Las Vegas Temple

August 23, 2017

I found a round-trip ticket on Frontier Airlines for $134 to Las Vegas so I took it.  My flight left Washington DC around 10:30 PM and arrived in Las Vegas just before 1 AM.

I slept in the airport until 4 AM then caught the bus for six dollars to take me out towards the temple.  The cab ride one way would have cost $75!  I got more sleep on the bus, did a quick transfer, and about an hour and a half later I got off the bus about 1.7 miles from the temple.

It’s an uphill walk to the temple.  It took me about 40 minutes or so but I made it!  I arrived at 6:20 AM.  It was quiet and peaceful on the streets of Las Vegas at that early hour.

On the way I passed this beautiful flower and used its color in the printout of my photo of the trip.

The first temple session is at 7:30; they don’t let patrons in until 7 AM, so I had about 30 minutes to kill in the quiet, cool, desert morning air.  It was then that I discovered the waterfall and the fountain on the backside of the temple.

I laid down back there for about 30 minutes.  That was heaven!

The view from the temple back down into the valley is awesome.  Here’s what it looked like at about 6 AM:

I entered around 7 AM, rented some temple clothes, and went and sat in the chapel.  The chapel is a V-shaped chapel which was new to me.  The endowment room is shaped the same way.  The celestial room is shaped the same way.  The medium-dark brown-colored wood is exquisite.

But it’s the celestial room that caught my attention: it’s all white!  The furniture, the walls, the ceilings, a beautiful white color unlike any celestial room I’ve seen.  It was magnificent!

After the session I walked the 1.7 miles down the hill to the bus stop, took the bus back to McCarran airport, and boarded the St. George Shuttle to go up to St. George to see my daughter Maggie.  It was there that we ate at the Pizza Factory which was terrific!

One other note: I also had a goal to go to the St. George Temple while I was here.  Maggie wasn’t able to do baptisms for the dead that day, so I opted to just spend

time with her around town instead of leaving her to go visit another temple.  My time with my daughter is more important than time alone in the temple.

The photo I want to get of the St. George Temple would be one with Maggie there with me when we did some baptisms for the dead.  That’s what will make it special to me.  So I passed on the St. George Temple  this trip and I’ll get it on another trip.

I was in St. George from 3 PM until 8 PM, took the shuttle back to the airport, left on the 10:30 flight, and arrived back in Washington at 6:30 AM.

Is this an amazing world we live in or what?