A Special Treat

Today we had a wonderful experience. We were invited by Aunt Elisabeth's husband to go tour the Oquirrah Mt. Temple. It isn't finished yet. The open houses are scheduled to being in June. Eric Jensen, Elisabeth's husband, is a painter - not the ordinary painter of walls, but an extraordinary painter that is doing all the stenciling and gold-leafing on the ceilings and panels of the temple. He decided that it might be fun to take Ammon through without the crush of people that we ran into at the Draper Temple open house. So he made arrangements with one of the superintendents of the job to meet us so he could run the elevators for us. We were able to see the mechanical room in the basement and all the rest of the rooms. There was a lot going on, still much to be done, but it is an exquisite building! Here is Eric with Ammon. His work is magnificent. I don't know what other words to use. There is no stenciling or artwork like his in the Draper Temple. I didn't realize what kind of work he did until I saw it today. He showed us the fine gold leafing and how he applied it and explained the process of the stenciling and the 4-5 layers it requires. This will be Jess & Jen's temple. I wanted to take them with us, but they had to sneak us in and asked that only a very small group go through. Jim, Kaitlin and I took Ammon.

This is the scene looking eastward. The temple sits on a bench area and has a clear, beautiful view of the whole valley.

Eric, Ammon, Jim and Kaitlin at the front of the temple right after we got done with the tour.

It's a small temple like the Draper Temple. There is no garment rental area and no cafeteria. There are only two endowment rooms that have murals painted on them. The patrons watch the film in the rooms with the murals (Telestial room) and then move into a different room so four sessions can go on simulaneously. Eric had not started the ceiling (43 foot high) in the Celestial room yet but had most other rooms done. One of the truly exquisite things about the temple is the windows. I have never seen anything like them. In between two clear panels is a panel that has been etched and has folds like drapery hanging. There are star-like clear areas every so often in that panel. It looks like there is drapery on every window but in reality, there are no drapes anywhere. They are the most beautiful windows I've ever seen.

Right below this spire is the waiting area for the sealing rooms. There are 6 sealing rooms and one is very large.

East facing, front side of the temple.

We truly appreciate the time Eric took out of his busy schedule to allow us a veiw into a very beautiful temple that we won't see too often. Ammon won't see much of any temple for a very long time so this was very special for us. When we got into one of the endowment rooms, the sun was shining through those beautiful windows. Ammon gasped and said, "Am I in heaven or what?" We know the Lord will approve this new house of His. The workmanship is magnificent.