Last year, I posted on Temple Tourism. (You could think of this post as Temple Tourism Part 2.) When my daughter turned 12 last year, she wanted to do baptisms for the dead on her birthday. She wanted to get a special temple recommend holder, basically a very expensive piece of plastic to hold your temple recommend. While in Seagull Book, I noticed a Utah Temple Passport where you could track all the Utah temples you’ve been to. I thought it might be fun to get for her, and it has been fun to travel to all the temples in Utah.* We went to the Vernal Temple the day after her birthday, meaning we went to every Utah temple in 366 days, essentially a Leap Year. (She didn’t want to go on her birthday this year, so we went the day after.) Here are some fun things we’ve learned/discovered:
- The Vernal Temple was the only temple we visited that had a doorbell! And they had to unlock the door to let us out!
- The Manti Temple had some really cool pioneer-era murals. Most temples don’t.
- The Draper Temple had the boiler go out so the water and showers were very cold!
- Summer seems to be a good time to visit–much fewer crowds and easier to get in and out.
- We were in and out of the Monticello Temple in 20 minutes! (That was after a 4 hour drive, but my son was in Moab at scout camp, so it worked out.) Salt Lake was easy to get in and out of too.
I decided to buy a passport for myself and discovered this week that there are other versions for the United States (which I purchased for my kids and myself too.) My sister said she has taken kids to Hawaii and Idaho temples, so I guess we’ll have to start exploring temples out of state. To be honest, we didn’t have a goal to visit all the Utah temples in a year–it just happened to work out that way. My daughter still had the audacity to say we didn’t go to the temple enough. Have you visited other temples? Do you have any fun stories to share about temple visits?
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*We haven’t visited the Jordan River Temple because it has been closed for over a year for remodeling. It is supposed to open either late this year or early next year after extensive renovations. The brand new Cedar City Temple (not in our passport) is supposed to be dedicated December 10, 2017.
Wheat & Tares 
In 2002 the primary theme was temples. Our whole family was in the primary. Kids 5,8,11 and both parents. We decided to visit the 11 temples and LV during the year, one per month.
Jordan River in January made us question our resolve. 115 degree is LV was about 90 degrees warmer. Thanksgiving in Vernal missing the traditional family gathering really bugged the mother-in-law.
Overall, a very rewarding experience for us all.
We just finished a year of Utah temples with my daughter too (first temple was Logan on her 12th birthday, last was Monticello on the day before her 13th–and we nearly missed our appointment and their open hours for our final one due to a flat tire in Price). My kids were also intrigued by Manti–there was a little door we asked about in the waiting area and a worker told us when they opened it twenty years ago there was a sword inside. Also Manti and St George had those metal fonts with the water sloshing all over. In Manti and Provo they let me take the kids to the cafeteria (escorted by a worker), which was fun. My kids loved the arches at Bountiful. Such a neat quest!
As someone who lives outside utah and has been in the same temple district my entire life, the idea of visiting temples as a tourist (with the accompanying temple passport) makes me scratch my head and go ‘huh?’.
Prior to our marriage, my wife heard a man talk about how he and his wife went to a new temple each year for their anniversary. She decided that would be a great idea.
Our first two years of marriage were in Utah (thank you, BYU), so we got a good headscarf on the ” temples visited” vs. anniversary year. So instead of “years married” it’s now our age.
School and work has taken us to a variety of places and we now included temples in our trip planning. We were lucky to go to Hawaii last month, and Laie made number 42.
As fate would have it, we are currently in the Hong Kong temple district, which is 4,000 km away.
Many great experiences, but will never forget the reception at the Frieberg Germany temple. Pre-kids/grad school year in the UK, and we were backpacking/training around Europe (planned to include Spain, Switzerland, and both German temples). Attire included khaki pants, sandals, and huge backpacks. But they greeted us like family returned home, taking our packs for us, and just treating us with such warmth.
Same trip, met a couple in Spain who told us all the cabs knew the Frankfurt temple and we could just get in a cab from the train station. This being pre-smartphone and barely start of Internet, we didn’t realise that they did not mean the Frankfurt station, but Friedrichsdorf where it is actually located.
Not speating German and cabby not speaking English, we showed him the address and he hit the road. We knew there was a problem when he got on the freeway.
40 minutes and 80 Deutche marks ($150 or so at the time) later we arrived.
After the session it took us 10 minutes to walk to the local station…
This is gonna sound horrible but here goes.
I have visited temples in other cities when I’ve been there on business trips or vacations, particularly Nauvoo, Laie, and so on. But I’ve come to value those places for the history and culture and other things they have to offer a kid who grew up in the white-bread American Midwest. All temples are basically the same. You might catch me checking out the exterior and the grounds, but I’d much rather spend my time in an old neighborhood, at a historic site, or at a museum – getting some kind of feel for the place I’m visiting, whether it be in the US or abroad. Temples are the McDonald’s Happy Meal of the Mormon travel experience.
New Iconoclast, I feel the same way. It makes about as much sense to me as visiting every ward building in town–you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Especially the modern ones. There’s an argument to be made for seeing the old ones just like old meeting house are sometimes cool and unique. But on the whole, I’ve found that the outside is the most architecturally interesting part. Otherwise, you’re visiting a series of formal living rooms with slightly different upholstery. So temple tourism is a puzzle to me. I just don’t get it.
In and out in 20 minutes? Impressive.