Elko Nevada Temple
I know the Marriott family. They have built the largest hotel company in the world in the area of hospitality. After my experience on Saturday, I think hospitality is spelled two ways: M-A-R-R-I-O-T-T or E-L-K-O-N-E-V-A-D-A-T-E-M-P-L-E.
I flew to Salt Lake City on Friday night from Washington D.C. Reagan airport. The airfare was $25.01. To answer why, check out Frontier Airlines’ GoWild Pass information. But, back to the temple.
I left at 6 pm and arrived in Salt Lake at midnight. Trying to save a few dollars, I slept at the airport. On Saturday morning, I rented a Dodge Ram 2500 for $30 for the day with unlimited miles. God blesses people who go to a temple! Now in my new truck, I checked out the address for the Elko Nevada Temple and found out it was 215 miles straight west on I-80. It would take about 3 hours. I was THRILLED to be able to drive in an 80 mph speed limit zone pretty much the whole way!
I used to think the Land of Desolation started just north of Cheyenne, Wyoming and went straight north for about 125 miles to Casper, Wyoming. Now, I believe the Land of Desolation starts just west of Grantsville, Utah and goes about 215 miles further west to Elko, Nevada!
They built this temple right off the freeway. What struck me first was the large netting that stood behind it. I thought we built it next to a Top Golf facility. It turns out I was close–we built it next to a golf course! The netting protects the patron’s vehicles from getting hit by a stray golf ball from the course. Quite unique!
But back to the hospitality. It started with Dane. Dane is a young temple worker who was in the waiting room building located across the temple parking lot. I was still wearing the clothes I had flown in, plus I slept in them Friday night, then wore them for three hours while driving to Elko. I needed a place to change. Dane accommodated me beautifully and without any hassle. After a few minutes I was cleaned up and ready to go. Then came the need for more hospitality: I had completely forgotten my temple clothes and the Elko temple doesn’t rent them. Past experience told me they probably had some anyway, so I was optimistic. Oh, and my recommend was new. They mistakenly put the old recommend number on the new one and that had to be dealt with. Somewhat embarrassed, I walked into the temple.
Meet hospitality person number 2: Brian Goulding, a temple worker who was standing next to the recommend desk when I entered. He welcomed me with enthusiasm and addressed my two concerns without any problem. I quickly had some temple clothes and a temple recorder cleared my name to do ordinances.
Then, there was issue number four: I arrived 2 1/2 hours early for my endowment reservation and asked if I could do some initiatories instead. Again, Brian came to the rescue and said that would be no problem. They had me wait 20 minutes and whamo–there was Brian again with another worker ready to assist me with the five names. Incidentally, all 5 names came from the Netherlands! I loved that.
I am frequently asked when I visit temples where I am from. When I say, “Washington DC”, people ask what I’m doing in their neck of the woods? When I was visiting temples in the United States, I would say, “I visit temples in the U..S.” Then I visited them all. So, when I went to Canada, and got the same question, I said, “I visit temples in the United States and Canada.” Then, I visited all the Canadian temples. So, I next went to Rome. When they asked me where I was from, and I said, “Washington D.C.”, and they asked, “What brings you here?” I paused for a moment, then got a big smile on my face, and I said, “I visit temples around the world.” I like that response.
So, I mentioned this to Brian. He quickly brought up his dad, Calvin Goulding, from Salt Lake City. After Calvin’s wife died, he took his two-wheel drive Ford pickup and DROVE to all the temples in the U.S., Canada and Mexico some 20 years earlier. They wrote him up in the paper! I told Brian that Calvin was a man after my own heart.
Following the ordinances, I had one other thought on my mind: what do I get my granddaughter Abby as a momento of her baby blessing the next day in Lehi, given that her grandfather was at the Elko Nevada Temple the day before? I threw that thought at the the husband and wife team who were standing behind the recommend desk when I came out.
Meet hospitality guy #3. I don’t know his name. He was just amazing.
When I mentioned my dilemma of not knowing what to get my granddaughter for this occasion, the gentleman quickly reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a Japanese-styled fold-out fan. He looked at it, then put it back into his pocket and told me to wait there. I didn’t know what he was going to do, but somehow I knew it was going to be great. In just a moment, he came back and gave me this:
It is a wooden fan, made for the dedication of the temple just three months ago in October! He said, “Will this work?” I was stunned. It was the PERFECT gift for little Abby! I thanked him more than once, walked out into the parking lot and got into the truck, then started to tear up and cry. I couldn’t have asked for a better gift for little Abby. She will remember throughout her life that her grandfather LOVED temples, and that the day before she was blessed, he was IN the Elko Nevada Temple doing temple work. It was SOOOO great!
As if that wasn’t enough, I then spotted an Arctic Circle drive-in right across the street from the temple! I LOVE Arctic Circle and enjoy going there whenever I visit Utah. So I got their Black Angus Beef with Cheddar combo meal (#8) with tater tots, root beer, their famous fry sauce, and an eggnog shake to top off my enthusiasm.
I was SOOOO happy! It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day of hospitality at the Elko Nevada Temple.
The Elko Nevada Temple is the 209th operating temple of the Church. It is the third one in Nevada, behind Las Vegas and Reno. It was announced in 2021 by President Russell M. Nelson and dedicated in October of 2025 by Elder Gary E. Stevenson. It does not have an angel Moroni on the top. The main entrance also faces north.
The temple, the waiting area in the adjacent building, and the people inside of both are MODELS OF HOSPITALITY! The Marriott family would be proud to associate with them!