Los Angeles Temple September and October 2008

On September 20, 2008, I had the opportunity to join some young single adults from the Kern River Branch in performing baptisms in the Los Angeles Temple. Also joining us were Corri Pierce, Joel Youngberg, and Janelle Howell's brother (I've misplaced his business card and don't recall is name) and his wife.

I tried to take lots of pictures for this blog, but am limited by my camera-phone. Yes, the majority of these photos were taken with my LG-ENV phone!

It was a little bit stressful organizing everyone to go to the temple and many people that had agreed to go had to bail out at the last moment. It was okay though, as we were able to fit all of those that were carpooling from Bakersfield into two vehicles. Others drove separately and met us down there.

The ride down become much more enjoyable as I was not stressing about not having enough priesthood and not having enough seats for people to ride comfortably to Los Angeles and back. I was privileged to share my vehicle with Cortney Winn, Molly Raney, and Melissa Wilson. Mindy Conrad, Rebecca Smith, Whitney Sampson, Amanda Buttcane, and Sarah Winn (no relation to Cortney) took Rebecca's car to the temple that evening.

The experience inside the baptistry was amazing. Coincidentally, I also ran into Seth Hansen, a friend of mine from Bakersfield that was recently attending UCLA (he graduated in June 2008.) Seth is the younger brother of my friend from college, Suzanne Hansen. Seth was volunteering as an Assistant Temple Baptistry Coordinator with his wife, Starlene. It was a truly great experience to share the evening with the Hansens. Though they were newer to the position, they did a wonderful job and made the evening quite easy for our group, even though our baptistry session didn't begin until about 7:30 PM that evening.

Originally dedicated on March 11, 1956, the Los Angeles Temple is one of the largest temples in operation. Based on square footage, it is the second largest Latter-Day Saint temple in the world, only Salt Lake City is larger.

The cell phone camera didn't want to work so well for me at night, but this is me standing in front of the building. My friend took it, trying to get Moroni and me into the same shot... it was definitely the camera's fault and not the friend's that this didn't come 0ut quite like I imagined it would.

Overall, the experience that we had that night was a great one. It was also good to spend time with Corri Pierce and Joel Youngberg, as both lived in Bakersfield this past summer while they were selling pest control. Both are wonderful individuals that everyone should get to know if they have the opportunity to do so.

About a month later, I had the opportunity to visit the Los Angeles Temple on my own. I had stayed the previous night in the patron apartments and made sure to get in at least one endowment session while I was there. The photo at right is my attempt to take a picture of Moroni from the eastern side of the building (and yes, I am slightly obsessed with this beautiful statue that adorns most of the Latter-Day Saint temples.)

Since I was on my own, I wasn't really worried about taking too much time at anything. So, I had a very stress-free, leisurely experience while at the temple. Whereas the visit in September was somewhat stressful because I drove from Bakersfield to Los Angeles and back and organized the trip and was calling people left and right to make sure that they would still be attending with us (many couldn't make it for various reasons.)

While at the temple on October 24, 2008, I had an amazing experience and can only thank my Heavenly Father for providing it to me. Towards the end, while in the Celestial Room, I decided to read a chapter from the Book of Mormon. I opened the book to Alma 10 and began reading immediately. In that chapter Amulek is speaking and I think that the subject matter at hand was very appropriate for how I've been feeling lately. Mostly I've taken some strength in something that Amulek says in verse six:

Nevertheless, I did harden my heart, for I was called many times and I would not hear; therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know; therefore I went on rebelling against God, in the wickedness of my heart, even until the fourth day of this seventh month, which is in the tenth year of the reign of the judges.

This struck me very hard for various reasons. I don't think that I have been an evil person of late (if I did, then why would I be in the temple?), but I feel that there are things that I could be doing better. (i.e. scripture study and more fervent prayer.) Also, I noticed that based on our current calendar (which Amulek more than likely did not actually use), the date that Amulek gives as the day that he stopped rebelling against God would be the Fourth of July. I started to think about the meaning of the Fourth of July in the United States. It is commonly known as Independence Day in this country. I thought it fitting that on the equivalent of this day in his time, Amulek declared his own independence from sin and rebellion against God.

It was on his personal independence day that Amulek decided to trust a prophet of the Lord named Alma (this is Alma the Younger.) I started wondering to myself, do I have a personal independence day? If not, then why not? Am I not yet independent from that rebellion? Sadly, yes, that is the case. However, I will not fret too much about that part, but I will make strides towards declaring my independence from sin and rebellion against God. I will start by increasing my scripture study and trying to have better prayer and supplication with my Heavenly Father. Other weaknesses that I possess, I will face down, one-by-one and conquer each of them until I can say that I have truly declared my independence. It will be on that day that I will celebrate my personal independence day.

