Mostly about Utah
Jill was in Brigham City today at the temple site. Construction continues on the north-east corner of the temple. Since Jill viewed the construction two weeks ago, the corner has risen to the same height as the other corners of the temple.
Bryson, taking some refreshment, posed in front of the construction at the viewing area.
Jill across the street from the Brigham City Utah Temple site
Jill was in Brigham City yesterday and took these photographs for me of the Brigham City Temple construction.
Work is continuing through the winter and we have visible progress from the last time I posted photographs of the temple construction.
I was in Brigham City on Christmas Day so I swung around by the temple lot to see how the construction was progressing. Two of the corners had concrete poured and a third was being formed. The perimeter was fenced and the view restricted except for a viewing area.
The temple is being built on the land formerly occupied by Central Elementary School that my wife attended as a child and will be directly west of and across the street from the church’s Brigham City Tabernacle.
Jacob and Rachel were sealed in the Bountiful Temple
Yesterday Jacob and Rachel were married in the Bountiful Temple. For those not familiar with Mormon weddings, I will explain. Members of the Church believe that marriages performed in temples are “sealed,” or blessed to last for eternity. Those who are sealed in the temple have the assurance that their relationship will continue forever if they are true to their covenants. They know that nothing, not even death, can permanently separate them.
The Bountiful Temple has sealing rooms similar to those of the Vancouver temple pictured here
The concept of eternal families comes from scripture and modern-day revelation. For instance, the New Testament reference in Matthew 16:19 records Jesus Christ telling the Apostle Peter: “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” The Church equates the word “bind” with “seal.”
In “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles proclaim that “marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.” When a man and woman are married in the temple, their family can be together forever.
After the sealing ceremony, Jake and Rachel changed into traditional marriage clothes for photographs in the temple grounds. Family and friends, after witnessing the sealing, waited patiently for them outside the temple doors. Here are a few photographs, mostly via my camera. Click on the images to enlarge.
Jake and Rachel have yet to emerge from the temple. Brothers wait.
Sister and cousin wait.
Families wait.
Everybody waits.
Rachel and Jake appear.
Rachel, the beautiful bride.
Photographs. Parent of the bride.
Parents of the groom.
Parents of the bride and groom.
I'm not sure what caused this response. Maybe a snowball fight started.
Family of the Bride.
More family of the bride.
Family of the groom.
Siblings of the groom.
Baby Cassandra was amused by all the posing and picture taking.
Snowball fight (originally started by the groom).
Jacob's boss (and mine and Paul's) with the bride and groom.
Paul readying the slides using my TV, laptop, and Nexus One hot spot. With a family of engineers, everything has to be complicated.
In the end, it all worked. Photo Credit: Susan Ward.
Jake had the usual decorating done on his car.
Here are some more photographs, courtesy Still Timeless Photography, of the Wedding of Jacob and Rachel.
Rachel and Jake at the Bountiful Temple patron doors
Today Rachel, my soon to be daughter-in-law, went to the Bountiful temple to receive her endowment. With her were her family and fiancé, Jake. Jake’s parents Rick and Jill; siblings Steven, Sarah, and Paul; and a brother-in-law Derek, were also in attendance. Daniel still has three days of his mission left to serve.
After the ceremony we took some photographs (click to enlarge) in the temple grounds. The temple had a few Christmas decorations and a nativity scene that I haven’t seen before.
Bountiful Temple Nativity Scene
For my readers that are not familiar with the temple endowment I will give a short overview.
An endowment is a sacred ordinance. Endowments take place in a dedicated House of the Lord, or temple. Temples were centers of religious worship anciently and Mormons build temples today to administer the ancient ordinances of salvation that have been restored to the earth.
The dictionary defines an endowment as a gift given by a higher power. The temple endowment is a gift of knowledge that helps Mormons understand who they are, where they came from, and where they are going. It helps members understand what they should do to prepare to meet God, and how Jesus Christ offers salvation to each of us.
The temple endowment conveys information in a highly symbolic manner. Symbols used in the temple endowment and the meanings of those symbols are sacred to Mormons. Mormons don’t talk about the details of what goes on in the temple—it is too sacred to be discussed, except in the most holy of places.
When presenting the endowment, Church members are required to make very specific covenants with God. A covenant is a two-way promise. In religious terms, a covenant is a sacred promise made between an individual and the Lord:
The celestial room of the Vancouver temple, smaller but similar to, the Bountiful temple
The ordinances of the endowment embody certain obligations on the part of the individual, such as covenant and promise to observe the law of strict virtue and chastity, to be charitable, benevolent, tolerant and pure; to devote both talent and material means to the spread of truth and the uplifting of the race; to maintain devotion to the cause of truth; and to seek in every way to contribute to the great preparation that the earth may be made ready to receive her King, the Lord Jesus Christ. With the taking of each covenant and the assuming of each obligation a promised blessing is pronounced, contingent upon the faithful observance of the conditions. (James E. Talmage, The House of the Lord, p 84)
Moroni atop the Bountiful Temple
In 1897 John Haven Barlow Sr. purchased forty acres of land from the United States government. There was little that could be done with the land until in 1947 some of the land was cleared and four hundred apricot trees were planted. Bountiful City requested the use of the soil from the site to build a dam and over two hundred thousand cubic yards of soil was removed, leaving the area an ideal spot on which the temple would later be built. The temple is the 47th operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I remember well helping to direct traffic at the open house and being one of 200,000 members attending the temple dedication. Sarah and Derek were married in the Bountiful temple. Some temple details:
Announced: 28 May 1988.
