Draper Temple Dedication

On Saturday, January 24th we attended the Draper Utah Temple Open House. For those who aren't LDS, a temple open house precedes the dedication of a new temple and is open to the general public. The first open house I attended was in 1986 in the Denver Colorado Temple, the second was the Mount Timpanogos Temple (American Fork, UT) in 1996, and the third was this one. It's an exciting once-in-a-decade kind of experience for me. We looked forward to taking our kids and showing them the inside of the place that we talk so much about. It is meaningful to have a tangible connection to the temple since they won't be able experience it for themselves until they are much older.

We went with Russ' parents and really enjoyed their company and help while we waited for our turn. The tour included a brief movie about temples shown in a nearby church that explained a temple's significance and educated us on the history of the city of Draper and the surrounding area. We then entered the temple and walked quietly through the baptistry, the endowment rooms, the celestial room and the sealing rooms.

More than a million people walked through the Draper Temple open house, so the traffic was steady and had a necessary directional flow to maintain order and reverence. As we entered the celestial room (that symbolizes heaven) I noticed a man and his four young children had left the designated walkway and were huddled together. He held his children close and they all looked upward together while it seemed that he was explaining something.



He wasn't wearing a wedding ring and it was obvious that a mother was missing from this family. His eyes conveyed deep emotion and the children's expressions were mostly inquisitive. It occurred to me that perhaps their mother had passed away and this father was taking time with his children to review, in this setting, things they had talked about before. The thought brought tears to my eyes.

Death can be such a vicious and painful divider between loved ones, but the ordinances of the temple and the great power of the Savior's Atonement ensures that the separation is only temporary.