My Assistant Scoutmaster had the idea of visiting all the LDS Temples in our area in one day… a sort of “Temple Blitz” if you will. The emphasis was to fulfill our Duty to God, challenge the boys with something few have a chance to accomplish and of course, to have a day of unique sprirtual experience. We also saw this as an opportunity to get going on our Bishopric’s Temple Challenge.
Here’s how the day went on Saturday, February 5, 2011:
5:00 am – Got up, got showered, got dressed.
5:30 am – Got picked up and drove from Riverton to Provo (we decided to start from the south and work our way north).
6:30 am – Arrived at the Provo Temple (#1).
7:45 am – Completed our first 75 baptisms.
8:10 am – Made a quick stop at Krispy Kreme in Orem for a “breakfast of, ah… groggy, champions”.
8:30 am – Consumed 3 dozen donuts in record time!
8:45 am – Arrived at the Mount Timpanogos Temple (#2).
9:50 – Two down, four to go – we finished our work with 75 confirmations.
10:30 am – Arrived at Jordan River Temple (#3).
12:40 pm – Half-way there, we left Jordan River after 75 more confirmations and a yummy lunch.
12:50 pm – Arrived at Oquirrh Mountain Temple (#4).
2:20 pm – We found Temples to be very, very busy on Saturdays. Due to long wait times, we were only able to do baptisms at Provo up to this point. So it was mostly confirmations… another 75 at Oquirrh.
2:50 pm – Arrived at Salt Lake Temple (#5).
4:10 pm – To our surprise, we got to do BAPTISMS at the Salt Lake Temple (without an appointment, 75 more ordinances)!! What an *awesome* experience for everyone!
4:20 pm – We paused for a waffle dinner at Bruges in downtown SLC before our last stop on this 12 hour Temple Blitz.
5:30 pm – Arrived at the Bountiful Temple (#6).
6:40 pm – Just when you thought it couldn’t have gone any better, we got to Bountiful and NO ONE was there. The Ward who was scheduled before us was a no-show – so we had the font all to ourselves! As a result, we did both ordinances there (150). …and then we headed for home.
11 boys, 4 adults, 6 temples, 12+ hours and 525 individual ordinances performed…
What an incredible day!!
PS – The Draper Temple was closed for cleaning this weekend, otherwise we would have done all 7. That’s our goal for next time!
