I’ve been an ordinance worker at the Idaho Falls Temple since June 2018. During that time, both as a worker and as a patron, I’ve noticed several things that allow the experience to be more spiritual for everyone involved.
Make a Temple Appointment
While some temples have always required or strongly recommended that you get an appointment, others, such as the Idaho Falls Temple, only recently started strongly encouraging appointments for proxy ordinances. Having an appointment allows you to know that you’ll be able to do your chosen ordinance. Appointments also commit you to coming to the temple. Making an appointment also allows temple workers to have a better idea of how many people are coming for a specific session or ordinance. This allows them to better serve the patrons.
Be Flexible If You Don’t Have an Appointment
I’m not sure of every temple’s walk-in policies. At Idaho Falls, there are walk-in spots reserved for all ordinances. There are quite a few for every endowment session. There are only a few every half hour for initiatory and every hour for sealing sessions. I do not work in the baptistery, so I’m not sure what the walk-in policy is there, but they probably accommodate walk-ins as well.
If you come in as a walk-in, it’s alright to have a specific ordinance that you hope to do. Because you don’t have an appointment, your preferred ordinance might not be available when you want, especially if you do not arrive early. Be ready to do something else or to wait a little longer.
Arrive on Time to the Temple
When you sign up for a temple appointment, it will tell you when you should arrive. I know for endowments, the Idaho Falls Temple tells you to be there half an hour early, and Rexburg says 20 minutes early. Other ordinances may allow you to arrive a little closer to your scheduled time. Arriving early allows you to not feel rushed as you get ready. It also helps to ensure that you will be able to participate in your chosen ordinance.
While different temple presidencies will handle things differently, be aware that if arrive late, they may start the session without you if you are not ready on time. We had one temple presidency who used the “Ten Virgins” approach to starting endowment sessions.
As a sealing coordinator, it is hard when people don’t show up on time. We have been told to start on time. This means that when people do not arrive when they should, we may have to start a session without them. Because we do not like to interrupt sessions that are already started unless absolutely necessary, if you are late, you may end up having to wait for several minutes. This is because we are waiting to put you in a group with other latecomers.
If you are doing live ordinances, such as getting your own endowment or getting sealed, you will be asked to arrive very early. Arrive at that time. There is paperwork to be done. A member of the temple presidency, one of their wives, or a sealer (depending on the ordinance) will want to talk to you about the covenants you are making and answer any questions. This may take a while, especially if you have several questions.
Pray for the Person/People Whose Work You’re Doing
While I don’t do this all the time, I do like to pray for the person whose work I’m going to do that day. I bring my own family name cards, so when doing an endowment, I’ll pray for the woman by name on the way to the temple or before I’ve left. I try to pray for her a few more times before the session starts. If I think about it, I will even try to pray for her the night before the appointment or that morning.
I’ll admit that I’m not as good about praying for the people when I do initiatories or sealings. With both, I’m more likely to pray for them as a group than as individuals. I do feel like there’s something very spiritual, though, about praying for the people whose work you are doing.
Take Off Your Watch
Nowadays, many people simply use their phones instead of a watch when it comes to knowing the time. Because of that, this may not apply to you at all. In an April 2009 General Conference talk by Richard G. Scott, he talked about several ways you can get more out of your temple experience. Taking off your watch was one of those things.
While there are exceptions to this advice, in general, even if you normally wear a watch, there is no reason that you need to wear it in the temple. When I forget to take off my watch while doing temple work or even when another patron sitting near me is wearing one, I find myself distracted. This is especially true during an endowment session.
There are several clocks throughout the temple. You can use those to let you know what time it is before you head into an ordinance. Once you’ve started an ordinance (or just before you start one), if you have a time constraint, let a temple worker know. In initiatory, the worker may suggest that you do fewer names. With a sealing session, the sealer will likely let you leave a bit early.
