Vancouver British Columbia Temple

The Vancouver British Columbia Temple is about 140 miles north of Seattle. The possibility of going to this temple was confirmed when Payless rented me a car. That was so exciting!

I drove from the Seattle Tacoma airport about 30 miles to my aunt Carma’s home. I hadn’t seen her in about 30 years. She is my dad’s second youngest sister.

A Chance to See the Relatives

Thanks to Facebook I’ve been able to communicate with her a little bit over the last few years. She and her husband Glenn raised their family in Anchorage Alaska then moved to the Seattle area about 30 years ago. They have a very nice home up the hill from a private golf club.

We talked for a little while then they offered to take me to lunch. So we hit the family pancake House and I was in heaven. Give me a ham and cheese omelette with hashbrowns and a biscuit and I’m pleased as punch!

From there I got down to business and drove north towards the Vancouver British Columbia Temple. My goal was to make the 6 PM endowment session.

Thank You Wendy’s!

A quick stop at Wendy’s for a chocolate Frosty made the drive much more pleasant.

It’s a very scenic part of the country here in the Pacific Northwest. Pine trees and spruce trees are everywhere in their big! I also loved

the occasional snowcapped peaks.

An Inspired Location

The crossing at the Canadian border was less than five minutes. I was very curious to see where this temple sits because of a general conference talk given in October 2018. Elder Dean Davies told the story of how President Hinckley selected the spot for the temple. It was not one they had originally chosen but President Hinckley felt inspired about it.

The eventual site sits right next to the stake center property. You would think it would be an obvious candidate initially but apparently that wasn’t the case. I invite you to read Elder Davie’s talk to get the full story. It’s worth doing so.

Vancouver British Columbia Temple Grounds

The temple grounds were beautiful including some flowers which is always the case.

The temple workers were nice as always and the endowment session was great. I arrived at about 530 which was perfect timing. Afterwards I hopped in the car and headed back through the beautiful scenic drive. This was my third international temple visited since January 2017 and my 55th temple visited overall.

It was about a 300 mile round-trip. I arrived back at my aunt’s house at 10:15 PM. Altogether I had flown five hours and 15 minutes and driven 300 miles to make it to this temple. It was worth it!

Make sure to read Elder Davies’ talk to get the full story on this beautiful building.