Manti Temple Open House

I'm starting this post with an excerpt from a Sacrament meeting talk from March 2023. 

"My love for the temple runs deep. I grew up in small-town Ephraim Utah and frequently drove past the majestic Manti Temple. My high school was nestled in the valley near the foot of the temple hill and it was a beacon to me throughout my youth and helped to guide the choices I made and the future I wanted.

As I performed proxy baptisms, I began to understand that the ordinances and symbols of the temple always point to the Savior and His Atonement. That understanding has increased as I have made my own covenants with the Lord in the temple and as I have made the effort to make serving in the temple a priority.

The cornerstone of the Manti Temple was laid on April 14, 1879, some 30 years after they had arrived in the Sanpete Valley. There are many stories that could be told about the diligence of the workmen, who put their very best into the construction of this beautiful temple with only simple tools. Many stories of the sacrifice of the Saints who donated what would now be equal to over a million dollars often in pennies, eggs, and other small increments of sacrifice. President Gordon B. Hinckley said several years ago at the rededication of the Manti Temple, “I have been in the world’s great buildings, and in none of these have I had the feeling I get in coming to these pioneer houses of God.”3

Former United States president Ronald Reagan has been quoted as saying, “I do not want to go back to the past; I want to go back to the past way of facing the future.”1 His counsel resonates within me. There is something about reviewing the lessons of the past to prepare us to face the challenges of the future. What a glorious legacy of faith, courage, and ingenuity those noble early pioneers have left for us to build upon."

 I truly love the Manti Temple and it holds a special place in my heart. Not only did it impact my youth to a significant degree, but this is also the temple where I received my Temple Endowment (during a live session, which I loved). It's been a tender place of faith and growth for me. The temple closed in October 2021 for renovation and I have been SO excited for the Manti Temple Open House. I knew that I wanted to take my family to go through the open house. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for us to all go together, but David and I were able to go in March and then I planned to bring the kids in April.

 My family wanted to come down and go through it together on April 2nd, but I wanted my kids to experience it themselves without being in a big group so I scheduled tickets for the 1st AND the 2nd. I reserved a hotel room for us to stay the night for a little mini-getaway and was super excited! 

Something that we did NOT plan on was how long we would have to wait to get inside. The turnout was incredible with hundreds of people who made reservations (like we did) and hundreds and hundreds more who did not have tickets. We never waited less than 2 hours to get into the open house, but some people were waiting 4-5 hours to get in. The lines were incredibly long, but people were generally cheerful and it was a good experience! 

 Day 1 was a success. The kids did great in line and the temple was beautiful. I was so amazed at how much was exactly the same! When they renovated the Logan Temple, which was also a pioneer temple, they basically gutted it and put in a bunch of beautiful but generic decorations. However, there were a lot of people who expressed how important it was to maintain the pioneer integrity of the temple, especially the Minerva Tichert murals. They did an incredible job of addressing the renovation needs while changing very very little. 

After we went through the temple, we ate lunch at The Malt Shop and went swimming at the AC (two of my favorite childhood memories). Then we went back to The Willow Creek Inn, which is the hotel that I worked at when I was in high school. We watched some cartoons and ate ramen for dinner. It was fun to be on this little getaway, just the kids and I, but we definitely missed David. 

The next day we met up with Jenna and my parents at the Manti Temple again. I've talked about how significant the Manti Temple was to me, but it's a big part of my whole family's lives. It was neat to be there with them. We particularly loved the assembly hall on the top floor, the spiral staircases with sealing rooms at the top, and the murals in the ordinance rooms. 

After the temple, we went to our childhood friend's house - the Larsens. Lorna and my mom were best friends and we spent a lot of time with their family. The kids loved the backyard and it was nice to see David and Lauren who came to visit their mom when they heard we were in town. 

I loved this day with my family and this weekend with my kids. 

I loved this temple open house, although I feel like there was a missed opportunity at the temple open house to share about the pioneers who built the temple, to share about the faith/spirit of the temple, and to utilize the time that people spent in line. It felt a little more like the parade of homes - just looking at a pretty building - and less like a temple open house, but I think part of that was the massive amount of people there and the other part was unmet expectations on my part. But I tried to bear testimony to my children and I enjoyed the experience knowing the history and faith of this temple as I do. 

Shantel's Ephraim House

My brother Matthew just sent me a link saying that our old house in Ephraim is up for sale. It was fun to look through the pictures and remember what it looked like when WE lived there. My dad's fingerprints are all over that house and it's so neat to see his lasting impact. I pulled all of the pictures off of their listing so I could post about them and remember. 

This house. 240 E 300 North 28-7

(The 28-7 was our mailbox code. We walked to the corner to get the mail.) 

I lived here from when I was about 5 until I was 17. Basically all of my growing up memories are in this home. The backyard was a PERFECT childhood backyard. It was large, had two big trees, a big garden, and lots of grass. Nothing was especially manicured or fancy, but we LOVED it. My dad built us this two-story playhouse with a deck off the back. He installed a giant sandbox wrapping from the little house all around the big tree next to it. We had a swing set there in the sandbox under the tree. I remember running with our dog Sparky around the yard, around and around the trampoline. We played in the sandbox for hours. When I got older, my friends and I used my family's old-school video camera to record our own TV show "XYZ news". There is a big lot attached to the back of our yard and when I was about 10 we bought the lot (to prevent a business from building apartments for Snow College back there). It was the best extension of our back yard. It was weedy and muddy, and once when we got a little kid-size motorcycle my dad built a track that we could ride it around.

It was the best childhood. 

The little window you can see through the tree in the picture on the left above is right above the kitchen sink. My dad would sometimes get the sink sprayer, open the window, and spray me and my friends who were playing on the patio. We loved it. It made us laugh and laugh. 

The Kitchen
I remember dancing with my mom to Shania Twain songs (maybe Man, I feel like a Woman?) in this kitchen while holding the broom. I don't know why that memory stands out so much, but it makes me smile. I also remember countless lunches, dinners, and snacks fed at our big oval oak table. Some of my favorite memories: little black plates that were separated into three sections with high walls (as an adult I suspect that they were old freezer meal trays, ha) with different types of food appropriately separated, rainbow toast (bread served with colored milk and cotton swabs that we got to decorate and then my mom toasted), and our assigned seats at dinner (everyone sat at the same place every single night). 

My Dad laid the tile in the kitchen and the hard wood in the entry. We had our piano where that bench was in the entry. My piano teacher lived right across the street and I would get up at 6 a.m. on Wednesday mornings to cross the street in the dark and go to Piano Lessons. 

This is part of the addition on the side of the house. The carport. Bet you can't guess what I'm going to say? Yep. My dad built the carport/addition. When we moved it it wasn't there at all. Man, my dad is amazing. He also built a big bench to go along the side that fit laundry baskets underneath for our shoes and things. 

Things not pictured? The basement with it's big main area filled with wood paneling (installed, and loved, by my dad). My purple (sponged over with white) walls in my bedroom. Before we had the mudroom/addition the laundry room was in the basement and there was a laundry shoot in the bathroom. It was the best. We just threw our dirty things down the chute and magically they got cleaned and put back in our rooms (ha!).

I loved this house. Looking at these pictures reminds me how much love my parents put into our childhood. I was surrounded by good friends, lots of outdoor space, and a family that still means the world to me.