Denver Colorado Temple

My daughter Rebecca in 2018 when we went to do baptisms at the Denver Temple

2018

The Denver Colorado Temple was my 11th temple.  I have attended this temple many times.  When we lived in Laramie, the Denver temple was "our temple."  It was two hours from our house, and we went as often as we could.  But James was in law school, and we had several little boys, so we did not make it there as often as we wanted to.  Sometimes our ward would all go out there together and half the families would stay at a stake center nearby while the other half of the couples went to the temple, and then we would trade so that each couple was able to do go to the temple.  The kids had fun playing together and it was a great solution for babysitting.  After James graduated from law school and we moved to Lander, we made the goal to attend the temple at least once every month.  We kept that goal until March 2020 when COVID shut down all of the temples in the world!  I went to the temple on the last weekend that temples were open.  We were able to attend the temple twice during the COVID closings -- once for our son Ethan's sealing to his wife LaShae, and once for our son Teancum's endowment.  After temples re-opened we renewed our goal to attend every month.  We were spoiled when we lived in Laramie that the Denver temple was only two hours away -- it seemed so far then, but moving to Lander meant that we were at least four hours away from any temple.  

I've had mixed experiences attending the Denver Temple.  When my son James was young we took him on a trip to the Denver Temple to do baptisms.  The temple president heard that we had come all the way from Lander to bring our son to do baptisms, so he came down to the baptistry to greet us and talk to James.  We were so touched to be treated in such a special way and to have our son James feel so important.  Years later I was driving cross-country to Texas to attend a Suzuki Violin Institute with my daughters and we went to five temples along the way.  Rebecca and I went to the Denver Temple to do baptisms.  We made it there a half hour before the baptistry would be closing.  The temple workers were not happy to see us and talked in front of us about how they wanted to go home and not allow anyone else to do baptisms that day.  Thankfully, one young temple worker said that he was willing to stay instead of going home early so that we could perform some baptisms for the family names that I had brought.  A couple others grudgingly agreed to stay with him.  I was sad that my daughter had seen how unwelcome we can sometimes feel at the House of the Lord, but grateful that this young man had been willing to stay to the end of his shift for people who had driven several hours to arrive at their temple.  His shift did not end any later than it was scheduled to end because Rebecca and I were quick to change in and out of our baptismal clothing and we each only had 5 family members to do baptisms for.  It was an interesting contrast for Rebecca to see the reception we received at each of the 5 temples we attended.  After our experience at the Denver Temple, we were welcomed with open arms at both the Albuquerque and Lubbock Temples.  In fact, the president of the Lubbock Temple heard that we were visiting from Wyoming and came to sit with my daughter Lizzie in the waiting room while Rebecca and I performed baptisms.  He gave us a personalized devotional as well.  I was so touched by how welcome these sweet temple workers made us feel, especially after our not-so-warm reception in Denver.  Of the many times I've attended the Denver temple, however, this was the only negative experience that I have had.  I have many happy memories of family or ward temple trips to this temple.

My favorite place to eat in Denver is at Casa Bonita.  I first attended this restaurant when I was a teenager, and have since brought James and my kids back to it.  An indoor waterfall and cliff divers, as well as its iconic look, are the main draws for this restaurant.  I also remember visiting the Denver Mint when I was a little girl and our family made a weekend trip to Denver.

My first trip to the Denver temple is rather a tender one.  It was in 1998 and I was attending my beloved roommate Mary's wedding in the Denver Temple.  I was eight months pregnant with my son Ammon.  I brought my boys with me and arranged for a babysitter during the wedding.  My husband James was on a business trip nearby.  I stayed in a hotel after the wedding and wedding dinner, and that night realized that I wasn't feeling movement from Ammon.  I picked up my toddlers in the middle of the night and went out into the pouring rain to find my car and search for the hospital.  This was in the days before everybody had cell phones, and I was following the directions given by the nurse on the hotel telephone when I called the hospital to tell them what was happening.  I realized after half an hour that I was driving in the wrong direction.  I turned around, and still in pouring rain I eventually found my way to the hospital.  They checked me in and monitored me, meanwhile my two boys climbed all over the hospital bed and all over me.  Then Ammon's heartrate plummeted and nurses carried my boys away as they prepped me for an emergency c-section.  My husband was located and told to rush to the hospital.  Ammon was kept alive by machines for two days before the doctors convinced us to remove them and let him return to our Heavenly Father's arms.  He'd had two knots in his umbilical cord, about 5 inches apart, that had been depriving him of oxygen as he moved around in the womb.  I view attending my friend Mary's wedding in the Denver Temple as a huge blessing in this situation, because we lived in Moab at the time -- several hours away from the Denver Temple -- and it happened to be at the same time as James' business trip.  If we'd been home when this had happened, I am not sure how our little hospital in Moab would have handled the situation, and James would have had to travel several hours to reach me.  The fact that he was only one hour away from me was such a blessing and proved to me that Heavenly Father had carefully planned out the details so that both of us could be together and with our son for the two days that he lived.  I share many more details of our experience with our precious Ammon in my book "For They Shall Be Comforted," published by Covenant Communications in 2008.  

1998, my first visit to the Denver Temple for my roommate Mary's wedding, and very pregnant with my son Ammon

My celestial son Ammon