Ogden Temple Rededication

Sunday September 21, 2014 was the rededication of the Ogden Temple. It is the first day of fall and also a Sunday. Rather than normal church meetings every stake had a broadcast of the dedication services from the temple. The temple was first dedicated in January of 1972 when I was a junior in high school. Two years later I received my endowments there in preparation for my mission. It was a very modern design and meant to be very functional as well as having symbolism of a cloud by day and fire by night to lead the children of Israel.

 Over the years the temple has been a focal point of the city. A lot of changes happened next to the temple. I came across this photo of the temple in the mid 1970's. It is looking north along Kiesel Avenue and 23rd Street. This was before the mall was even built.

The mall was built to try to change a deteriorating downtown blocking Kiesel Avenue and the view of the temple. The mall lasted 20 years and then it was replaced with the Junction. April 2011 the temple was closed for a major renovation which changed the face of downtown. Never had a temple gone through such a major renovation as this. It was not limited to the temple, it was the entire block.

This summer was a lot of preparations for the opening and rededication of the temple. The ward along with many other wards worked on repairing homes in Ogden and doing clean up jobs. In August the open house took place. Before the official open house Cindy and I got to go through the temple before the general open house because of my position with the city. We got to wander in areas and take as long as we wanted to see the interior. It was fantastic to see the detail and design that went into the building. We went through a couple more times. Once with Maddie, Shannon, Connor and Payton in the day.

The next time we were volunteers in the open house and were the quiet sentinels as people went through the temple. Cindy got to spend a lot of time in the brides room. There were over 500,000 people who went through the open house for the temple.

So many things have changed over time and this was definitely for the better.

 Kiesel and 23rd September 2014

 22nd and Washington -2002











 22nd and Washington -September 2014







Yesterday was the youth celebration prior to the dedication which took place in the Dee Events Center. It was a wonderful event that we watched in the stake center since the Dee Events was filled with youth. Today the dedication service we attended was wonderful. Elder Eyring made it a point for us to worry about the choices we make in keeping our covenants because we can not make choices for others but if we remain faithful there are blessings for our family. Elder Holland made it a point that the most important things we do is what we do when we are away from the temple. Can't wait for the temple to function come Tuesday.