The Gila Valley Temple, Part 1: The Open House

Last weekend was the dedication of The Gila Valley Temple. What a magnificent event! I want to tell you about my experiences, but I will split them up in different posts so I won't bore you with a super duper long post. :o)



Part 1: The Open House

Kelli, my mom, and I were able to go through the temple during the Open House on Wednesday, May 12. The Open House was from April 24 to May 15. Two of those three weeks, Kelli and I were in the UK, so we didn't have a lot of time after we got back to go see it. I invited one of my co-workers, Lynda Hickey, to go with us. It was fun to bring someone to the temple who had never seen one before. I think she really enjoyed it.

I personally LOVED it! There were so many take-your-breath-away moments while walking through this remarkable building!

It really is a beautiful temple. It is not the smallest temple, but it is a smaller temple. We were told that they spared no expense during the building of it; they wanted this temple to be a tribute to President Spencer W. Kimball, who lived a lot of his life in this valley. They even named it "The Gila Valley Temple" to honor President Kimball's memory. This is one of two temples with "The" in the title (besides The Hague, but that is the name of the city, so it's a little different). President Kimball always referred to "The Valley" as the Gila Valley, even while living in the Salt Lake valley. "The Valley" to him was never in Utah.

There is a lot of beautiful glass art walls, marble floors and baseboards, crystal chandeliers and sconces, original paintings and murals, and hand sculpted carpet. The Celestial room has the most beautiful chandelier. Here is an excerpt from an email that was forwarded to me. It was written by Mark Smith Bryce, the Coordinator on the New Temple Committee:

In the last minutes just before the closing of the Open House, I decided to take one last walk through the temple, by myself. It was quiet. Once again I walked through the array of oil paintings, marveled at the majestic mural in instruction room one, and delighted in the fine furnishings of the beautiful House of the Lord. I entered the colorful, joyous celestial room. Then, although I had passed this way many times before during tours and visits, I saw two perspectives of the massive, crystal chandelier which I had never observed: the reflection of the chandelier in the art glass which forms the towering south wall of the celestial room, with prisms of color reflecting and glistening in glorious brilliance. And then, by standing across the room from the huge mirror of the west wall of the celestial room, I could see that the massive, brilliant chandelier was not just one beautiful formation of crystals, but a series of crowns, one above the other, rising up toward the hand-painted colors, designs, and gold leaf of the towering ceiling: crown upon crown, upon crown, as if to ascend infinitely into the highest Heaven. And I thought, "this is a beautiful symbol of Light, of Glory, and Honor, and Eternal Lives."

Here is another excerpt:

Over 90,800 attended the Open House of The Gila Valley Arizona Temple!

On the last evening of the Open House, this thought came to me: "Is there any object, person, or event which would bring over 90,000 persons to The Gila Valley? We are located hours from any major metropolitan area. If we brought the Hope Diamond? Would they come? If the monarchies of Europe came for a visit and to be greeted? If we held a major sporting event, such as a prize fight, basketball or football game?" Would this many come? The the answer it "No." There is nothing on Earth which would bring 90,000 visitors to this obscure, mountain valley in the desert of Arizona. Then why did they come? Was it to see a building, or outstanding art? No-- we have witnessed a miracle.

The definition of a miracle is: an event that occurs that has no explanation based on logic, science, or the laws of nature, an event in which the God of Heaven has intervened in the lives of us on this planet and blessed us, beyond our ability to comprehend. Without a doubt, we have been part of a miracle. The Spirit of the Lord brought many thousands of choice souls to The Gila Valley.

This temple is truly an miracle. People have been and will be blessed to have this temple in our midst. This temple was one of the fastest to be built and dedicated. Everything went smoothly: choosing the temple site, zoning and planning, getting the plans passed through the city government, ground breaking, construction, landscaping, the open house, and finally the dedication. All in all, it took only 15 months. That is truly remarkable!

I found this article about the construction of the temple from the contractors point of view:

http://arizonabeehive.com/showstory.php?article=1

Also, here is a video of the Media tour through the temple.



I am grateful for this temple and am excited to have many opportunities to go more often than I have ever been able to go before.

Next post: The Temple Choir