Site: 11 acres.
Exterior finish: Bethel white granite.
Architect: Allen Ereckson.
Rooms: Baptistry, celestial room, four endowment rooms, eight sealing rooms.
Total floor area: 104,000 square feet.
Dimensions: 145 feet by 198 feet. 176 feet spire.
District: 30 stakes in central and south Davis county.
Groundbreaking: 2 May 1992 by President Ezra Taft Benson.
Dedication: 8-14 January 1995 by President Howard W. Hunter; 28 sessions.
Source: 2011 Church Almanac, p 210
Paul, Jill, Sarah, and Steven
Sarah at the Bountiful Temple
Paul, Steven, Rachel, Jake, Jill, and Rick
Rachel and Jake
I have been participating in the Official LDS Church Call for Photos on flickr. I was pleased to hear at least one of the photographs I uploaded has been used. The temple flower photographs were taken by Jake and he had me upload them to flickr along with photographs of my own. Today I got this email from the Audiovisual Department of the Church:
We wanted to make sure we let you know that at least one of your photos was used on the new.lds.org. The designers are still compiling some of the pages, but your photo of the San Diego temple appears on the Temple homepage. You can find it here: http://new.lds.org/church/temples
Thanks again for sharing so many wonderful photos with the Church.
This is what the temple homepage looked like in October 2010. It was thoughtful of the Audiovisual Department to send me the email and it was appreciated. If you have a few photographs that you are particularly fond of, upload them to the Church flickr group pool. They will then be made available for use on Church Internet sites — as demonstrated.
Photographs are now contributed through Helping in The Vineyard.
After reading about the Official LDS Call for Photos in Mormon Times (now the faith section of Deseret News) I responded. After all, what use are great photographs of temples, families, and church history sites if no-one sees them? Sure, I can put them on my blog, and I have, but who reads my blog, apart from you?
The Church needs all kinds of photographs — there is a list on their Official LDS Call for Photos Flickr page (submit photographs now through The Vineyard.) Your submitted photographs will be used by the Church and Church members for Church-related purposes. You still retain the copyright of your images though there will be no attribution.
I already had a Flickr account but if you don’t, join Flickr for free and give it your best shots. After uploading six photographs, join the group, Official LDS Call for Photos. Now add your photographs to the Church’s site. You can upload six a day. With a free account I found that my photographs were limited to 1200 pixels wide. The full resolution has been uploaded, you just can’t see it with the free account. You don’t need to because you will be contacted via Flickrmail with instructions to submit your originals to a separate Church site. This may take a few weeks.
Christus in the Oakland Temple Visitors Center
If you have a tough time with rejection the safest route is to submit temple photographs. If there are people or private property in your photographs you will have to deal with model and/or property releases. All recognizable individuals need to sign a model release. Participants under the age of 18 will need a signature from a parent or legal guardian. You do not need a release for LDS Church-owned buildings. Before you share your photographs read the Church’s Flickr site thoroughly.
To date I have submitted 18 photographs and had one rejected, the one with the Christus. It is not a very good photograph to begin with and I guess it depicts a sculpture, which we are specifically told not to submit. However, when you run your own blog you can post as many bad photos as you want. And remember, when it comes to photographs Many are called but few are chosen.
With a limit of 100 MB per month, the 24 photographs uploaded in June have used 69% of my allotment. However, a Pro account ($24.95 a year) allows unlimited uploads.
To give you some idea of what is being accepted, if you don’t want to head over to Flickr, here are my seventeen photographs. You probably have photographs that are just as good or much better. On the Church’s Flickr site they have more than just temples. If you do upload some photos, let me know so that I can check out what a real photographer’s work looks like.
My son Jake was at the wedding of Jake and Brittney this morning. He took a few photographs afterwards outside the Bountiful temple. Click on the photographs to obtain the high resolution versions.
Lo! in the desert the flowers are springing;
Streams, ever copious, are gliding along.
Loud from the mountaintops echoes are ringing;
Wastes rise in verdure and mingle in song.
Jake took photographs of the many flowers on the temple grounds while on our recent California Temple Trip. The weather was very agreeable for man and bloom. I don’t know the names of these flowers, just the temples where they were nurtured.
Click on the images to enlarge.
Fresno Temple
Fresno Temple
Fresno Temple
Las Vegas Temple
Las Vegas Temple
Oakland Temple
Redlands Temple
Redlands Temple
Redlands Temple
Redlands Temple
Reno Temple
Reno Temple
Sacramento Temple
Sacramento Temple
Sacramento Temple
