On August 13th (Friday the 13th hehe), 2010, Tyler and I went to the Bountiful Utah Temple for the 4 o'clock session and then out to dinner. It was a nice evening and the temple was moderately busy with couples on temple dates for date night. In all a great night!
History:
The Utah Bountiful Temple is no surprise named after the town in which it is in, which interestingly enough is named after a Book of Mormon city. The town was actually first called Session's Settlement and was settled by Perrigrine Sessions and his family on Sept 27, 1847. It wasn't until 1855 that they changed it to be named after the Book of Mormon city and due to it being known for their gardens (I really don't blame them Bountiful is ten times cooler of name than Session's Settlement not too creative). This temple was announced to be built on April 6th, 1991. The ground breaking was on May 2, 1992 by Ezra Taft Benson. The open house was from Nov 4, 1994 to Dec 7th, 1994. The temple was dedicated on January 8-14, 1995 by Howard W. Hunter (one of the two temples he dedication during his short time as president of the church). Interestingly enough the Bountiful temple has the record of having the most people physically attend a temple dedication with a total number of 201,655 people in their 28 dedicatory sessions (fascinating to compare to temples today where wide broadcasts of dedications are made).
Architecture/ Decor
The Bountiful Utah Temple has some interesting and unique features about it. One is built on a mountain over looking the Great Salt Lake and the whole northern valley. It is also surrounded by some pretty nice multi-millionaire homes. It also has underground parking a feature not seen at any of the other temples I have been to so far on this temple challenge. It also has beautiful arches by the entrance and really cool formal sliding doors. Those doors feel like nice doors you should open but instead slide open for you (makes sense because there are no handles on them). The temple is also filled with many windows bringing in a natural light. This temple is very simplistic and not really historically based like many of the temples Tyler and I have gone too. It does have a slight 90's feel inside in the furniture that is used, especially with the chairs in the endowment room (kind of reminds me of 90's movies office chairs). The Celestial Room was Tyler's favorite Celestial Room yet (this was due to having small palm trees in it, he loves palm trees). One thing that surprised me is that I also thought Bountiful was a small temple but it is fairly large and the rooms are pretty large compared to a lot of temples.
Helpful things to know when visiting this Temple:
Location:
Not far off of 1-15 exit, just drive towards the mountain and their are signs to help point out where it is. Basically look for the mountain, Angel Moroni, and expensive homes.
Scheduling and Temple Clothes:
You don't need to call ahead because they have two Endowment rooms that are large. They also have sessions that start every 30 minutes. They do have temple clothing rentals for a small few
Other things to note:
If you're hungry and in the mood for cafeteria food they also have a cafeteria. I have to admit one of my dreams is to eat at a temple cafeteria. I will live this dream sometime during this challenge (probably at Provo Temple). They also have a lot of fast food restaurants in the area if you go down to Main Street but not so many sit down restaurants (that aren't shady). Also come early because parking lot is packed. Their parking spots are also very tight to get into compared to most temple parking spots that are abnormally painted large.
The sites I got my info and if you wish to learn more:
Bountiful Utah LDS Temple: http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/bountiful/
Bountiful, Utah: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bountiful,_Utah
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