Temple Open House

This is the Oquirrh Mountain Temple in South Jordan, Utah.

On Friday night, we went to the LDS Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. If you have not been yet, you can get free reservations online at lds.org. Anyone can go. We also went to the Draper Temple Open House a couple months ago. The kids enjoyed both experiences. We thought it was especially important for our boys to be familiar with the temple because they will have the opportunity to go to the temple with us after we adopt.

In Utah, adoptions can be finalized six months after a baby is placed with an adoptive family. After the finalization, the family can be sealed to their baby in the temple, and the baby can be given an official "Baby Blessing." When a baby is sealed to the adoptive parents, the other children are also invited. That's special because children generally aren't allowed in temples after the temple is dedicated.

Daniel and Benjamin were actually reverent and quiet as we walked through the temple. Benjamin's favorite part was the baptismal font. Daniel liked the Celestial Room. There are volunteers stationed throughout the temple to help out the visitors, and Daniel asked the man in the Celestial Room (quietly) how big the chandelier is. It is 15 feet tall and has 19,000 crystals.

This is the view looking east from the temple.
In the very middle, you can see the Jordan River Temple
(also in South Jordan).

After we went to the open house, we went to eat at El Farol, my favorite Mexican Restaurant, which is in Midvale. The last time we were there, we saw President Monson leaving just as we were arriving (although we didn't get to talk to him or anything). This time, it wasn't quite that exciting. But the food was great, as always.