Leave Your Phone in Your Locker
Some people have apps on their phones that are essential for monitoring their health. You might also have a link on your phone for temple cards that need to be printed in the office. If you’re from the Newport Beach California Temple, you may even have a digital recommend. For the most part, though, you do not need to have your phone out at the temple. A while back, the temple president’s wife shared a story about a lady who brought her phone with her and then answered it during an endowment session. While I think most people know that’s wrong, sometimes we forget how sacred the whole temple should be.
I would encourage you to turn off all sounds on your phone before you enter the temple. Then put your phone in your bag until you leave the temple. If you are talking on your phone or texting even in the locker room, you may be asked by a temple worker to please put your phone away. Believe me, that’s not a conversation any of us like to have to start with a patron, so please just leave your phone in your bag.
Avoid Strongly-Scented Products
As temple workers, we have been told specifically not to wear perfume, cologne, or other strongly-scented products. Some people have allergies or a strong sensitivity to some smells. In the temple, we are often sitting near other people and/or interacting with them closely. Unfortunately, even after someone has left, that scent may linger.
Before you go to the temple next time, I would encourage you to avoid putting on any strongly-scented products. You do not know how your perfume, lotion, cologne, or other products may affect someone else at the temple.
On a personal note, while the Idaho Falls Temple was undergoing the renovation in 2016, I would attend the Rexburg Idaho Temple. While I can handle most perfumes and other scents, there was a lady who worked at the temple who wore a certain product that caused issues for me. I’ve had this issue before with this same scent. I actually think it might be some sort of essential oil that people use. It smells like black pepper to me. When people who are near me are using it, I will sometimes feel a bit itchy and get a rash, generally on my face. I had to quit going to the temple during that time because of that worker.
Don’t Forget Proper Hygiene
Although you should not wear strong-scented products, it is still important to come to the temple clean. You should still wear deodorant and properly clean yourself. If you’re concerned that your products might be too strongly scented, maybe consider buying something a bit less scented or use them several hours before you go to the temple so the scent won’t be as noticeable. No one wants to smell your BO either, especially in such a confined space.
Cancel If You Can’t Come
If you can’t come, cancel your appointment as soon as you can. This isn’t as big of an issue during less busy times, but is very helpful during busier times. Someone else can take your spot.
If you have to cancel or reschedule a living ordinance, such as your own endowment or sealing, I would also recommend calling the temple to let them know that you have to cancel. We had an incident about a year ago where a couple was coming up from Colorado to have their adopted child sealed to them. When they didn’t show up, someone tried to contact them several times. They didn’t respond and only called two hours after their appointment to say that the weather was too bad for them to make it. Since none of their guests showed up either, we assume they informed them of the change much earlier than they informed the temple. It definitely would have been helpful to know for sure several hours before that that they weren’t coming.
Plan Ahead for Multiple Ordinances
Many people coming from a considerable distance, enjoy doing as much work in one day as they can because they may not be able to come back to the temple again for a while. Yet, it’s important to plan ahead when doing multiple ordinances in one day. Give yourself significant time between ordinances. If you are unsure how long an ordinance is going to take, ask someone else. You don’t want to be rushing from one ordinance to another or being late for one ordinance because you’re still doing another one.
When planning a multiple-ordinance temple trip, it’s helpful to know that temple’s schedule. For example, at the Idaho Falls Temple, endowment sessions start on the hour, initiatories start at the top and bottom of the hour, and sealings start at the bottom of the hour.
While many people like to attend an endowment session and then do a sealing, I would actually recommend doing the opposite if you go to the Idaho Falls Temple. Because endowment sessions generally get out about 35 after the hour, you’ll either be late to the sealing session, or you’ll have to wait almost an hour for the next one. If you do the opposite, you’ll finish with the sealing session and then have about half an hour before the next endowment session starts.
Avoid Comparing Shift or Temple Policies (Basically, Don’t Complain)
If you’re attending a different temple than you normally attend or even going at a different time than you usually go, it might be tempting to voice your annoyance at how things are handled differently. Please, just keep it to yourself. Complaining isn’t going to change things. Often, the things you are complaining about aren’t decided on by the person that you’re complaining to. Negative words and complaining drive the Spirit away.
