I went through the temple this weekend
 

with my younger brother. Did anyone else have church leaders attempting to psyche you out beforehand? My stake president said all kinds of weird things like "don't freak out." I wasn't freaked out until he said that, and then I had to stop and wonder what I was about to get myself into. I kept waiting for something really shocking to happen...and it never did.


I will admit that later that evening I did have a moment of panic when I realized that there's no turning back now, which is admittedly a ridiculous thing to even worry about, since I wasn't planning on falling off the wagon anyway.

The temple ordinances are far more formal and ceremonial than anything else we do in the church. I think it's appropriate to give a person some instruction on preparing for a new and unusual form of worship. "Don't freak out" may not be the words I'd choose, however.

Yeah, my stake is kind of hardcore on preparation. I was required to attend 7 weeks of temple prep, have a one hour meeting with my bishop, an hour and a half with the stake president, and another hour and a half with a member of the stake high council. My brother on the other hand said that his bishop gave him the little "The Holy Temple" pamphlet and sent him on his way. My brother did admit to me afterwards that he would have rather done everything my stake made me do than nothing at all, because he had no idea what to expect.

Unless they're endeavoring to do a Nibley approach to the temple, what could they do over the seven week period, given the simplistic nature in which the temple is otherwise presented?

If it were truly diligent study, but given the simplistic nature of Church instruction, what could you discuss?

It's been so long since I went to such instruction, that I simply forget.

I believe there are seven temple prep lessons. Six before you go and one after. Our ward does the 6 in three weeks.

I hope it was a positive experience for you.

Good for you, BDB. I hope it was a positive experience for you.

I was a temple prep teacher in my singles ward, and we taught one lesson a week, and yes, a few people from church tried to freak me out. One person even said "Watch out when they throw the fish." Huh? Yeah, exactly. Some of the prep only made me feel more freaked out. That, and I didn't know in the few years prior to my endowment they had changed your clothing during the initiatory blessings, so I was expecting more of a draft. And when everything went smoothly, I didn't get what all the hype was about. I certainly feel that the experience is like no other, and even thought to myself, how could I not have heard about any of this before now (the night I went through). But all in all going back frequently has squashed any obscure feelings I might have had. I just tried to make my class formal enough to be reverent, but not so formal that people felt like they couldn't ask the crazy questions they wanted to. I was able to give pretty detailed answers, too, without botching my covenants, it was a pretty cool teaching the class all in all. Even had a few people say they thought everything discussed (from the manual, and personal/funny curiosities) was the perfect prep for their own endowment. That made me pretty happy.

I was told, "there is nothing in the temple ceremony that should surprise you, that is any different than what you are taught in church every week."

Yes, I was a bit surprised.

Wow, look at you trying to stir the pot already.

Adam:
No, and I don't know that it would have been news to anyone if they had. What possible motivation would they have for sharing that in a temple prep class? I think a big purpose of the class is to drive home the seriousness of the covenants, not rattle people's faith.

Archaea:
The seven week course was ridiculously remedial. During my meetings with the bishop and stake president they both asked me what I thought of the temple prep course, and I told them both that I was very bored, and I felt that there was little to no new information communicated in the lessons. They both seemed very pleased with that response, and said that they don't want the class to be full of new information, it's supposed to be a review.

The high counselor's temple orientation meeting was perhaps the most useful. We spent an hour and a half digging around in the OT, and he had a little handout for me with all kinds of quotes from prophets and such about the purpose of the temple.

The temple was actually just about what I expected it to be. There was one part that was a bit unexpected, but after hearing things like "don't freak out" from the SP, I was just waiting for the animal sacrifices to start.

I thought the temple was great, can't wait to go back.

G's are horribly unattractive, and this fabric that my mother and sisters recommended...all other similar pairs are going straight back to Beehive clothing. I detest them. I'm sticking to the kind the roommate recommended.

I'm glad your reaction was basically positive.

In reality, if somebody such as Pelagius or SEIQ could convey to you the collective revelatory impact of the endowment ceremony in a meaningful fashion, you'd be surprised about the good stuff there, which almost nobody actually takes the time to instruct you on. As you reported the temple prep courses are horribly boring.

Oh, they don't tell you jack about that. The instruction I received as to what anything in the temple really means was right along these lines:

There is a lot of symbolism in the temple. (Which was followed by an absurdly simplistic discussion about what symbols are...as in, they drew a stop sign on the board.)

...and that's pretty much it. The High Counselor was a little better. He made me rattle off all the symbolism I could think of in baptism, and then rustled up a few scriptures in the OT to go along with the discussion. I could have just skipped that temple prep class and just stuck with the temple orientation meeting and that would have been perfect.

The reaction you get is a little silly.

As a missionary, you can generally ask a GA any two questions about temple symbolism, but usually you can't think of intelligent enough questions due to your unfamiliarity with it.

The answer you get is, "until you receive personal revelation, we can't tell you."

How I usually translate it is, "you don't really understand and wish to conceal your ignorance."

There are lots of great stuff, organizational, symbolically and just in terms of peace. But most of your leaders are not temple scholars and probably know less than they are willing to admit. The temple presidents often have good insights and scholars often do.

First lesson: enjoy what you can.

Second, be ready ready to learn piece by piece.

Third, just listen to flows as it flows.

Fourth, as goofy as it sounds, study some of the Egyptian temple rituals, to gather what some think are related.

Overall, it can be a cleansing experience and one of peace.

I know fairlds.org gets a bad rap around here, and I don't know if it's deserved or not, but I think they do a good job discussing some of the interesting aspects of temple worship. They touch on some of these aspects Arch is talking about.

you may be correct as it's been a long time since I reviewed their materials.

