I Love to See the Temple

Over the past two weeks, our family has gone on a grand tour of the Old South.  We have had a great time, and would love to share our adventures with you.

Our first and last stop was the temple.  Whenever we travel, we like to stop and see the temples in the cities we are visiting.  We walk around the temple as a family, and take a picture to put on our wall.  If possible, we do temple baptisms.  Prior to this trip, we had seen at least 29 temples.  This trip added another seven temples to our list.  We started with the Mesa, Arizona.  A pioneer temple, we loved seeing the Greek features, including several friezes of the pioneers coming across the plains.  

 The Gila Valley, Arizona Temple brought us along the pathway less traveled to find the temple in the middle of nowhere.  There wasn’t really a town, stores, or even a gas station.  One or two houses, a temple, a stake center, and a fabulous softball field.  What a group of stalwart members must live in that valley! 

 The Dallas Temple reminded us a lot of the Chicago temple.  We noticed that there weren’t any windows at this temple.  Allie has a special connection here, she alone was able to do temple baptisms here, a place where none of her siblings have been.   

The Baton Rouge Temple was very pretty.  It was a mini-temple built in the year 2000.  We were surprised that the temple was smaller than the adjacent stake center, but it outshone the stake center in every way.   

 

The Houston Temple was very pretty.  We especially enjoyed walking around this temple.  There was a forest with a brick pathway leading you through.  It was peaceful, quiet, shady and very unique.   

 

The San Antonio temple was beautiful.  Even from the outside, the stained glass windows were enormous, and vibrantly colored depictions of forests, water, and the sun.  I can only imagine how much more brilliant they would have looked from inside the temple.   

 

The Gilbert, Arizona temple was our last stop on the way home.  It is the newest temple on our trip.  Despite the 110 degree heat, the temple grounds were green and inviting.  We loved seeing all of the temples on our itinerary.  It reminds us of our purpose here on earth, and of the importance of being an eternal family.  We can’t imagine a more appropriate stop on our family vacation!