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Western Places to Visit

Eastern Places to Visit

Mormon Temple
9900 Stoneybrook Drive
Kensington, MD
301-588-0650
(and a local congregation)

by Kam Janati

Before I begin, I must admit that I initially felt burdened by the Encounters & Dialogues assignment. My original mentality was to merely visit another place of worship in order to maintain a good grade in the class. I suspect that I am not the only member of the class that initially felt this way. After visiting the Mormon Temple, however, in conjunction with attending the Sunday worship services at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, my entire perspective on Christianity had evolved. 

I will begin by sharing with you all my experience at the Temple located in Kensington, MD, which happens to be the second largest Mormon Temple in the world. I will then share my experience at the Sunday worship services. 

The Mormon Temple is truly a magnificent site. We are blessed to live only half-an-hour away from this lovely site. I visited the Temple with Lydia, as well as two female elders that are currently serving their mission. I was unable to go inside the actual temple itself, due to the fact it is reserved for members of the Mormon faith. Therefore I spent the day at the Visitor’s Center. The Visitor’s Center is separate from the Temple, although both buildings are adjacent to each other. 

From the moment I entered the Visitor’s Center, a young lady approached and welcomed me. She served as the guide, and was extremely kind and willing to answer any questions that I had. The Visitor’s Center itself is beautiful. There is an enormous sculpture of Christ, models of ancient Biblical towns and cities, paintings of significant religious figures, and several displays that contain the Dead Sea Scrolls, and computer screens with menus that provide visitors with unlimited information about the faith. We began by viewing the digital presentations on the computers, and shortly thereafter we entered the theatre and watched “The Testaments.” The theatre is absolutely magnificent. It is enormous, and is significantly larger than regular movie theatres. The screen is gigantic, and the sound system surpassed normal movie theatre technology. “The Testaments” is a very inspirational movie, and is unique to the Mormon faith. Although fiction, it provides the visitor with a sense of what was going on in South America concurrently with what was going on in Israel at the time of Christ. 

After viewing “The Testaments,” we walked around and viewed the several displays and models. Afterwards, we took a tour of the outside of the Temple. The Temple was constructed in 1973 with architectural perfection, and the landscaping that surrounds the Temple is nothing less than breathtaking. There is a gigantic fountain in the front, and that is where we took pictures at the conclusion of the visit. That basically sums up my experience at the Temple. Now I’d like to share my experience at the Sunday worship services.

The Sunday worship service is one hour in length and begins at 11:00am. Another member of the class, Lisa, also attended the worship services, and the two elders that accompanied me to the Temple were also at the service. I took a seat, and to the left of me were Lydia and Lisa, and to the right of me were the two elders, so I immediately felt welcomed and I was very comfortable. I remember the two elders got up and went somewhere, and immediately two other elders serving their mission sat next to me, and they happened to be really good guys. The theme of the sermon was sacrifice, and three members of the church made speeches about the importance of sacrifice and how it reinforces one’s faith. We sang a lot of hymns. I found it interesting that the only book on display is the Book of Hymns. Members of the church bring their own copies of the Scriptures to the service. Sacrament was the main ritual that was observed on Sunday, and bread and water was passed around. The bread symbolizes the body of Christ, and the water symbolizes the blood of Christ. All in all, the service I attended resembled the Protestant service, however, the Mormon worship service uses the Book of Mormon, which is obviously unique to that faith.

After the service, I attended Sunday school. The theme of Sunday school was sacrifice, specifically through fasting. The significance of fasting is that when we refrain from eating and drinking, our spirituality is strengthened, thus making us closer to G_d. There was a second Sunday school that was unisex; therefore the males and females went to their respective rooms. The reason it was unisex is because it is to teach men how to become better fathers and husbands, and I’m assuming the same thing for the female Sunday school. The bishop presiding asked me to introduce myself, and then the entire Sunday school lesson revolved around me, and helping me, the visitor, better understand the Mormon faith. Now I would like to share with you what I learned at Sunday school.

The Temple is the Gateway to Salvation:

Pre-existence ---> Earth ---> Temple ---> Exaltation/Celestial – Highest Form (Spirit World)

OR

Terrestrial

Telestial