Welcome to Mormon Temple Trek! I began this effort because spirituality is important to me. I also like to travel!
2017 Results and 2018 Plan
160 Mormon temples are currently operating in the world. So in January of 2017 I started visiting some of them besides the one closest to me. I live in Washington, D.C. and I also have a bunch of family in Utah. Consequently, those are two good places to start!
First of all, my goal is to visit two temples per month. Another goal is to visit 24 temples in a year. Finally, I’d love to visit all 160!
My Temple Visiting Plan for 2017: (Bold = Goal Accomplished)
- January–Manhattan, New York then Washington, D.C.
- February–Payson, Utah then Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- March–Provo City Center and Oquirrh Mountain
- April–Las Vegas, Nevada and Denver, Colorado
- May–Provo, Utah and Indianapolis, Indiana
- June–Hartford, Connecticut then Boston, Massachusetts
- July–Palmyra, New York and Mt. Timpanogos, Utah
- August–San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico (forgot my passport!)
- September–Houston, Texas (got flooded) and San Antonio, Texas
- October–Albuquerque, New Mexico then Orlando, Florida
- November–Salt Lake City, Utah & Jordan River, Utah (closed until May 2018)
- December–Draper, Utah & Bountiful, Utah
- Others Visited This Year: Orlando, Florida; Fort Collins, Colorado; St. George, Utah; Ogden, Utah; Brigham City, Utah; Logan, Utah; Newport Beach, California.
- Finally, that put me at 23 for the year through mid-December. Then the final one each year is randomly generated on my phone. Hence, this year I put in the numbers 1 through 160. After that I hit “go.” It quickly pulled up number 93, which is the Merida, Mexico Temple! So I’m planning to go there this year as my bonus temple for 2017! Hence, each year I’ll randomly pick the 24th temple of the year.
The Schedule for 2018
- January–Los Angeles, California; Redlands, California
- February–Phoenix, Arizona; Mesa, Arizona; Gilbert, Arizona; Cedar City, Utah; Manti, Utah
- March–Columbia, S. Carolina
- April–St. Louis, Missouri; Nauvoo, Illinois
- May–Seattle, Washington; Vancouver, British Columbia
- June–Rexburg, Idaho; Idaho Falls, Idaho
- July–Jordan River, Utah; Vernal, Utah
- August–Palmyra, New York; Toronto, Canada
- September–Tijuana, Mexico; Boston, Massachusetts
- October–Atlanta, Georgia; Albuquerque, New Mexico
- November–Laie, Hawaii; Kona, Hawaii
- December–Bismarck, North Dakota; Wild Card Temple by Random
Some of these are selected because they’ll be easy to visit when I visit my family. Others are set up because of other events (the Indy 500 is in May and the Albuquerque Balloon Festival is in October!) First, I take a photo of me at the temple. Then I write a short blog post about my experience. I then print out the photos and frame them on a wall in my home.
This is rapidly becoming another one of my favorite little projects in life! So wish me luck!