2000—A Big Year for the Church

For Boston-area Latter-day Saints, it’s hard to get bigger than the year the Boston Temple was dedicated. As I’ve mentioned before, it stands in Belmont, just over the line from Arlington, near the end of the same Appleton Street that we lived on for thirty years, about a mile from our front door. We of the (“One True”) Arlington Ward, meeting just down the hill in the Belmont chapel, watched it arise from the vantage point of our parking lot.

Once the Temple was completed and dedicated, only Church members with special credentials (“recommends”) from their ecclesiastical leaders would be permitted to enter. Before the October 1 dedication, however, the Church authorized and the local people implemented an open house period, during which non-members were invited to come and see the Temple, inside and out. I had the honor of leading tour groups and then mingling with them to respond to their questions.