After the museum we went to get some lunch. We found a pizza place not too far from the temple and we all enjoyed our lunch. We walked to the temple, stopping to take a picture by one of the horses, painted with ice cream cones! Our tickets were for 1:45 at the temple but we were ready earlier than that, so we just went! They asked if we had tickets (though I couldn't see anyone actually collecting tickets) and we told them we do but that we were early, she said that's okay, just go on in to line 6. So we went into the tabernacle (another amazing building!) and went into the room to watch the video. Two sweet sister missionaries did the introduction to the video which was very good. It is amazing to see the difference between what it used to look like (like the Provo Temple) and what it looks like now. They showed some cool pictures of the re-do. Then we walked across to the temple and put on the plastic shoe covers and started the tour. It's a silent tour, you just walk through and take in the beauty! They of course had signs explaining what each room was for. It was absolutely beautiful! My friend Karen had said to be sure and look up when you go through the endowment room. We did! It was beautiful! I loved the colors throughout the temple and the dark mahogany wood. The paintings were absolutely beautiful. Artists I have not seen before! The mural in the baptistery was amazing - Karen had said to be sure and look at it closely. But we couldn't get too close. She had nerve enough to go behind the usher standing there and looked, but I couldn't do that. It was a very beautiful mural of the baptism of Jesus. My favorite painting was one of Christ talking to a woman and there were two men standing beside/behind him. This artist had several paintings throughout the temple but I loved this one the most. I wish I could find out who the artist is! I asked one missionary after the tour but all she knew was that a local artist had done some things for the temple. All the artwork was amazing and some of it I recognized (Arnold Frieberg for instance) but the new stuff was so wonderful to see! Then of course the Celestial room. It blew us away. You always expect to see a huge chandelier as a focal point, but there wasn't one! There were four smaller crystal light things (I can't explain them! - fancier and bigger than lamps) surrounding the center of the room, but up in the ceiling it was a huge and beautiful dome (I can't describe that either). I got a few tears as we walked through that room, it was just so amazing and beautiful and different. After we got through and took off our plastic booties, Jacob said, "but we didn't have the special prayer!" We had explained to him how we could all go through and look at this temple until they have the special prayer that dedicates it and then only people with recommends can get in. It was so cute when he said that. We finished our afternoon off with ice cream at Farr's. Very delicious and refreshing! (thanks again Karen for the suggestion) It was quite a hot day that day! In fact, the pictures where they aren't quite smiling is because it was so bright! The ice cream shop was busy! They are doing good business during this event as they are right across the street! I am so glad we got to go to the open house and I tell everyone just go! Don't even worry about tickets, they will let you in! It is worth the one hour drive from our house...GO!
0 comments:
Post a Comment