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MormonTimes.com: Not all Utah temple trips can be considered simple

What a worthwhile and tremendous sacrifice.

Even though I live half way between the Jordan River and Salt Lake temples it can take as long as 45 minutes to slightly over an hour to get to them. The reason - I rely on UTA to get me there. Jordan River did take only about 40-45 minutes to get to before the change from Rt. 17 to 217/218. Now it can take me and others who live in my area between 55 minutes to 75 minutes depending on which 217 you catch.

If I take Greyhound or Trailways to Ogden or Provo I can get there in about an hour (same as if I drove my self) but with UTA it can take either an hour and a half to almost 3 hours or more. Today we are going to Ogden using UTA service it will take almost 2 hours but to me it is worth it. Friday my husband and I will be attending the Provo Temple.

I would love to attend the Bountiful and Mt. Timpanogus temples but UTA doesn't go to them.

I am happy to be able to get to what temples I can by bus without having to rely on others.

These people know whats important. Good for them.

It's *newsworthy* that some Mormons have to travel more than three hours to visit the temple?

Some Utahns need to get out of "Zion" a little more often and see how the bulk of their co-religionists live.

I have lived in Utah for 1 year and am thrilled with the access that LDS have here to Temples, with 2 more nearing completion. My parents traveled from South Africa to London to attend the Temple, selling much to do so, including their car to pay for the flight over. Many other SA saints traveled to London, SLC, or Brazil to attend the Temple before a Temple was dedicated in SA in 1985. I personally lived 11 hours away from the Temple by car, and used to make the trip at least 4 times a year. 3-4 hours to a Temple is a dream. I know of LDS in Tanzania on the East Coast of Africa, who traveled 5 days in a cramped bus with no aircon in order to get to the Temple once in their lifetime. When my parents took us to the London Temple in 1972, they knew that the next time they attended one it would have to be in their own country. It was 13 years before that became possible. There are now 3 Temples in Africa, Ghana, Nigeria and SA. I applaud all those whom travel so far to the Lord's House.

I found it interesting in a recent Church News article that mentioned why 3 new temples were announced in Arizona. One of the reasons was due to the hardship of people driving for 90 minutes to get to the Mesa Temple. I realize that there are quite a few members in AZ, but come on! Most of my life we've had to travel 4 to 8 hours one way to do temple work. Not living in Utah I am extremely lucky to live only 5 minutes from our temple. But sacrifice is what makes the entire temple experience worthwhile. In my opinion, I think less money should be spent on how the temples look and more on expanding the numbers of temples throughout the world. As one who knows first hand, there is sometimes a lot of wasted dollars just to keep up a nice image.

I think the people in Rexburg had the right idea. They wanted a Temple, so they paid for it. I know that is out of reach for a lot of areas, but I think it shows that the more fortunate people of Rexburg would rather spend their money for righteous persuits rather than worldly posessions.

Unfortunately you assume the reason the temples were announced in Arizona was "due to the hardship of people driving for 90 minutes". If you had read the article when the temples were announced you would know that the Mesa temple is the busiest in the world outside of Utah. It is due to the demand not the drive. Obviously you have never been to the phoenix metro area (now the fifth largest city in the country nor do you understand the incredible population growth that has taken place here. Thanks for the comment about how temples look....I will let the First Presidency decide those issues.

ya'll are a bunch of whiners. Practically everyone else in the rest of the country, let alone the world has to plan at LEAST a full day trip to visit the temple. For years I travelled 10 hrs one way and was thrilled when a temple was built "only" 4 hrs away. People in this state have no idea how good they have it. ya'll need to stop taking the gospel for granted and remember that there is a world outside of Utah. And *gasp* there are members of the church out there too.

Actually, it was the wonderful Sorensen family of SLC that provided the bulk of the resources to built the Rexburg Temple, only 25 minutes from the Idaho Falls Temple. Elder Nelson indirectly pointed that out by acknowledging Sis. Sorensen at one of the dedication sessions. I applaud the Rexburg Temple, though, especially for the many young couples attending BYI.

to Doug S:

I found this story very interesting and newsworthy.

Did everyone know that Escalante (Boulder actually) happens to be the LAST destination in the United States that received mail by the pony express. Yep, those good folks out there must be tolerant individuals to always be picked last! Ouch! Hang in there my fellow brothers and sisters...your time will come, your time will come...

Relax, I just found the comment on the 90 minute drive very interesting when others go many hours. Those of us who live close by are spoiled and blessed at the same time. I do understand that the Mesa Temple is one of the busiest (notice I wrote "one of the reasons"), and I wasn't passing any judgment or second guessing the First Presidency at all. Luckily that's not my job. Since you're into judging, I just drove through Phoenix last week, so your assumption is wrong, I do know how fast it is growing, etc. I have many family and friends in the area as well. In my region, our temple was also supported in part by several wealthy families. Thanks to them we now live very close to our temple. Again, just relax.

I live in arizona and drive 3 1/2 hours to the mesa temple, the snow flake temple is 8 hours away, and the new temples that will be built here will not help much with my drive, but I am grateful for a temple this close..even though it is 115 degrees in mesa in the summer, we try to go as often as we can.. i keep hoping that we will get a temple closer especially with the price of gas, but sacrifice teaches something..

Someone mentioned in a post that the Mesa temple is the businest temple outside of Utah. I had heard that the Jordan River temple in South Jordan is the busiest temple in Utah in terms of number of ordiannces performed and attendance. That was part of the reason for the recent addition of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, also in South Jordan.
Can anyone verify that? Curious.

I lived in Florida most of my life, and it used to take me four hours to get to the temple. And now that I live in Utah, I honestly kind of miss that.

When it takes all day to go to the temple, you treat it as the focus of the day. If you're lucky enough not to be driving, you can spend the trip down reading and pondering, focused for four hours on what is about to happen, then arrive in a better state of mind to participate, then participate, and, rather than jump immediately back to your home and work, have a chance to ponder on it all for the next four hours. Since it takes the whole day, it's much more special.

Although I do enjoy attending here, I miss the opportunity to just focus on it all day.

Take the extra eight hours you save in driving and focus on actual work. Do 4 or 5 more sessions. Count the blessings of being able to spend more time in the temple rather than driving to and fro.

It's not just about saving the dead that's important, but perhaps ourselves as well. I think you missed the point. Going to the temple with the right frame of mind is equally important as doing sessions over and over without any thought. Too many people, myself included go without any thought just because we're told to. Who's plan does that sound like?

The Mesa Temple is always full. We have had to wait two hours to get a session because of the line of people. It is also one of the bigger temples so you can imagine what I am talking about. There are about 400,000 Mormons in the phoenix area and I am not sure how many hold temple recommends but Even if there are 100,000 people that the temple serves plus Tucson who has 3 stakes, and most of southern AZ you can see why we need more temples. I for one am grateful that instead of driving 30 minutes I will only have to drive 20. :o)

Sorry, but it is extremely difficult to empathize with the Escalante LDS when so many other LDS worldwide must make MAJOR sacrifices to attend temple. The entire continent of Africa only has three temples - imagine the sacrifices African LDS must make.

By comparison, driving 3 1/2 hours in a motorized climate-controlled vehicle is hardly a sacrifice.