For those those of you Mormons who know me, perhaps you heard this morning that President Monson announced a new temple in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania! I am SO DANG EXCITED. I am pretty sure it'll be my parents' new temple that they'll attend. People are "assigned" to attend a certain temple based on where they live ("temple districts"), and my folks are in the Wilmington Delaware Stake. And seeing how Wilmington is um, right next to Philadelphia, I don't think they will be in the Washington, DC, temple district for much longer. They're also part of the Philadelphia Pennsylvania mission so that should also tell you it's a big possibility that it'll be their temple.
SO YAY.
(that's a picture *I* took by the way.)
I must take this opportunity to say though that the DC Temple will remain "my temple" and that won't change ever. Me and Shanester were married there, and I was sealed as an eternal family to my parents there when I was just 5 years old. Once when I was a little girl, I saw a picture of the Salt Lake Temple and I said, "whatever, that's not a temple." Since to me, the only temple, the main top cheese temple, was in Washington, DC. I love that place. It's so beautiful.
My aunt told me once that someone wrote into the Washington Post with a question: which is taller, the Mormon temple in Kensington (it is technically in Maryland), or the Magic Kingdom Castle at Disneyworld in Florida? Well guess what. It's the temple. It ridiculously dwarfs the Disney Castle from what my aunt said the column said. So how cool is that.
(I guess I must doctrinally clarify for anyone not familiar that all temples are the same inside, and it doesn't matter where you go. But people always have their favorites. And, if you want to know more, go here.)
I remember talking to my mom once about the DC Temple and I told her how it made me feel, and she said to me, "you know, that's what heaven feels like." I believe it.
But, regardless of how magnificent the DC Temple is, and it is magnificent, it is still pretty exciting to think there will be one in Philadelphia soon enough. I'm excited for that. YAY! I guess I should also take this moment to say that I live in Seattle now and although we have a temple here, one has also been announced for the Vancouver area of British Columbia. Which is also pretty cool.
For those of you keeping score at home, there are 128 temples in operation and an additional 17 have been announced.
3 comments:
One of the missionaries here speculated that it might be built on property recently obtained by the Church in Valley Forge, PA.
There are several stakes in this region, one of which is our Wilmington, DE stake.
Here we are physically equidistant from either Philly, or the DC area. I like the idea of not having to cross that danged Bay Bridge and fight the beltway traffic when planning to attend the temple.
I think it would be awesome to have a family reunion sometime to all go to the temple together. Of course we'll have to get some people to watch the grandkids while all of the adults make the trek to Philly. I wasn't able to watch the Saturday morning session so I didn't find out about it until Melani told me this afternoon. I am so stoked!! I'm also jealous because Angela can truly say the DC temple is her temple because she did get married in it. I am the only Twining child who got married in another temple. :( But I'm happy with the Bountiful temple as being the one where I was sealed to my beautiful wife- like Angela said, they're all the same inside (well, not really completely the same, but you can do all of the same ordinances in whatever temple you attend).
I have a special place in my heart for the DC temple, too, as that was my temple for 3 years when I lived in Ohio (prior to the Columbus Temple being built) and it is where Mike and I got engaged. I love it!
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