Jordan River Temple
It’s one of the three remaining operating temples I haven’t visited in Utah, the Jordan River Temple. The other two are Monticello and Vernal Temples.
I left it until now because it was under renovation for awhile until it reopened in May of this year. In keeping with my goal of visiting a temple with each of my 10 siblings, I invited my youngest brother, Ryan, to visit this one with me. We were both excited.
I flew from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City the day before. A delayed flight meant that I arrived in Utah at 10:30 p.m. instead of what was supposed to be 10:30 a.m. The thought of getting up just a few hours later to attend the 6 a.m. session didn’t exactly excite me. My mother’s home is 40 minutes away from the temple. The best time for my brother to go was at 6 a.m., so I left it up to him. He was totally excited, which is what I wanted.
Ryan told me he would pick me up at 4:30 a.m. He lives only five houses away from my mom, so I stepped outside at about 4:29. I looked like this: 
Sure enough, he showed up right on time. So I hopped in his car and we were off for south Salt Lake.
The Beautiful Jordan River Temple
Unexpectedly, we arrived at about 5:12 a.m. The beauty of the multi-colored stained glass that runs vertically up the front of the temple is stunning. You need to see this temple when it’s dark just because of that stained glass. When we realized they had endowment sessions every half-hour starting at 5 a.m., we hurried in for the 5:30 session and made it. Consequently, I didn’t get a shot of that beautiful stained glass before going in. It is a spectacular shot!
The next thing that hit me as we entered the temple was how busy it was. Here we are at 5:30 a.m. and this place is hopping like a Manhattan Starbucks. People going in and out, happy as could be. And all of these people are volunteers! No one is paid here. The activity going on that early in the morning was stunning! The Church building so many temples along the Wasatch Front is a tribute to the wonderful people there. Consequently, these people are a blessing to the whole Church.
Immediately my brother was amazed at the size of the chapel inside. And so was I. The temple session was wonderful and the temple is beautiful. After the session we walked up the stairs inside the temple and standing at the top of the stairs appeared to be my ex-wife! Not so, however, since she lives in St. George, but apparently she has a twin sister I’ve never known about. It stunned my brother too.
The Meal
Afterwards we drove back to Spanish Fork. As we passed Provo a large garbage truck was driving right ahead of us. All of the sudden it swerved to the right to avoid hitting a pallet stacked with something that was right in the middle of the lane. Ryan quickly swerved to the left to avoid hitting it and probably saved both of our lives in the process. I watched it go by and thought that someone was going to smack it head-on within five minutes. I’m just glad it wasn’t us.
Usually when I write a post about a temple visit I include something about the meal I have in conjunction with it. This time it was a meal with my daughter Kelly, chosen at a restaurant of her choosing in downtown Provo. What is a kolache? I didn’t know. Now I’m hooked. All it took was one visit. Kelly loves these little “hole-in-the-wall” restaurants in downtown Provo. Hruska’s Kolaches is a big hit! It’s simple and packed with visitors.
They take some real soft dough and pack it with ham and cheese, among other things. I went for the ham and cheese with the mixed berry dessert. I couldn’t say no to the pineapple orange juice either (my favorite!)
It was the perfect icing on the cake to my Jordan River Temple trip with my brother. This is my 14th temple visit this year and my 37th since January of 2017. It was a great experience!