BDB, congrats on this cool next step in your life. I am happy for you. Go to the temple often. It can be a great place for inspiration and/or comfort...at least that has been my experience.

One rule of thumb...when choosing ANY underwear, ask your peers, not your mother. Unless your mother is a sexy freaknik ward basketball/volleyball player, in which case, John and Paul were right....Your Mother Should Know!

Personally, I think women look hottest in the green military garments. Just one man's opinion.

Women actually appear best in their wedding night version of them, those on the floor for the evening, but that's my personal opinion.

My wife didnt have military garments on our wedding night, but you may be right.

Also, dont just throw your garments on the floor, please.

Congrats BDB. That is a great step and I am sure you will benefit from it.

While I am also nto sure if "don't freak out" would have been my words of choice, I was the first person in my family to go through the temple and I really wish someone had prepared me a ltitle more for it, as I have no idea whatsoever what to expect. So overpreparation is much better than under preparation, IMO.

I don't know if you're being serious or not, but I've heard this from several people lately. I had never heard it until a couple of years ago. I don't know why I find it so funny but when you consider where the garments are all day long, well, the floor doesn't seem so bad.

I echo the congratulations of the rest of the board. It truly is a great step to take in one's life.

"Don't freak out" was probably over the top, but I have certainly known people who've gone once and not gone back because they got "freaked out." It's just kind of one of those things that at least for me, made more sense the more I went and I got increasingly comfortable with the whole ceremony and process as time passed.

Congrats!

When I was getting ready to go through the temple, my dad told me, "I was really FREAKED out my first time through, just so you know." This was hardly comforting and gave my imagination a little too much room to wander! You just shouldn't say stuff like that to the uninitiated. The temple ordinances are shrouded in so much mystique as is that making comments like "don't freak out" will inevitably lead to exactly that.

Another somewhat traumatizing part of getting ready to go through the temple involved my interview with the stake president. The interview itself went fine, but when he asked what I knew about the temple and I told him a few things (small things that everybody knows, like the fact that narrative is performed live at Salt Lake), he got almost ANGRY with me. He seemed infuriated that I knew some stuff, and with total accusation in his voice he asked me where I had heard it. When I told him that my family had talked about it, he said that they were not honoring their temple covenants and that you are NOT, absolutely NOT to speak of the temple like that. I found myself repeatedly apologizing and then I felt like I had done something horribly wrong. So yeah, that wasn't the most positive experience...

I agree that "Don't freak out" leads to exactly that. I think people are well-intentioned, but just aren't thinking about what they're saying.

My first experience was not a good one. I didn't really have a temple prep class and I'm not sure it would've helped, at least as the current prep classes are taught. The two things that would have really helped me in my first experience are:
1) Outlining the covenants we'll be making. I don't think we need to share sacred symbols or tokens, but what's the harm in discussing the covenants we make? I think it would really add to the experience if we've carefully considered and prayed about the ramifications of these beforehand.
2) Discussing the proper place and history of ritual and ordinance in worship. My first temple experience came at a time in my life when I was focused on the non-ritual aspects of our religion; the temple is a distinct departure from this.

Anyway, congrats BDB. I'm glad you've gained some strength and testimony from the experience.

that's both sad and funny. did he use his GA voice?

No, it was a nearly furious voice. Maybe he was going for Moses and the burning bush voice. Whatever the voice was, was neither reassuring nor necessary.

I didn't freak out but I did think, "jeez this is a cult."

10 years later though, I still find temples to be the most peaceful places on earth.

I'll bet comfort at time of endowment is strongly correlated to lifetime temple attendance.

Whenever I talk to someone getting ready to go to the temple I always slip in a "don't worry the blood washes right off"... they kind of go bug eyed for a moment but its good for a little laugh.

Maybe you should make a crack about PETA. That would get the mind turning things over.

In reality probably not a good idea to make jokes about whatever taboo thing you can think of to freak someone out.

i do it for levity purposes. to many people get freaked out about something that really isnt that bad

Why do I always get the feeling when I hear "sacred not secret" that it's kinda a cop out? I understand that it is sacred but so is the taking the sacrament, baptism and ordinations. Sometimes I feel we are a little embarrassed about the temple ordinance and that is why we try keep it from the rest of the world. I will admit that I have a very hard time with the temple and my way of dealing with it is just to stay away. Someone please help me out here.

Let's face it: to the outside American observer, it is weird stuff. Even to Jews, who had a history with the temple, it would probably be weird.

We're in a strange position where any of our friends can read about it, but we can't respond or explain.

in the age of the internet, whatever secretness there was has disappeared.

Then why do we still not even talk about it in church?

because we are told not to.

we are told it is one of the most important things we can do, but then we are also told not to talk about it.

and then we are told we are lazy slackers for not going enough. Why should I go a lot? Because it is amazing, they say. Well, I have been many times, it's ok, but what's the big deal?

And this is where you have a wise friend who takes you aside, tells you a bit more than he's supposed to, but it gets your wheels turning that maybe it is more important than you think.

And then you still forget to go/don't go, but think, Yeah, I'll get around to it.

I think this could describe a lot of members.

I think the hardest thing for me was that when Christ was on the earth his message seems so beautiful yet simple. I did not like all the ritual and maybe that is just part of my nature, I like things that are easy for me to understand. I'm going through with my son this next month and I want it to be a good experience for him. He's a lot better kid then I ever was so I know he will be fine but I still worry about it.

I'm with you. I've always struggled with the temple and similarly, the weakest part of my testimony deals with the role of ordinance and ritual. It helps if I consider the long history of ritualistic worship; an absence of ritual would actually be a sort of aberration, not the other way around.

But again--I'm with you. The temple is the weakest part of my testimony, and I typically deal with it by not going.