appalling especially with no warning in advance to the uninitiated.
The prayer-circle chanting ranks second in the bizarre nature of what appears, at least within the confines of worship in a ward and stake building, normal Christian behavior.
So I was trying to date this girl at the time. We rarely did anything non-cult related. We went to every fireside that there was. This one, we got to early and she liked to sit right smack dab up front. Second row was as far back as she wanted to sit. So here we are, front and center. The choir was in their seats. This one guy was super cute. (I'm a sucker for a cowlick) I find myself staring at him and within a few minutes, he catches me looking. We made eyes throughout the entire fireside.
Afterwards, we leave and I put him out of my mind (trying to be a straight cult member).
So our (this girl and myself) temple night is every Wednesday. We would get dinner in the Seattle cafeteria and then go to see the movie. We're sitting there and Cowlick walks right past. I am frozen in my seat, scared to death. Come to find out she knew him. She introduces us.
I would go to temple alone on Saturdays. (Good little cult boy) one Saturday I go in and Cowlick is there working the clothing rental. I give him a smile and he motions for me to come over. So we have a short awkward conversation. I told him I was going to the such and such time session.
When I go through the sheet into the chandelier room, he is waiting for me off to the side. He didn't go to the movie, he was there in his white polyester suit. We start whispering and just chatting about god only knows what. Then he says "this might not be the best place for this, but let me give u my number". So we leave, head to the locker room and the only thing to write on was a prayer slip.
:-)
Wonder whatever happened to him. We never ended hooking up, I was too scared at the time. Now I would have told him to grab the oxen horns and "brace yourself!"
I only went dead dunking a few times (3 maybe?) over a 5 year period in my teens, but I got downright silly with (quiet) loud laughter every single time I went. Right in the temple!
As my ex and I walked in, they pulled me aside to do sealings because someone hadn't shown up. No--they didn't pull aside my husband. I got to be sealed in proxy over and over and over to some oddball who kept making eyes at me--like somehow we were being sealed. It really made me rather UNCOMFORTABLE. It really put a damper on how you feel about your own sealing to your own spouse. I sat in the foyer for 45 minutes waiting for my husband to get out of his session. Longest time they ever let me just sit and "meditate." I never went back.
After they do baptisms for the dead, they do all the temple work for people including married couples being sealed. So they go through a list of married couples who have been found through genealogy research and seal them. They also seal children to the couple.
So I went through the whole sealing ceremony (which was the same one they used when I got married except for saying something about "for those who are dead"). So--I went through my marriage ceremony 30 or 40 to some guy I don't know. I already hated the temple. This was the final straw.
I feel if they are going to do sealings of couples, they should have an actual couple. Well, actually, I feel they should not do the sealings anyway. The temple is ridiculous.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2013 09:22AM by cl2.
Who stands in for the kids? I mean, when they seal children to parents who stands in for the kids?
cl2 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > After they do baptisms for the dead, they do all > the temple work for people including married > couples being sealed. So they go through a list of > married couples who have been found through > genealogy research and seal them. They also seal > children to the couple. > > So I went through the whole sealing ceremony > (which was the same one they used when I got > married except for saying something about "for > those who are dead"). So--I went through my > marriage ceremony 30 or 40 to some guy I don't > know. I already hated the temple. This was the > final straw. > > I feel if they are going to do sealings of > couples, they should have an actual couple. Well, > actually, I feel they should not do the sealings > anyway. The temple is ridiculous.
I also stood in for kids. When I was doing that, it didn't bother me so much. The people being the couple then were an actual married couple. I was certainly hoping that they weren't going to ask me to be a couple with this other guy.
Imagine--holding this guy's hand for a good hour. A total stranger. I forgot about that until just now--they have you do I believe "the patriarchal grip"--whoever is standing in for the children puts their hands on top of the couple's hands.
Just remembering holding this guy's hand for all that time--makes me rather ill. In the temple there are no boundaries. They supposedly teach you boundaries all your life and then get you to the temple and strip you of them.
Is it common to use a non-married couple to do sealings of a deceased married couple? In other words, is my TBM wife secretly going through a marriage ceremony with some other guy when she goes to the temple?
I was rather shocked when it happened to me. I haven't been to the temple since around 1990--which was that day. To me, it was disturbing. Maybe to other people, it isn't.
I Saw A Vision Of The Conference Center Be Erected Before It Was Built I Saw How Huge And Glorious It Was. I TheN i Saw Pres MonsOn Quoting The Standard Of Truth. WHen He Hit To The ParT About ErectIon, He Was Translated, Even glorifIed As He Sat On A Golden Throne In Front Of All Of Us At Conference. So I Believe This WIll Happen While MonsoN Is Still Here I Testify Of That Personal Revelation. Amen
I have to be careful, my TBM DW knows I read this board and gets upset when I read posts from the "haters". I have a friend that did construction on one of the new temples in Utah. During construction he was checking things in the spire of the temple and noticed a hidden room below that he never saw before on the plans. He asked the GC manager about it and was told, "you weren't suppose to see that." He told me about it, and said the access was off the temple president's office. During one of my temple cleaning assignments, I snuck into the office and was checking everywhere for the hidden door. I tapped on walls, checked behind bookshelves, etc...never found that door. But I looked for 10 minutes. Asked my friend again about it, thinking he was mistaken-he said it is there off of the President's office.
Stood in that stupid prayer circle and had a major epiphany.
This was LONG before any questioning or indiscretion on my part had occurred.
It was like an anvil hit me on the head, I kept my eyes open during the prayer, and as we all repeated it, while veiled faces, holding one another by the shoulder, I had a MAJOR anxiety attack. Which never happens. I stood there just shaking, my knees wobbly, and all I could think about was how effed up this "circle" was, and how was I here, participating in this.........CULT-like behavior?!!!! I remember thinking, briefly, that this is what the "antis" are talking about. And maybe they're right.
Again, this was long before any disaffection, before I knew this board existed, I was the freaking yw Pres for three years by then.
That was so huge for me, I never told anyone about it, of course. But after that I never had a desire to go back there.
Funny experience in a German temple: this particular session was supposed to be for Dutch patrons, but for some reason every last attendee ended up being German. The session proceeded in Dutch, which isn't too bad, since Dutch and German are close enough. Also, once you've seen one session, you've seen them all.
Things hummed along until it came time for the prayer circle. Turns out that the officiator only spoke Dutch and prayed in Dutch. The members of the circle tried to either imitate what he was saying, translate what they thought he was saying into German, or just mumble something. Talk about the Tower of Bable... Every now and then someone just couldn't keep it together and burst out laughing, which in turn set others off. So much for just having covenanted to avoid all loud laughter...
I went post-1990, but pre 2005 changes on the initiatory. So I'd say going through the initatory the first time was the most strange thing I did in the temple. I should have run when I saw that funky poncho and "just say no!"
However, I think that all the interviews to go to the temple are even weirder than anything that goes on inside. That stuff really claws deep into a person's personal business. Blech!
I went through several sessions in gentile underwear. So much more comfortable. You have so many layers on that nobody can tell. Not only that, they're all so busy rearranging their outfits they don't notice you.
I made a temple dress with short sleeves, and 3/4 length hem. Several old hens wanted to make me change. There was always one though that would say to leave me alone I met all the requirements. I made the dress shorter so it wouldn't get caught in the escalator. Made sense to me.