One last part of this note: in the past couple of years, I have not been to the temple, even once, without running into somebody I know or someone that knows a person that I also know. Yes, you can say that the Latter-Day Saint population is a close-knit one, but I assure you, though there are thousands of Latter-Day Saint members in Bakersfield, I don't know even a fifth of them. So, it is often with great pleasure that I see these long, lost friends; it makes me feel as Alma the younger when he encounters the sons of Mosiah on a roadside as he is going about the land bearing down in pure testimony. How enthused was Alma to see the boys he knew as a boy himself returning as men, all strong in the gospel of Jesus Christ? To say the least, very enthused. My trip to the Los Angeles temple on October 24, 2008 was no exception to this coincidence.

While I was about to leave the temple, I randomly decided to visit the cafeteria (something that I rarely do there.) As I was proceeding down the hallway to the cafeteria, a voice called out, "Ken!" It repeated again, "Kennnn!!" at which time I turned around and saw Roger Keep from San Luis Obispo standing there. He looked even younger than the last time I had seen him. Roger was the bishop of SLO 3rd Ward when I attended Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. It was he that suggested that I consider serving a mission when I was 18 years old. It was he that helped me qualify, on many different fronts, to serve that mission. Serving that mission has changed my life and I will always look up to Bishop Keep for helping me to have those experiences. While she wasn't there at that very moment, Bishop Keep promised to find his wife, Barbara, so that she and I could greet one another. Sister Keep is one of the most amazing women that I have ever known in my life. She has always been one of the most loving women I have ever known, too. As soon as I saw her, we hugged for what seemed like forever. To be honest, I nearly cried as I spoke with the Keeps; these definitely would have been tears of joy. We chatted and got caught up on each others' lives and then quickly parted ways. They were at the temple to serve the Lord, not chat with me.

On my way out the door, about twenty minutes after the above situation occurred, I ran into Sister Keep and received another hug; it was truly great to see her again. It was as if the Lord himself had sent the Keeps to see me after my time in the Celestial room, where I had been praying for advice on what to do with my life. I feel like he sent them there to tell me that everything would be okay and to proceed with the plans I made while there.

Here are some other pictures from my experiences at the Los Angeles Temple. Please note that all daytime pictures are from October 24, 2008, while all nighttime pictures are from September 20, 2008:

Moroni, from a different view.


The southeastern water fountain around noon.

Same fountain, different angle.


Moroni at nighttime

Five More Temples Announced

Five new temples have been announced at this morning's General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!!

The five cities receiving temples:

• Calgary, Alberta
• Cordoba, Argentina
• Kansas City, Kansas
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Rome, Italy

I'm excited for each of these temples, as it gives me some pretty cool cities to visit around the world!!!

What is a Temple

Before I post anything personal, I want to post an article found on lds.org, that explains a little bit about what a temple means to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

My first personal post should come some time after this Saturday, when I will have pictures from a trip to the Los Angeles Temple.

Taken directly from the Church website's Newsroom:

• Temples are not regular places of Sunday worship for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are quite different from the thousands of regular chapels or meetinghouses all over the world that are used for Sunday services.
• Anyone, regardless of religion, may enter a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse and attend services. However, because of the sacredness of temples as “houses of the Lord,” only members of the Church, who are in good standing are allowed to enter the temples. A member must be observing the basic principles of the faith and attest to that fact to his or her local leaders once every two years in order to enter a temple.
• The sacredness of the temple anciently can be seen in both the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, Moses had the children of Israel carry with them the Tabernacle (a large, portable temple) as they wandered in the wilderness. King Solomon built and dedicated the great temple that was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. It was rebuilt and later substantially expanded, but again destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70. The great Western Wall can still be seen in Jerusalem today, and even after millennia, remains a sacred site for Jews. The New Testament gives an account of Jesus Christ clearing the temples when its sacredness was violated by people using its courts as a common market.
• Latter-day Saint temples are considered houses of God, a place of holiness and peace separate from the preoccupations of the world. They provide a place where Church members make formal promises and commitments to God. They are also the place where the highest sacraments of the faith occur — the marriage of couples and the “sealing” of families for eternity.
• Temples serve as the only place where ceremonies such as baptism and eternal marriage can be performed in behalf of those who have died —a practice that Latter-day Saints believe was followed in New Testament times but that later was lost.
• Temples point Latter-day Saints to Jesus Christ and their eventual life with Him, their Heavenly Father and their family members on the condition of faithfulness to Christ’s teachings.
• In a modern-day revelation, Joseph Smith received direction to build a temple in Kirtland, Ohio (dedicated in 1836). Later he was instructed to build a temple in Nauvoo, Illinois (1846). So important were temples to early Church members that within days after arriving in Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young selected the site of the Salt Lake Temple.
• There are 134 temples throughout the world either in operation, under construction or announced. (See temple list.)
• On most temples there is a golden statue of a man in flowing robes, with a long horn pressed to his lips. The statue depicts the angel Moroni, an ancient prophet and a central figure in the Book of Mormon. The statue is symbolic of the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world.