‘A Special Place with a Special Purpose’: Helping Open-House Visitors See a Temple as the House of the Lord

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By Scott Taylor, Church News

Open-house tours of newly constructed or renovated temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provide public walk-throughs of sacred edifices and first-person views of the high-quality designs, furnishings, floorings, art glass, millwork and workmanship.

Such was the case with the recent public open house of the St. George Utah Temple, where nearly 670,000 guests toured the recently renovated and expanded temple, the Church’s oldest still in operation following its 1877 dedication.

But can open-house visitors — Latter-day Saints, friends of other faiths and the nonreligious — understand the true spiritual purpose of the house of the Lord?

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And how can those organizing and directing these open houses help guests understand how the temples help Latter-day Saints strengthen their relationships with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ through the ordinances performed and the covenants made as a part of the temple worship and work in the houses of the Lord?

Church News An inside look at the newly renovated St. George Utah Temple

Russ and Dana Moody are chairing the open house and rededication committee for the St. George temple, with the nine-week open house having concluded on November 11 and the rededication coming up quickly on Sunday, December 10.

‘It Touches Their Hearts’

“The very first line of our training [as committee chairs] says that all temple events focus on our covenant relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ,” Russ Moody said. “I can’t quote any other part of the training verbatim, but that one has stuck in our minds as the focus and intent of our efforts in this assignment.”

Added Dana Moody: “I feel that as people walk through the temple, they can’t help but feel the spirit that is there, and they’re touched by it. Sometimes they don’t even realize what they’re feeling.”

She can point to a number of examples:

• The Jewish friend who accompanied a Latter-day Saint on an open house tour and said, “I feel layers of peace here — there’s something different here.”
• The nonreligious woman with special needs, who while walking through the temple kept touching her chest and saying: “God is here. God is here. God is here.”
• And the Latter-day Saint youth who after a tour early in the open-house period announced to her youth leaders: “I’m going to get a temple recommend — I’m going to get worthy.” The youth returned toward the end of the open-house period, having obtained a recommend and having gone and done temple ordinances in the Cedar City Utah Temple, the closest operating temple, about an hour’s drive away.

“As people come through, they feel something, even though the temple has not yet been rededicated,” Dana Moody said. “They can feel it’s a special place with a special purpose, and so it touches their hearts.”

Her husband agreed. “The best part that makes our job so easy is that as soon as you step into the temple, you feel that you’re in the house of the Lord,” said Russ Moody, adding, “As you look around this magnificent temple, you can’t help but recognize that this is a place that has been prepared for the presence of God.”

Church News Blind individuals get a special tactile tour of the St. George Utah Temple

Pre-tour Videos Help Set a Tone

Aiding open-house guests inside the temple, placards are used to identify rooms used for different ordinances or purposes — instruction rooms, baptistry, sealing rooms, celestial room, bride’s room, waiting rooms.

And even before entering the temple, visitors watch a brief video giving more detail on temple ordinances and covenants and the eternal blessings and perspectives provided to Latter-day Saints who participate in temple worship and work. Those videos are shown to small groups, usually in rooms in an adjacent meetinghouse prior to the visitors beginning the tour inside the temple.

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Church News Video: President Nelson shares how temples are ‘a symbol of Jesus Christ’

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In St. George, the open house committee tried to set the tone and invite the Spirit in the gathering places while visitors were waiting to be invited to watch the videos the Church has shown for years.

In the meetinghouse chapel and cultural hall across the street from the temple, guests could view short Church video clips — but nothing about the St. George temple, its structure, its renovation or the pioneer history of the temple or the city. Instead, the video clips featured leaders such as Church President Russell M. Nelson, and Elder David A. Bednar and Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles teaching about and testifying of the purpose of temples and the covenants and ordinances performed within.

“What we wanted was something about the purpose of the temple, something that invited the Spirit and something that directed their attention to the ordinances,” Dana Moody said. “All of those focused people’s attention to the purpose of the building before they even entered it.”

The Moodys said they saw multiple evidences of open-house guests appreciating the purpose of the temples, witnessing families and friends pause in different rooms to talk about ordinances, covenants and instruction. They even saw something with guests on the grounds — both at the start and conclusion of tour sessions — in efforts to gather as families and friends.

“They didn’t want to go on without their family members, they were waiting for them to join them,” Dana Moody said. “It’s so symbolic of what we want it to be through sealing ordinances. We don’t want to leave this life without our families connected to us, we don’t want to leave without our dear friends connected to us.”

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‘Plant Those Seeds Now’

Eternal connection describes the efforts made — and emotions felt — by the Craven family of Ivins, Utah, as Phillip and Katrina Craven took their six children ages 2 to 12 through the St. George temple during the final weekend of its open house.

Katrina Craven purposefully paused with her daughter, Lydia, 12, to look at large, facing mirrors that create a seemingly never-ending sequence of their images.

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“My wife felt a little emotional as she stood between the mirrors in the celestial room, looking at our oldest daughter and seeing a little bit of the future and envisioning a little what our future would be like as a temple-attending family,” said Phillip Craven, whose family is in the Ivins 3rd Ward in the Ivins Utah Stake.

Added Katrina Craven: “We wanted our children to be able to see and touch and feel the things that we experienced here in the temple in some way. … There’s a lot of symbolism in our temple worship, and so I think it’s important to be able to plant those seeds now and for them to be able to have the Spirit whisper to them and confirm things to them.”

The Cravens said they wanted to help transition their children’s understanding of the temple from being an object and a structure to a house of the Lord with its covenants and ordinances.

“I think that comes with experience and constant introduction of what this means and why we’re here,” said Phillip Craven of being in the temple with his family. “And afterwards, we’ll have conversations about what rooms they were in and what those rooms mean and the experiences they felt there.”

Katrina Craven likened the emphasis on ordinances to what they try to do at sacrament meeting in helping the children prepare for and participate in the ordinance of the sacrament. “It’s kind of like that here,” she said, wanting her children to develop reverence and respect for the house of the Lord. “Hopefully, that helps prepare them a little bit for the temple.”

She continued: “I also think about how much peace the gospel brings to me in my life, and so having them all here in the temple, I have such high hopes that they will learn and grow in the gospel and have the same faith that I do, because I know it bring so much peace to me.”

Even before the open-house tour with her family, Lydia had several times been at the St. George temple, helping place protective coverings on the shoes of guests entering the temple. And she has participated in temple baptisms and confirmations in the Cedar City Utah Temple, the closest operating temple to Ivins, St. George and the rest of southwestern Utah until the St. George temple is rededicated and reopened.

“I’m just in awe,” she said of being in the temple with her family. “I would say the temple is place that makes me feel happy, and I know that I can go there and can feel the peace and get disconnected from the world.”

‘It’s Waiting for You’

Those feelings and emotions were felt by young and old, Church member and nonmember alike, as people visiting the St. George Utah Temple saw it as the house of the Lord and a sacred edifice with a purpose — and not just a historical landmark or ornately finished structure.

And those feelings and emotions can be felt at any temple open house, with Russ and Dana Moody encouraging all to take advantage of such public visits that are available before a temple dedication or rededication.

“Don’t miss it, because it’s there,” said Dana Moody of the Spirit’s witness of the house of the Lord. “It will happen. It’s waiting for you. You don’t want to miss it.”

• Read more Church News coverage of temples
• Podcast episode 163: Elder Gary E. Stevenson on the Okinawa Japan Temple — a symbol of peace in a land once defined by war
• Read the original St. George temple dedicatory prayer and why Brigham Young was not the one who gave it
• Nearly 670,000 tour the St. George Utah Temple during its 9-week fall open house