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| President Hinckley at the Anchorage, Alaska Temple |
Twenty years ago, Alaskan Latter-day Saints traveled around 2,000 miles and forty hours in the car for the privilege of worshiping and serving at an LDS temple.
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| LDS Alaskans traveled to Cardston, Alberta in Canada |
Time, distance, and money limited virtually everyone. Only with much travel and sacrifice could such a trip be taken.
But in 1997, an electrifying announcement drastically changed the lives of these Alaskan Christians.
It was an ordinary General Priesthood meeting, where priesthood-holding men gathered to be taught via a live television broadcast.
President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke last but with great energy and sincerity. He told the men of our church that he had created plans to build smaller temples than usual, temples perfect in every detail and with all of the necessary rooms for ordinances. These smaller temples could be built quickly and relatively cheaply, thus making it possible for Latter-day Saints all over the world to have access to these sacred houses.
And what was the very first small temple that he announced?
Anchorage, Alaska.
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My dad was so excited, I thought at first that his favorite football team had won the superbowl. He told us that the men stood and cheered when the announcement was made.
Dad took us to see the new temple site. It was just a parking lot at the time and I couldn’t imagine what that drab space would look like once a temple was there.
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| Under construction |
We came by month after month and, like magic, the walls rose up until a perfect little temple reached toward the sky. Capping the spire was a golden angel blowing his trumpet-- the Angel Moroni, heralding in the Second Coming of our Savior.
That December, I turned eight and was finally old enough to be baptized into our church.*
Days after, we drove into Anchorage and waited in the bitter December cold for a chance to tour the new building.
Oh, it was cold and windy.
Even so, at least a hundred men, women, and children stood in line in their Sunday best for a chance to see that highly-anticipated building.
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| Original Anchorage temple |
I remember that we waited in a plastic tunnel, the kind of thing you’d see at a construction site. It was probably intended to help keep the line warm or to keep off the wind. It didn’t really help.
But soon we were going up the stone stairs and into the glass doors.
(It’s interesting, by the way, that I remember those stairs, because now the stairs are inside the building. The temple was closed and remodeled sometime around 2003. Now, there is a large coatroom, a small waiting area, and a little kitchen area, along with the indoor staircase).
I remember that the temple was warm and light.
I remember white carpet, marble thresholds, and quiet.
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| Ogden, UT temple entrance. Gives an idea of the beautiful detail work inside a temple |
We believe that baptism by proper priesthood authority is so important that Christ himself was baptised. Baptism is a gate that must be entered by every person over age eight who wants to become spiritually clean and begin the path back to our Heavenly Father.
So, in temples we perform baptisms in behalf of deceased ancestors**. We believe that they are then given the option of accepting this baptism and progressing on the path back to our Father in Heaven, or they can refuse to accept the baptism.
The choice is theirs, but the responsibility to give them that choice is ours.
The baptistry is a simple circular pool, but that pool rests on a statue of twelve oxen.
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| Oquirrh Mountain temple in UT- gives you a look at the oxen |
I was eight, remember, and I badly wanted to climb down and hitch a ride on one of those statue oxen.
We next went through one of the locker rooms.
In temples, women wear simple white dresses and men wear white suits. A person desiring to serve at the temple goes into the locker room to change clothes and store their stuff in a locker.
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| One style of dress that a woman could wear in the temple. The designs are all simple because in the temple, we are all equal. |
We next went through one of the ordinance rooms. It looks like a very classy but small theater. There are padded pull-down seats and a simple but beautiful padded alter at the front of the room.
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| Indianapolis Temple Ordinance Room- the Anchorage one is similar but the mural is taken from Alaskan scenes |
Joe and I were married and sealed together in a room similar to this one.
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| Spokane, Washington Sealing Room |
Next we went to the Celestial Room. This is a beautifully furnished, bright little room with a large chandelier. This room represents the place where our Heavenly Father lives.
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| Anchorage Celestial room (excluding the chandelier) |
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| Mount Timpanogos Celestial Room- gives a better idea of the scale |
What the room looks like isn’t as significant as what it feels like. The Holy Ghost is very evident to everyone who comes into this room.
I remember as we looked around the Celestial Room that I strongly desired to be the person allowed to come to the temple and clean.
Isn’t that funny?
But in my eight-year-old world, cleaning was a method of service required in our family. It was a way to help my parents, and it was one of the ways us children put ourselves aside and helped. (Sometimes rather unwillingly, but we still did it).
Looking around at this clean, beautiful room, I felt it would be an honor to be a helper here.
I still feel that way, but I serve now as a patron instead of a custodian.
Next I remember coming to the Cultural Celebration, a performance put on by Alaskan youth to celebrate our new temple. I remember coming to the Anchorage theater and sitting with my mom.
“Stand up!” she suddenly said as everyone around us rose.
“Why?” I asked, standing too.
She pointed to a seat below ours. “There’s the prophet, Jenna! We all stand when the prophet comes into the room.”
I saw him.
He was smaller than I’d thought, a little old man with a ring of white hair. He waved and sat, then we all sat too.
I still remember parts of the performance, notably the representation of the first LDS family traveling from the lower 48 to Alaska. The dad was excited and the mom was crying, which still strikes me as very accurate.
We must have gone to the temple that Sunday for the dedication. At a Temple Dedication, a member of our church’s First Presidency (the prophet and his two counselors) comes and dedicates the holy house to God and His work.
My dad had carefully coached me on what to expect.
“Remember to use the bathroom before the meeting starts,” he warned several times. “You'll need to show your recommend to get into the chapel and if you leave after the meeting begins, you won't be able to reenter.”
He was right. At other temple dedications, a person who leaves the building won't be allowed to reenter, but here it was the chapel. I think this was so family members without a temple recommend could wait inside the building instead of out in the cold.
A woman actually did leave the chapel early, presumably to use the bathroom, and wasn't allowed to come back in. I saw her tell her son through the door to stay inside and she would wait in the foyer.
I assume this policy is meant to maintain reverence. For the dedication, the chapel of the church becomes an extension of the temple.
Every seat in the chapel was taken as we all watched the events broadcasting from the temple.
President Hinckley stood at a pulpit and spoke.
He said that as he got off of the jet at the airport, he asked himself, “What in the world am I doing up in Alaska in January?”
That got him a laugh from his experienced audience, but he probably didn’t understand what we knew, which was that the previous weeks had been awfully cold, so cold that going outside made you want to burrow down and grit your teeth until you could go inside again.
My mom told me that Heavenly Father had warmed our weather for the prophet, and I think she's right.
My Grandpa was serving as a major local leader at the time of the temple dedication and he got to sit inside the temple for this event, seeing President Hinckley eye to eye instead of through a screen like the rest of us.
President Hinckley asked him how long it takes to travel from Soldotna to the temple and my Papa responded with one of his trademark quips.
“That depends on how many moose are in the roads.”
Sometimes you need a light moment, right?
After that Sunday, we had our own little temple, perfect in every detail and for us, only an hour away.
What an honor and privilege to hold one of God's holy houses close to home and heart.
-Jenna
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| The enlarged Anchorage, Alaska temple operating today |
*Interesting aside: we believe that little children are innocent and incapable of committing sin. Children who die before the age of accountability (set at the age of eight) are automatically saved in Heaven, so baptism isn't necessary for any small child. There's a great chapter on this in the Book of Mormon
**On a related note, we don't perform proxy baptisms for ancestors who die before age eight, since they died as little children and are automatically saved
