PtLoma.

Imagine what it would make you thinks of up until then respected parents and influencers. It's like you didn't know them.

I hated it.

The first time was when I got married, and I just couldn't figure out what the big deal was. Spiritual enlightenment? The most wonderful thing in my life? I'd want to go again and again to learn more? WHAT?? It was like everyone else had a totally different experience than I did. And of course, outside of the temple, they wouldn't talk about it.

I never went that often afterward, but the few times my ex and I went with the gang from our branch, I dreaded it. The drive was 4 hours so we started at the crack of dawn. A couple of times I was pregnant, so I was tired anyway, but inevitably I would nearly fall asleep during that awful movie. It was so hard, and then all that clothing switching around and trying to remember the words.

I cannot imagine the mindset of those who think performing this ritual again and again and again is in any way, shape or form enlightening or spiritual. I'd love to give a strong dose of truth serum to every temple attendee and see what they REALLY think deep down in their little Mormon hearts.

I know it's the "new name", but if a patron is doing a session as a proxy, how does that patron know the "new name du jour" if they have not already done an initiatory anointing for the same person? My understanding is that temple patrons may opt to do initiatories, but often they do the endowment for a given person/name and that's it. I'm aware that the new name changes every day (with a back up name in case the name du jour happens to be patron's actual first name---or the first name of the person for whom the patron is doing the session). Does the name card for a deceased person include the new name? Or does the patron give his/her own new name at the veil?

To go into the session. There is a booth you go through where a temple worker (maybe there are 2) tell you the 'new name'. So, you know the new name before the session starts.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2012 09:35PM by Samantha Baker.

Thank you for helping me receive further light and knowledge. ;)

Imagine a temple president and matron and what they have to go through day after day...that is what my family members are doing for 3 years....yikes! I can't even imagine how awful that must be.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2012 09:22PM by gemini.

I am on a first name basis with the local temple president (know him professionally---I am NeverMo) and he seems like a reasonably nice person. And honest. I once sat at his table at a work-related banquet and learned that he was from Star Valley, WY. He explained that "many of the polygamists parked a wife and kids in each state" and that's how the LDS colony in Star Valley got its start. I thought that was refreshingly candid, when most members won't discuss polygamy beyond "the church ended the practice in 1890".

Anyway, I think he and his wife will be ready for a rest home when their service is over. Can't imagine having to go there eight hours a day, five days a week. Given that Saturday is a busy day for them, and they have to go to church on Sunday for three hours, they really only get Monday off. And they are in their mid-70s, not young by any means.

I have a very TBM business associate who is constantly trying to motivate me to come back to the fold.

A few weeks age he was telling me how spritual he felt after doing a bunch of sessions in the temple over the preceeding Saturday. He was shocked & stunned when I told him I thought the temple sessions were the most boring thing in the world & that I could barely endure one when I was a TBM.

End of discussion & back to business!

I did enjoy them when I was in the old Missionary Home in SLC during the first few weeks of my mission. It was a nice change from the boring,long grind of memorizing the discussions. They would wake us up at 4:30 AM & drive us through the tunnels under downtown SLC like sheep.

Eventually I got tired of being herded. Took me another 14 years though.

I used to go fairly often and I never really learned anything new from it. The only thing that was nice was the chance to just sit down and relax. I hated when you had to start putting on all the clothes and junk. I haven't been for awhile and will never go again. I have to say though, I looked it up on youtube and I couldn't watch it, it was too weird to see it outside of the temple. The brainwashing goes deep and will take a while to purge.

No more shoulder switching of the robes? What?

A friend recently commented on her facebook wall that she felt so lifted after doing an endowment session recently and I really can't figure out why anyone comes out of it like that. Is it just a meditation thing, where if they'd spent 90 minutes sitting and communing with nature, focusing their thoughts on important things to them, it'd be the same thing?

There were some changes to the endowment in 2005 and 2008:

http://ldsendowment.org/timeline.html

The major change was to the initiatory ordinance. Patrons now arrive already clothes in their garments and wear a poncho/shield, but it's sewn up at the sides so no one can reach in and touch any body surface. Rather than the worker clothing the patron in his/her garments, the worker simply pronounces the garments as "authorized for use". Anointing now takes place on the face only, nothing below the neck.

I learned about the 2005 from RFM posters who discovered the changes either from their own temple visits or from relatives.

I may be incorrect re: not changing the robe from left to right. However, the recording now available on YouTube does not show the robe being changed (he could have edited it out, or perhaps failed to capture it). The other change listed on the website involved is that patrons no longer stand for the covenants.

Robes still change shoulders.

Each time I went all I could think about was how badly I had to pee.

I know, right? Do they let you take potty breaks between rooms?

My personality is quiet, cooperative, and compliant until I'm pushed TOO far, then I rear up and turn stubborn and as rigid as a steel beam. I'm afraid I never would have made it through one session in the temple. Thankfully, I had the sense to leave before that happened.

I can't even force myself to sit through a full on-line session in bits and pieces when I have a mug of coffee as fortification.

I would always get flustered because I could never remember what motion you were supposed to do when. It felt like a test, and I'd get antsy thinking I'd have to actually do this to get into heaven (because being a good person isn't enough). I always felt good after getting to the Celestial Room. But when I look back, it was probably more relief that the ceremony was over than anything spiritual.
I agree with the poster who said it felt like everyone else was having a different experience. That was always so frustrating.

I thought it looked like a competition with those who had the lines down pat and the fast curtain-switchers superiors to the bumbling newbies that everyone had to wait for.


Anagrammy

A girl I used to work with went weekly, I asked her why and she said, "Well there are so many people/souls whatever waiting, I want to help them." until then I had not truly understood that you only go through the temple once for yourself then it's to save souls. I also realized how wrapped up people get in it, madness.

I always loved how the old geezers would fall asleep as soon as the lights went off and then somehow wake up just long enough for every sign and covenant.

Towards the end I was so bored I was looking for odd details in the film and inspecting the workmanship of the temple. I noticed that in the Houston temple the baseboards were uneven, not joined properly, uncaulked, and pulling away from the walls.

I'd love to see the MST3K version of the temple film... :oD

"I could never have survived multiple temple sessions, had I been LDS"

Shucks, dude, don't underestimate what a little brainwashing from age 3-19 can do.

You'd have been slitting your throat like a pro, running off to hand BoMs out to anyone you could find in South Carolina, then going on "Temple Dates" with the ward Relief Society Presidency as soon as you got back to YBU.

RG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/2012 03:52PM by reinventinggrace.

The Endowment ritual is terribly, terribly boring, and the clothing is awkward and uncomfortable. The room is filled with theater seats like what used to be in movie theaters in the 1970s, btw. The worst part for me was after the movie was over and they would recap everything. I wanted to explode from the tedium. Then you go to the veil and do it all again. I never spent much time in the celestial room, because I wanted to run and get it all out.

The gordan jump one was the best. The blond eve was hot!

I wouldn't have made it through the first one without calling BS....

Ron Burr

The whole thing was so boring, I could never understand how people would go for the day or even a week & do nothing but go straight out of one session into the next. I could never do more than one at a time & that was difficult.
The worst part for me I think was all the repetition, I'd be pushing it on in my mind, willing it to go faster to get it over with.
In the pre 1990 version it was even worse as there was an extra repeat in each part of the return & report loop.