Last August, a Mormon temple was dedicated in Kiev, Ukraine. Youth from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Russia, Moldova, Georgia, Romania, and Ukraine participated in a huge youth cultural celebration to celebrate the coming of a temple in their midst.
Temples are important to Mormons because therein, we can receive saving ordinances, including the sealing of families together. Through temple marriages, husbands and wives are sealed to each other beyond death, not just “’til death do us part.” Children are bound to parents, and generations are linked to each other. Mormon focus on family history work ties closely to our belief in the blessings of temple work for in addition to receiving ordinances for ourselves, Mormons also perform vicarious ordinances for those who have died, who hadn’t received them in mortality. We believe that people can then choose whether or not to accept those ordinances. The doctrine of work for the dead is a testimony of our belief that God is no respecter of persons and provides all of His children the opportunity to receive the ordinances of salvation.
Temples to Mormons are Houses of the Lord. The temple is a place where Mormons go to come closer to God and to keep an eternal perspective in life. The temple becomes a symbol of our faith in life after death, in God’s plan of salvation, and a testimony of the importance of families in that plan, of the reality of resurrection, and in our faith in Jesus Christ.
Before a temple is dedicated, it is open to the public to enter and see what a temple looks like inside. To see some photos of the interior of an LDS temple, see the following:
Inside the LDS (Mormon) Twin Falls [Idaho, USA] Temple [this temple is now dedicated but there are many photos of the inside of the temple in this informational video that was created for the open house for this temple]
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