If you are wondering what a temple dedication is like, this personal account about the Gila Valley Arizona Temple dedication is a moving summary of what temple dedications mean to Mormons, and what it’s like to attend a dedication.

You can also read this Mormon Women article for more information: What happens at a Mormon temple dedication?

Prior to the dedication, an open house was held, where the public was able to walk through the temple and learn more about what temples mean to Mormons. (For more information on this topic, see our index entry on Mormon temples.)

The following video was from a press tour of the temple in April and includes photos from the inside of the temple. It also includes a brief interview with Elder William R. Walker of the Church’s First Quorum of the Seventy.

The youth in the area also held a cultural celebration with dance and music.

For a series of photos of the event, see this LDS Church News article:

Youth celebration depicts cultural history of Eastern Arizona

More about the youth celebration:

Youths Celebrate Gila Valley Temple in Arizona

More photos of the temple can be found in the following video:

Read more about Mormon temples in the following Mormon Women articles:

Chapels and Temples: Glimpses inside each and how they differ

What does the inside of the Oquirrh Mountain temple look like?

What the temple means to Mormons?

What does the inside of a Mormon temple look like?

The connection between LDS temple worship and ancient (Old Testament) ordinances

What can you tell me about Mormon temples?

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~by Mahina

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. As a member, I serve in my ward (congregation) in whatever capacity I am needed. Currently, I am a teacher in the Relief Society, and one Sunday I was preparing to give a lesson based on two excellent talks (“Temple Worship: The Source of Strength and Power in a Time of Need“by Elder Richard G. Scott and “Sacred Homes, Sacred Temples” by Elder Stevenson).

The lesson topic was temple worship and how to make our homes a sacred place.

In preparation for my lesson I have made a greater effort to “attend” the temple. When I say “attend” I don’t necessarily mean within the walls of the temple, though I am doing that as well. That week I took the opportunity to visit the temple grounds with our girls. We went twice.

Our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, once counseled, “as we touch the temple, the temple will touch us.” So, I decided to take the girls to the temple so they could “touch” the temple.

On both occasions, we had a great experience. On one of the visits we sat in the shade of a tree and talked about and sang the children’s hymn “I Love to See the Temple.” I asked the girls what we can learn from the lyrics of the song. Here are some of the things we came up with:

• We are children of God
• Families can be together forever when sealed in the temple
• We go to the temple to pray, to listen, to feel the spirit
• The temple is God’s house
• We make promises in the temple
• The temple is a place of beauty
• We must prepare to enter the temple

On another occasion we sat in front of the fountain and talked about the significance of the water and how it represents the “living water” of Christ of which we can partake of to never thirst again.

On both visits, we walked to the back of the temple and touched the walls of the temple just outside of the Celestial room. I told them about the quote from our prophet about touching the temple and asked them what it meant to have “the temple touch us”.

During both visits the thing that struck me was how quiet and reverent they were the whole time we were on the temple grounds.

If you live near a temple, I highly recommend walking the temple grounds. If you have children, take them with you. It is a great place to feel the Lord’s Spirit and let the peace of the temple touch you. Our girls, along with myself, look forward to our next visit.

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Hannah and Rob in front of the Frankfurt, Germany Temple

On Friday, my husband Rob and I are leaving Paris, where we have been living for three months. Rob has been busy working for an NGO (non-government organization) while I have been learning French and enjoying some time off before I start graduate school in the fall. As exciting as it sounds, moving to a different country is full of adjustments and ups and downs.

One major change was that we had just moved from Utah, where there are 13 active LDS temples, to France, where there are none. Depending on where you live in France, a visit to the temple can mean a trip of several hours, since the closest temples are in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Spain. (The same can be said of other countries in which there are no temples. Rob grew up on a small island in the Pacific Ocean, and the closest temple is a 7-8 hour plane ride away in Hawaii.)

The temple is a place where members of the Church go to perform vicarious saving ordinances for those who have died, and this act of service has provided a great amount of comfort and relief for me in times of need. Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has described frequent temple worship as “the source and strength and power in times of need.” He said, “[W]hen we keep the temple covenants we have made and when we live righteously in order to maintain the blessings promised by those ordinances, then come what may, we have no reason to worry or to feel despondent.” (1)

We scheduled a trip to the Frankfurt Germany Temple in the middle of June, when we had been in Paris for just about six weeks. Some family friends of ours were kind enough to host us for the weekend at their house and to let us accompany them to their stake temple day. At the time I was struggling with the French language, the culture, the exchange rate, and being home alone all day while my husband was working. I couldn’t even understand the proceedings of our church meetings without Rob leaning over and telling me what was going on. In all aspects of my life I felt like I had hit a wall, and the world was still going about its business while I was stuck in my own world of self-pity. In short, I needed to reconnect with my spiritual self.

Sitting in the temple, surrounded by friends, my husband, and other members of the Church brought me such a warm feeling of peace and familiarity that I had been craving for so many weeks. I thought that our weekend visit to the temple was going to be the vacation from my so-called “problems” that I needed. In fact, being at the temple was an opportunity for me to learn what I needed to change in my life to feel better about my situation, a situation that would not be solved by sitting at home while eating spoonfuls of plain Nutella out of the jar.

I left Germany that weekend with a renewed desire to quit resisting and resenting change. (After all, this stage in my life marks the beginning of countless changes I’m going to be making.) More importantly, I also had a renewed desire to make my home a temple by making a bigger effort to invite the Spirit into our home, since I no longer had the luxury of driving the five minutes from our apartment to the Provo Temple. Almost every Sunday since we have been here, someone in our Paris ward has mentioned the importance of making our homes a temple because the prospect of a temple in France is still so far away. Who knows where life will take us next? I learned that I need to be prepared for any situation that puts us far away from easy temple access. Elder Gary E. Stevenson [a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy] said, “There exists a righteous unity between the temple and the home… Whether our living space is large or small, humble or extravagant, there is a place for… gospel priorities in each of our homes.” (2)

This small, seemingly unimportant trial that passed as quickly as it came was an important lesson for me: that “you are never lost when you can see the temple,” (3) no matter what country it is in.

1) Elder Richard G. Scott, “Temple Worship: The Source of Strength and Power in Times of Need,” May 2009 Ensign
2) Elder Gary E. Stevenson, “Sacred Homes, Sacred Temples,” May 2009 Ensign
3) Elder Gary E. Stevenson, “Sacred Homes, Sacred Temples,” May 2009 Ensign

While living in Europe, Hannah visited two other Latter Day Saints meetinghouses, pictured below.

These pictures are of the Hyde Park LDS meetinghouse in London, England.

And this picture is from an LDS ward building in Bayonne, France.

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