Billings Montana Temple
It is 392 miles from the Pocatello Idaho Temple to the Billings Montana Temple. More importantly, it is 6 hours and 9 minutes of travel time. When I left Spanish Fork yesterday morning at 6:13 AM, my goal was to simply go up to the Pocatello Idaho Temple, do some temple work there, then return back to my mother’s home in Spanish Fork. That changed when I arrived at the Pocatello Idaho Temple 90 minutes early. Now, making a trip to the Billings Montana Temple that same day was now a possibility. Nothing could’ve excited me more!
Now, the question became twofold: is the Billings Montana Temple open today? Do they have available late appointments that would give me the travel time I need to get there?
Shout out to the Church’s website! I can go there and pull up any temple in the world. Then, I put in a specific day and it will tell me what my options are. Because I left Pocatello at 1:10 PM, I needed an 8:00 PM appointment to make this a realistic goal. According to the GPS, I would not arrive at the Billings Montana Temple until at least 7:30 PM.
Thank heavens for those wonderful folks in the initiatory department! Their 8 o’clock appointment slot was the only one available that late in the temple that night. So I quickly scheduled it and immediately headed northeast to the Billings Montana Temple. Now, this unplanned excursion would allow me to visit two of my remaining six USA temples in one day. It will also save me hundreds of dollars. And many hours of time! It would’ve been a separate booking to travel from Washington DC to the Billings Montana Temple. As my mom put it, “Billings is a lot closer to Pocatello than it is to Washington DC!“
On the way, I passed the Idaho Falls Temple and the Rexburg Idaho Temple. Both stand out beautifully in their surroundings.
The driving route would take me towards Yellowstone National Park. Then, it rerouted me to the west and north of the Park. The higher in elevation I go, the more snow I see.
There was only one place on the route where the roads were a little bit scary. It ran for about 5 miles or so. The snow was blowing across the road and starting to pile up. But it quickly ended and I was back to dry roads.
Eventually I passed through the small town of Ennis, Montana. I was suddenly in the Wild West!
One of the many great things about our temples is how visible they are from a distance. Accordingly, the Billings Montana Temple is no exception. It sits up in the hills on the eastern side of the city and you can see it from miles away. 
Also, as I entered, I saw this temple has some very attractive waterfall arrangements right inside the foyer doors. Very impressive!
The Billings Montana Temple is the 66th temple dedicated. It was dedicated in December 1999 by President Gordon B Hinckley.
I completed the initiatory work for the five names my sister sent me. Now, it was just a question of getting back to Spanish Fork. The GPS says it is 600 miles and nine hours of driving. It was right.
I left Billings at 9 PM. Then, I arrived in my mothers driveway in Spanish Fork at 6:30 AM. Also, driving 84 miles an hour on cruise control helped! With the speed limit at 80 miles an hour, I was on an adventure!
But there was a problem. All the doors were locked and my aging parents were asleep. I slept in the car until 8:15 AM then called them and they unlocked the door.
Now, I only have four temples to visit in the United States. Those are in Bismarck North Dakota, Anchorage Alaska, and two in Hawaii. I’m scheduled to visit the two in Hawaii in two weeks.
I drove 1150 miles in 24 hours yesterday. And frankly, I loved every minute of it!