The Primary organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints picks a topic of focus during each calendar year. For the year of 2002 they picked the topic, "The Temple, I'm going there someday." I thought it would be fun for us as a family to study about some of the over 100 Latter-day Temples and learn something about the county, the people, and the temple in our search. As an added bonus to this study we are inviting returned missionaries from the area the temples are located. We hope to install in our young sons (and daughter, although she is a bit too young) the importance of serving a mission. That a mission is hard work both physically and spiritually but the growth in spirit, mind, body and testimony is worth the effort.

Our First Field Trip

Knowing that this was the topic for the year 2002, we took advantage of the Columbia River Temple open house in Richland, Washington. I grew up there and still have family living in the area. We took two days (one for the temple, one to visit with family) and took all six kids through the temple. My eldest son mentioned how beautiful it was and said, "No wonder you keep going back." My second son said, "Mom, we should just buy these chandeliers." (We had just been shopping for new lights for our dinning room, entry way and kitchen table.) It was a wonderful experience and touching to me. As I was a little girl we fasted and prayed as a primary that we would someday have a temple in our town. The lot that the temple sits on is a lot that my high school track team use to run through. On these runs my thoughts would always be every where, but when I run and have no one to talk to, I think of things eternal and I am amazed how how eternal my thoughts were on those runs.

Our First Lesson

During one of the first Family Home Evenings we discussed the importance of temples on the earth. We were just reading about the tabernacle that Moses and the children of Israel were commanded to build during their journey in the wilderness, so it was a perfect lead into this lesson/discussion. We then picked a few of the temples we wanted to study about.

Our First Temple

Of course we picked the temple in our neighborhood. It happens to be the Seattle Temple located in Bellevue, Washington. We have driven by it many times, we have walked the grounds and the children love to see the temple. We purchase the book, The First 100 Temples, by Chad Hawkins and read the story in it about the Seattle Temple. It was very interesting so we won't spoil it for you. We have also heavily used this web site. The young man, Ryan Passey, who has put this site together has done a fabulous job in his research and care on such a sacred subject. We have referred to this site for all the temples we have studied. Of course after our study, a field trip was in order.

Our Second Temples

Our next temples (yes plural) were the Utah temples. We started out with the intent to study the Salt Lake Temple because the Olympics were behind held at that time, but we found we really couldn't take just the Salt Lake without studying all the temples in Utah. So we read the history for each temple. Some of the stories are very fascinating and very faith promoting. I don't want to spoil any of your research, but the story of the Vernal temple is a very fascinating story.

Our Third Temple

In our stake, we just had a young man return from serving a mission in Guatemala, so we took advantage of him and had him as a guest speaker after we spent a week learning about the county, the people and the Guatemala City Temple. It was a great opportunity for my boys to get excited about serving a mission while learning about a foreign land, a foreign culture and one of God's Holy Temples. My second son wrote a letter to his Uncle Mike who served in Guatemala in the early 90's. Great way to teach letter writing and typing.

Our Fourth Temple

We are studied about the temples of Brazil. Their dad, my husband, served his mission there in the 80's and He and I vacationed there in 1997. Of course it was a Family Home Evening sharing mission stories, looking at mission pictures and bearing testimonies.

Our Fifth Temple

Leave it to a 6 year old to pick our BODY. That one through me for a loop. I wasn't expecting that, but we went with it. We picked up the book The Body Book by Donald M. Silver and Patricia J. Wynne, 1993 (ISBN 0-590-49239-X) and started from the beginning--The Senses. We made the copies of the pieces to make models and those boys who could cut, paste and color made the models. We had a wonderful time exploring and understanding our bodies, the uniqueness they each hold, the fantastic engineering and the great wonder and marvel they are. Of course we added the Word of Wisdom (Doctrine and Covenants section 89) and other health topics as we are studying our body. Some other resources we have used for this unit.

NOTE: We went off on this "temple" and never got back to the temple unit again. I leave the following on the web just in case we revisit this unit and also to maybe help spark an idea with you.

Other temples we may study

	Oakland--Dad grew up in the area and grandparents live near by.
	Japan--close family friends lived there for many years, as well as an uncle served his mission there.
	Germany/Swiss--a family friend married a man from there and they have traveled there.
	England--family friends lived there for many years, aw well as two uncles and two aunt served missions there.
	Argentina--a friend served a mission there as well as an uncle.
	Washington DC.--When our children turn 12 they get to take a field trip with dad to the nation's capital.
	Of course we never know where our adventure will take us, but we sure have fun enjoying the journey.

Web sites

	The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints official temple page
	Forever Family Temple
	Temples to Dot the Earth
	Pratt Family FHE on Temples

Completed November, 2001

Last updated:
November, 2006

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