Traveling Temple Goer

I first visited the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania temple in February 2020. It was my home temple from the time I was baptized in 2019, until I moved to Utah in 2022. I have always loved this temple, and even now having lived in Utah for over two years, it still holds a very special place in my heart.

My Life When…

When I first visited the Philadelphia temple in February 2020, I was a pretty recent convert to the LDS Church. I had been baptized in December of 2019, and was still very new to the faith. At the time I was living with a couple who were LDS and we took a trip up to Philadelphia from Delaware to visit.

My life was quite rocky at this time, and while my first temple trip didn’t solve that rockiness, it did introduce to me that the temple could be a place for peace and comfort. This would prove to be a vital knowledge later in life, and continues to be a big motivator in my now frequent temple attendance.

At the time of my first visit to this temple, there had been rumblings of a potential pandemic. However, it had not yet reached Delaware or Pennsylvania, and so I was able to attend the temple. Unfortunately though, just one month later in March the Covid-19 pandemic reached the Eastern United States, and lockdowns began happening. This grew to include the temples. I would not go to the temple again until May of 2021.

History of the Temple

The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania temple was dedicated on the 18th of September, 2016. It was the first temple in Pennsylvania to open, and at the time there was approximately 53,000 Latter-Day Saints in Pennsylvania. The Philly temple would become the home temple for members from the states of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey.

While the Philadelphia temple was dedicated in September of 2016, it took almost exactly 5 years to build and prepare for dedication. Groundbreaking occurred on the 17th of September, 2011.

President Eyring dedicated the temple following an open house that lasted from August 10th, 2016 to September 9th, 2016.

The temple was first announced on the 4th of October 2008, during October General Conference. While nearly 8 years of waiting may seem like a lot, the saints of the Mid-Atlantic area were very happy to finally have a temple closer by to attend. Up until it’s dedication in 2016, the closest temple in the area for LDS members to go to was Washington D.C. which opened in 1974.

While the Washington D.C. temple is one of the largest temples in the US, and has lots of capacity for visitors, it was a long ways travel for members coming from New Jersey or Central Pennsylvania.

Since the First Time…

Since my first visit to the Philly temple I have been back a few more times. While it is true that I was not able to go back for over a year due to the global pandemic, once the temples were reopened for proxy ordinances, my YSA branch did make regular trips to the temple. Most of which our branch president fed us pizza beforehand, and a couple of which I had to rush to change into a church dress at the stake center before because I worked irregular hours as a home health aid, and couldn’t go in the temple in dirty scrubs.

I was also endowed in the Philadelphia temple in May of 2021.

While I was endowed in the middle of a very chaotic time in America, I very much felt the Spirit in the process of being endowed. This experience has very much impacted my journey in the Church since, and has led me to many great experiences.

Because of social distancing precautions, I could only bring a maximum of 5 guests with me to my endowment, and it had to be a private session. At the time, the temple was doing several small endowment sessions a day and they were all live endowments (or members own endowments.)

I ended up having 4 guests. They included; one of my best friends Grace, her mom, my branch president, and his wife. Everyone had to mask throughout the entire session and while inside the temple.

It was a very atypical endowment experience, but I truly felt the love of all of the people supporting me and God himself.

Since then, I’ve had several other members of the YSA branch I was in in Delaware go through the temple and receive their endowments too. During Covid, when the temple was very limited in availability and operation, my branch saw at least 4 members take out their own endowment.

Another interesting occurrence of the time was that because the pandemic was shutting down most of the temples in the entire country, many missionaries were being sent out into the field without being endowed first. Prior to 2020, missionaries had to be endowed prior to leaving on their missions. However, during the pandemic that changed and many missionaries were endowed in temples in the mission they were assigned to. As a result, one of my friends who would serve as an elder in my home YSA in Delaware, would be endowed in Philly just like me-despite being from Las Vegas.

Philly will always hold a special place in my heart, and it is truly what led me on the journey to finally being here writing this blog. I’ve now visited almost 20 temples, and it’s all because I visited Philadelphia in February of 2020.

The Future For PA

Now, in January of 2025, Pennsylvania has two operating temples and a third that has been announced. The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania temple was dedicated in September of 2024, almost 8 years to the day after the Philadelphia temple. It serves members in the mountainous west of Pennsylvania and into Appalachia.

A temple was announced to be built in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania during the April 2023 General Conference. There’s yet to be a groundbreaking, but I look forward to the day that that temple is completed, because I have family in central Pennsylvania near where it will be built, and would love to be able to attend another Pennsylvania temple while visiting them.