A Hindú motel manager motivated me to visit for the first time. He knew that I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and after I complimented a calendar on the office wall featuring Hindú temples, he enthusiastically told me that he'd visited my beautiful temple! I'd decided not to visit it because I thought I'd feel sad, as I didn't have a temple recommend so couldn't go inside yet. I was wrong. After arising before dawn, I took public transportation (3 buses, 90 minutes) and arrived as many of the temple workers did. I had a warm chat with one and took a few photos. I'm planning another trip when the temporary visitors center is open @ 9. :-)

UPDATE: I have since received my temple recommend and, after receiving my endowments, (during which the dear sister who was my escort was also my mother's proxy), was sealed to my late husband and parents. I was my mother's proxy for her baptism and confirmation as well as her sealing to my father and her parents, and was proxy for one of my late husband's paternal grandfather's wives for their sealing (he remarried after being widowed, but had only been sealed to one of the two). I'm DETERMINED to get familial permission to have his mother's ordinances done so his parents can be sealed and he can be sealed to them (I've had his father's other ordinances done). I have a lot to do for our ancestors!

I could hardly believe it was possible for the temple to be even more beautiful inside than outside, but it is - and, despite being right beside a major freeway, it's as quiet as those who come to such a holy place deserve for it to be. I've learned that two of its architects was a Catholic couple, and it shows. The Bride's Room is so breathtaking that I've sneaked into it a few times to enjoy its beauty and snag a few TicTacs from the bowl on the central table (and the one time I was "caught", we just [quietly] laughed!). I'm blessed to be able to go about one morning a week with sisters in my ward who carpool there to participate in initiatories. I know we retain our free agency after death, just as we had it before and after mortality, and have been blessed with impressions from some of those for whom I've been privileged to be proxy that they had embraced the gospel after death as they were unable to in life, and were grateful for the small, but necessary, role I played in their eternal progression, which was, of course, edifying for me, as well.

While I regret having not lived in such a way so as to be worthy of temple worship for far too many years, I'm grateful that I persevered and made doing so a goal. Having read accounts of the temple experiences of a few women who went on to break their covenants, forsake the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and withdraw from the Church, I was a little nervous about going, as well as worried that what I'd read would negatively impact my own experiences. But I discussed my fears and concerns with my bishop and had a few chats with the Temple Preparation Class instructor, so nothing I read ended up making any difference to me. I merely feel sad that these women were less prepared, went under questionable circumstances, and therefore couldn't help but interpret the experience far differently.