Gilbert Arizona Temple
January 31, 2018
My wonderful uncle drove me 11 miles from the Mesa Arizona Temple to the Gilbert Arizona Temple so I could attend it. I ended up doing initiatory work here like I did in the Mesa Temple.
I did learn something new also: if you lock the keys to your temple locker inside the locker accidentally, the temple staff are pretty quick to grab the master key and help you out! Enough said about that…
One of the temple workers in the initiatory area is about 5’5″ tall and is 94 years old. It’s an amazing thing to see these older brethren and sisters serve in the temple so faithfully.
This being my third temple of the day at this point my mind is on making sure I get back to the airport so I don’t miss my flight home tonight.
After leaving the temple, I walked west for about a mile and a half. I walked quickly. I caught the 156 bus which took me further west then transferred to the 112 bus which took me north into downtown Mesa.
At that point I was actually ahead of schedule so I had a quick fiesta taco salad with a Dr. Pepper at Taco Bell, which was right across the street from the train station.
I then took the metro train back to the station 44 stop. On the way I passed ASU Stadium, home of the ASU Sun Devil football team. It’s massive! I then transferred to the PHX sky train which brought me back to the airport. There was a guy (college-aged) on the train who was asking people as they got off if he could take their unused pass. At each stop he quickly looked out the door, both ways, to see if any transit police were about to enter the train to check for tickets. Being dishonest makes you nervous. You’re not at peace. It’s not a good way to live…
Anyway, back to the train ride. All of this was free because of the $4 all-day pass I purchased earlier…
One thing I have to say for the chairs in the initiatory areas of the Mesa and Gilbert temples: they’re very comfortable and it’s a joy to sit in them! The backs of the chairs are slightly curved so they fit your back perfectly! Hats off to whoever picked out those chairs!
Speaking of chairs, I love the ones at the Sky Harbor Airport too because they don’t have armrests in-between the individual seats. That means you can lie down on three or four of them and get some good rest.
It was a wonderful day today in Phoenix. The Gilbert Temple is massive! It is also absolutely gorgeous. And you don’t have to do an endowment session in order to spend some time in the celestial room. They’ll let you go in there if you do any other ordinance first.
And if you don’t first misplace your locker keys, you’ll get even more time in the celestial room…!
This is my 5th temple visited so far in 2018 and my 28th one visited since January of 2017. What a riot!