Dear Young Women,
I think we could all agree that temples are beautiful, outside and inside. When thinking of how beautiful and well-kept the temples are I am reminded of a story from when I was a little girl.
When I was around the age of 10 my family visited a friend of my mom's, who lives in Utah. At night she would clean the Bountiful temple. She told us how it made her so sad to find candy bar wrappers shoved in couches and in the plants. She was disgusted by the way the bathroom was treated. She had gained a testimony of the temple as the Lord's house and was so upset to see it treated as just any other house or place.
Her favorite part about cleaning the temple was when she would stand on a ladder and clean the chandelier, each piece, one by one. As a little girl, and still as an adult, that sounds pretty neat to me!
Her love of the temple and her testimony of it's holiness remained with me and because of her I had a desire to get married in the Bountiful temple-which I did!
Temples are beautiful, amazing structures. Today for your temple experience I thought I would allow you the opportunity to see some temples you may not have ever seen before, and some that are still under construction!
Aba, Nigeria
Accra, Ghana
Anchorage, Alaska
Apia, Samoa
Campinas, Brazil
Cebu, Phillippines
Copenhagen, Denmark
Hong Kong, China
Indianapolis, Indiana (under construction)
Monticello, Utah
Paris, France (under construction)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (under construction)
Preston, England
Reno, Nevada
Rome, Italy (under construction)
Sapporo, Japan (under construction)
The temple is a beautiful structure, dedicated to the Lord. I am reminded of a conference talk that was given to teach all of us the importance of that principle.
"While recently touring the beautiful Brigham City Utah Temple, I
was reminded of an experience that I had while serving as the
coordinator of the open house, rededication, and cultural celebration of
the historic Laie Hawaii Temple.
A
few months prior to the completion of the extensive renovation work, I
was invited to tour the temple with the Executive Director of the Temple
Department, Elder William R. Walker, and his Temple Department
associates. In addition, various members of the general contracting firm
were in attendance. The purpose of the tour, in part, was to review the
progress and quality of the work performed. At the time of this tour,
the work was about 85 percent completed.
As
we moved through the temple, I watched and listened to Elder Walker and
his associates as they inspected the work and conversed with the
general contractor. On occasion I observed one man running his hand
along the walls as we moved from room to room. A few times after doing
this, he would rub his fingers together and then approach the general
contractor and say, “I feel grit on this wall. Grit is not temple
standard. You will need to re-sand and buff this wall.” The contractor
dutifully took notes of each observation.
As
we approached an area in the temple that few eyes would ever see, the
same man stopped us and directed our attention to a newly installed,
beautiful leaded-glass window. This window measured about two feet
(0.6 m) wide by six feet (1.8 m) tall and contained an embedded, small
stained-glass geometric pattern. He pointed to a small two-inch (5 cm)
colored-glass square that was part of the simple pattern and said, “That
square is crooked.” I looked at the square, and to my eyes it looked
evenly placed. However, upon closer inspection with a measuring device
in hand, I could see there was a flaw and that this little square was
indeed one-eighth of an inch (3 mm) crooked. Direction was then given to
the contractor that this window would need to be replaced because it
was not temple standard.
I
admit that I was surprised that an entire window would need to be
replaced because of such a small, barely noticeable defect. Surely, it
was unlikely that anyone would ever know or even notice this window
given its remote location in the temple.
As
I drove home from the temple that day, I reflected on what I learned
from this experience—or, rather, what I thought I learned. It wasn’t
until several weeks later when I was invited to tour the now completed
temple that my understanding of the prior tour experience became
clearer.
As
I entered the completely renovated Laie Hawaii Temple, I was
overwhelmed by its beauty and quality of finish. You can appreciate my
anticipation as I approached the “gritty” walls and the “flawed” window.
Did the contractor re-sand and buff the walls? Was the window really
replaced? As I approached the gritty walls, I was surprised to see that
beautiful wallpaper now hung on all the walls. My first thought was, “So
this is how the contractor addressed the grit—he covered it.” But, no, I
learned that it had always been the plan to hang wallpaper on these
walls. I wondered why a little hardly detectable grit mattered if
wallpaper was to cover it. I then eagerly approached the area where the
flawed window was located and was surprised to see a beautiful
floor-to-ceiling potted plant sitting directly in front of the window.
Again I thought, “So this is how the contractor addressed the crooked
little square—he hid it.” As I moved closer, I pushed the plant’s leaves
aside and smiled as I saw that the window had indeed been replaced. The
formerly crooked little square now stood neatly and evenly in the
pattern. I learned that it had always been part of the interior design
to have a plant in front of this window.
Why
would walls with a little grit and a window with a little asymmetry
require additional work and even replacement when few human hands or
eyes would ever know? Why was a contractor held to such high standards?
As I exited the temple deep in thought, I found my answer as I
looked up at the refinished exterior and saw these words: “Holiness to
the Lord, the House of the Lord.”
The
temples of this Church are precisely as proclaimed. These sacred
buildings are built for our use, and within their walls sacred and
saving ordinances are performed. But there should be no doubt as to
whose house it really is. By requiring exacting standards of
construction down to the smallest of details, we not only show our love
and respect for the Lord Jesus Christ, but we also hold out to all observers that we honor and worship Him whose house it is."
Scott D. Whiting, Temple Standard, October 2012
Love, Sister Chambers