People Complaining in Initiatory
In the days before appointments at the Idaho Falls Temple, we would have times when there would be a huge rush in initiatory and other times when it would be practically empty for an hour or more. Patrons could do a specific number of initiatories. I think it was 5 or 6. If they had more that they wanted to do, they could go straight back in and do the others if it wasn’t busy. If it was busy, they would go to the end of the line and wait their turn. This made it so no one was waiting too long to go in. Even during busy times, it was pretty rare for people to have to wait more than 15 minutes because of how we handled this.
Most people didn’t have an issue with this policy. Occasionally, we would get patrons whose home temple was a certain Utah temple. It shall remain nameless, but it always seemed to be this same temple. Apparently, at their home temple, they were allowed to do 15 initiatories. They would complain and tell us this multiple times. I guess they figured if they complained enough, we’d give in and let them do their 15 names rather than do them in groups of five. When asked how long they had to wait at this temple for initiatories, they would admit that it was rare to wait less than an hour and that they often waited over an hour and a half to do their initiatories.
Bring Me Temple Workers in Sealings
About a month ago, we had a lady show up to do sealings. She didn’t have an appointment, and she was really late for the session. She was late enough that we had to decide if it was worth interrupting the session to put her in or if we should simply have her wait for the next session. We mentioned putting her in the session that was already going on, and she wanted to know how many people were already in it.
It was a pretty big session, but it was mostly composed of females. There weren’t enough males to separate into two groups. Ultimately, she decided that there were too many people in the group and she wanted us to find temple workers to form a group with just her so she could get more work done. We explained that our extra workers were already in the sealing session that was going on. We really didn’t have extras to help her out because they were busy elsewhere. She then told us that on her husband’s shift, they always have extra temple workers to help her out. When we offered to accommodate her for the next sealing session, she turned us down.
By the time she’d turned us down, there was only about 20 minutes until the next sealing session. The “funny” thing about that is that even if we were able to find temple workers to help her out, it probably would have taken at least 20 minutes to coordinate things. She ended up leaving without doing sealings because she wanted things done the same way as they were done on her husband’s shift.
Don’t Be These Temple Complainers
While certain things are done a specific way because that’s how the First Presidency has authorized things to be done at the temple, other things are handled on a temple-by-temple or even a shift-by-shift basis. Complaining to workers about how things are done differently is not going to change things. If you honestly believe that a temple worker is doing something wrong, you can talk to a member of the temple presidency or a shift coordinator about the issue. I’m sure a temple worker will be willing to point you in the right direction.
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask If You Can Do Extra Temple Work
While at the temple, you may realize that you want to do more work than you were able to accomplish in your scheduled time. If that’s the case, and you have some extra time, talk to a temple worker about doing more work. I can’t speak for every temple, or even every shift at the Idaho Falls Temple, but we are often open to allowing you to do more work even if you aren’t scheduled for it. If initiatory isn’t busy, they will likely allow you to do initiatories for more people.
As a sealing coordinator, I have yet to turn someone down who wants to stay for a second (or a third or fourth) sealing session. The more the merrier. This is especially true if you are a male. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had enough females to do a second or third sealing session but where I don’t have enough males for the second or third session.
If You Can’t Say It, Spell It
Recently, many of the temple file names at our temple have been Korean, Japanese, or Russian. I think there might have been some Chinese and Ukrainian names as well. Because of that, people often struggle to pronounce the names correctly. I know I struggle to pronounce them. There are two things to remember. First, even if you completely butcher the person’s name, they know the work is for them. Second, if you’re unsure about the name, you are always welcome to simply spell it out. There’s nothing wrong with doing this.
The Takeaway
Attending the temple should be an enjoyable spiritual experience. The more you work toward making it a spiritual experience, the more likely that you and others will leave feeling positive about your time in the temple.
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