Cleaning Jordan River Temple

Last night Matt and I had the opportunity to go help clean the Jordan River Temple after hours. We got there a little before 11:00 p.m., presented our recommends at the front desk, and signed in. We were then directed downstairs to the Baptistry, where we were given white clothes to change into and then went to sit in the Chapel to wait for further directions. A man came in about 15 minutes later and spoke with us for a minute to instruct us on what we would be doing. He then split us all up and each of us went with a different Temple Worker to a different part of the Temple to clean as instructed.

Matt and I were both assigned to go with a woman to clean the 2nd Floor. I was pretty excited when I realized that we would be cleaning the Sealing Rooms. For the next hour, Matt and I vacuumed all of the Sealing Rooms and the Offices. We quickly realized that it's a much bigger job than we had ever previously realized before. We both vacuumed the Chapel, and then Matt vacuumed all of the Sealing Rooms and Offices on one hall and I vacuumed all of the ones on the other hall. Matt finished vacuuming a few minutes before I did, so he then got to clean the elevators as well. The time flew by and we finished with everything about 12:30 a.m. We were pretty tired when we were done!

Something interesting that Matt and I learned last night, too.......One of the Sealing Rooms had some scaffolding up underneath the chandelier in the room and all of the crystals had been removed and were in a box below it. When we asked the Temple Worker about it, she said that each of the crystals in each of the chandeliers in the Temple are removed and washed by hand. WOW! What a job! That would take some work...........

It was a pretty cool experience to be there after hours......even quieter than it usually is......and to be helping to clean such sacred rooms. It brought back memories from when Matt and I were sealed there for time and eternity over 6 years ago. I also thought a bit about Matt's Dad, Wayne, who I never actually got to meet.........but I've heard so much about. He was the Temple Recorder of the Jordan River Temple when he died a little over 7 years ago and he loved that Temple so much! It has a great significance to our family and is very special to us.

Last night was a great experience. We enjoyed having the opportunity to serve in such a capacity.