A Special Sunday: Brigham City Temple Dedication

We need to become what the Lord desires us to be and that is where we should fix our gaze. –Miguel Ribeiro

One of our activities during Grandma Week this year was attending the open house for the Brigham City LDS Temple. Today, the temple was dedicated to the Lord for services to begin. Regular church services in Utah were cancelled and members of The Church, eight years and older were invited to attend the dedication, which was broadcast from the temple in Brigham City to church buildings state-wide.

Temples are beautiful, sacred places. There are currently 139 operating temples dotting the globe, with more than two dozen announced and under construction. Unlike our regular church services on Sundays, temples services are not open to the public, nor are they open to all members of the church. To fully enjoy the blessings of the temple, much preparation, understanding of the teachings of Jesus Christ, and a commitment to obeying His commandments is required.

At every temple dedication, The Spirit of God is sung, followed by the Hosanna Shout, where a white handkerchief is waved. I embroidered our handkerchiefs with our names, the temple and the dedication date. This is the first temple dedication that Grasshopper and LadyBug have attended so theirs just have the the Brigham City Temple. I went to the Oquirrh {/ˈoʊkər/} Mountain temple dedication in 2009, so mine has that one on there first. I used a really pretty font, as you can see penciled in on mine before embroidery, but the white-on-white kind of befuddles the script unless you look really closely {and kind of know beforehand what it says}. As we have the opportunity to attend other temple dedications, I'll continue to add the names and dates on our handkerchiefs around the outside border.

It was difficult to find the balance between "enough information to keep it from being confusing" and "not so much information that it is an overload" in writing this post. We kind of have our own vocabulary, so I've included a few links with more information about temples and temple dedications here.
What Happens in Temples
Temple Open House, Dedication and Regular Operation
The Blessings of The Temple
Inside the Temple
Find A Temple Near You
About the hymn, The Spirit of God
About the Hosanna Shout

Elder Boyd K. Packer, who presided over and dedicated the Brigham City Temple, said the following about our beautiful buildings of worship at the dedication of the Conference Center in Salt Lake City in 2002.

Do you think it possible for those of us who are called upon to speak to draw attention away from this wonderful building long enough to focus on the purpose for which it was built?

Perhaps it can be done with a parable and a poem.

The parable: A merchant man seeking precious jewels found at last the perfect pearl. He had the finest craftsman carve a superb jewel box and line it with blue velvet. He put his pearl of great price on display so others could share his treasure. He watched as people came to see it. Soon he turned away in sorrow. It was the box they admired, not the pearl.

The poem:

We are all blind, until we see
That in the [universal] plan
Nothing is worth the making if
It does not make the man.

Why build these [buildings] glorious,
If man unbuilded goes?
In vain we build the [world], unless
The builder also grows.
Poem by Edwin Markham

One of the speakers at the dedication today quoted Elder Packer. His point was that though the temples are large and magnificent, we go there to feel closer to our Heavenly Father. The things that we learn and the things that we feel are of far greater importance than the building, and no matter the grandeur, unless we let what is taught there change us for the better, the building has no worth.