St. Louis Missouri Temple
The St. Louis Missouri Temple would is one of four temples I am trying to visit in a 36-hour period. The other three temples include the Nauvoo Illinois Temple, the Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple, and the Kansas City Missouri Temple. This trip was going to be particularly fun because I served my mission in Independence Missouri some 40 years ago. Coincidentally, I had never been back until now.
It’s All About the Timing
The first step in visiting four temples is making sure they’re all open on those days. They are. The next step is deciding which one to go to first. Not all temples have the same ordinance schedules, so you also have to check those. So I looked at that too.
Then you have to decide which order to see them in. That’s critical given that the distance from St. Louis to Kansas City is about 250 miles. What’s more, the distance from the Nauvoo Temple to the Winter Quarters Temple is about a 5-hour drive.
Thank You St. Louis Missouri Temple!
After looking at the temple’s schedules again this is the plan I came up with:
Off to a Good Start!
When I checked in at the Payless rental car counter, I made a comment that I was a Mormon missionary in Kansas City 40 years earlier. One of the two employees there smiled and asked if I served in the Independence mission? He sounded LDS and I found out he was. His name is Bob and he’s a very nice guy!
Payless hooked me up with a nice SUV. I wanted that extra space because I plan to sleep in the car once I made it to St. Louis late tonight. I arrived in St. Louis around 12:30 in the morning. The temple was lit up and looked great. About a quarter of a mile away I found a Covenant Seminary parking lot where I pulled off and shut down for the next few hours.
At 4:30 AM my alarm went off and I drove back over to the temple. The gates were open and some cars were starting to come in. That was a good sign. I asked one gentleman in the parking lot if they had a 5:30 AM session and he said yes. I was off to a good start!
A Beautiful Temple
The St. Louis Missouri Temple is fairly large. It’s grounds are beautiful and well kept. They have a light milk chocolate covered leather on some of the chairs inside. Very beautiful touch.
The endowment session was terrific. I spent a few minutes in the celestial room and then took off. Once again I did the work for III an ancestor that my mother had researched for me.
As I’m writing this I’m about 45 minutes away from Nauvoo. If I make the 11 o’clock or 12 o’clock session I should have enough time to get to Winter Quarters for their final session tonight at around 7 PM.
The Food
I quickly hit a McDonald’s afterwards and got their hot cakes and sausage breakfast. I was so hungry I ate most of it before I remembered to take a photo!
The St. Louis Missouri Temple is my 59th temple visited since January 2017. I’m very excited to be back in the land of my mission, not only to visit for existing temples, but to visit a number of famous church historical sites.