LDS Temple Open House

We've been really excited to go to the Ogden Temple Open House this month.  This was the fourth open house I have been able to attend and third as a family.  Although, when we went to Rexburg's my youngest was not born yet, and the older two were real young.  We went to Brigham City's a couple of years ago, but I not sure how much my children remember of it so I tried to do some things before we went to the temple to help them prepare.  I didn't go all out this time because August has been a crazy month, but we did watch many videos and did a few other things that I'll share. 

 Brightly Street has a 12 day countdown to a temple open house.  Wow.  It's pretty awesome and if you have the time to spend a few minutes each day to talk about the different things it's worth checking out.  We watched the video she includes a link to called Mormon Temples:  A Conversation with a Church Leader.  The video is a little over 15 minutes long, but it goes through the different rooms in the temple that you'll see at a temple open house and explains it's purpose.  My six year old in the middle of it said, "This is actually interesting."  I guess he was a little surprised...but I'm glad he enjoyed it.

Other videos we watch were Mormon Temples:  Made Simple, Why Mormons Build Temples, and Blessings of the Temple.  We also watched this little video tour that specifically shows the Ogden Temple.  We also looked at the pictures of the temple that they had made available online.  It was nice as we went through the temple to have the boys recognize things they'd seen in pictures and such.

You can search for temple theme topics on LDS.org and find things about temples that interests you for your purposes.  Sugardoodle.net also has a great list of different types of things to go along with temples.  

 I printed off some activities from the LDS Primary Temple Countdown.  We also sang "I Love to See the Temple".  In fact my four year old asked as we were getting out of the car if we were going to sing that as we walked into the temple.  I suggested that we sing it in our minds so that we didn't bother other people.  Later, he asked me if I had sang it in my head because he had.  :)

We own My First Book of Temples and we read that as well. I think helping them start to understand what the purpose of the various rooms helped as we looked at the different rooms.  I didn't expect them to understand exactly what happened in each room specifically, but they had a general idea.  Some rooms were easier for them to understand like the baptismal font and the sealing rooms where couples get married.

 We were able to walk around a little outside and enjoy the exterior of the temple and get a few pictures.  I asked each of my children what their favorite part of the temple was.  My oldest said the Celestial Room, my middle son said all of them at first, but then also decided on the Celestial Room, my youngest enjoyed seeing the Baptismal Font.

I recommend going to the Ogden Temple House if it is at all plausible for you and your family.  We had a wonderful time as a family.  There was plenty of parking near the temple and although it was busy it didn't feel overcrowded.  I found it to be a great opportunity for my family to feel the Spirit, enjoy the beauty of the Lord's house and spend some time together.