Vancouver British Columbia Temple

I went to the Vancouver Temple open house today in Canada. This was my first time actually being outside of the country. I renewed and enhanced my drivers license yesterday so I can go across the border without a passport. Mom still had to bring my birth certificate because I only had a photocopy of my drivers license. My real license will arrive in the mail two weeks from now. Too bad it's not going to be shipped to my address. The people at the boarder asked us where we were from, where we were going, and why. I thought it was somewhat weird.

Draper and Oquirrh Temples are twice as big as this one. I knew this was going to be smaller because of the area which we are in. I was surprised that it's just as big as the Billings temple. I was somewhat surprised that the Provo temple is twice as big as Draper and Oquirrh. Mary Lou said the Provo was bigger than Draper, but not by how much. It didn't seem that big. Spokane is still the smallest temple that I've been in.

I think that the Oquirrh Temple is the prettiest because of the deep Mahogany wood on the first and second floors. The third floor was white. I think it's because it contained the celestial room. Draper and Oquirrh had plastic lining the carpets and barriers to prevent people not to go off the path. It was just a continuous line of people. The Vancouver Temple had ushers that guided groups of people through the temple. Plus, the guides talked about each room. I thought that was pretty cool because they didn't have that in Draper and Oquirrh

Elder Christensen, an area general authority, had us combine with another group because it was pretty small. Then, he became our guide. This happened in the chapel where the men and women sat to wait for the session to start. I think that the one of the temple presidency talks to them too. We went inside the endowment room. Elder Christensen said that the mural on the wall represents the wildlife and the landscape of the surrounding area. However, the murals in Draper or Oquirrh didn't represent the local landscape of Utah because it's all desert and doesn't have any trees. There were lots of leaves or flowers all through the temple in the chandelier, floor, and ceilings. The veil room is brighter and higher than the endowment room. Of course, the celestial room is the brightest and highest out of all of them. The closer to Heavenly Father and Christ we get, the brighter we become.

Elder Christensen testified that life after the veil is real in the veil room. I had a little glimpse of myself seeing myself on the other side going through the motions. I realized that the spirit world is going to be as real as this life. Elder Christensen ended his tour with us in the sealing room and allowed anyone to ask questions. In one of the questions, he said that if the parents have children, they also kneel at the alter. That's why there's padding all around the alter. I felt the Spirit testify to that that it's important for people who are married to go to the temple often. I think spouses who do that are less likely to get a divorce. I thanked Elder Christensen for being our guide and shook his hand when we left the sealing room.

Here's a video that I found on the temple website. One can see the little booties that people where over their shoes. That's another thing that I liked about this open house. I felt more free being led by a guide, not seeing any barriers at all, and not having this set path before us which was made of plastic.