Temple #44: Lubbock, Texas

Josh and I take special pleasure in finally crossing certain temples off our list. Recently, we made a special visit to Lubbock, Texas to see the temple there and to cross Texas off the list of states that have temple we haven't visited.

The Lubbock temple was dedicated in 2002 and it is the 109th operating temple. 

It's a medium-sized temple, similar to Columbia River, with 2 ordinance rooms and 2 sealing rooms. There is a lot of stained glass in degrees of glory motif:

The stone is white and grey, quarried in China, like Snowflake:

The temple workers were nice, but not super chatty. I guess I thought they would be because it's Texas. The Telestial room has a geographic landscape mural, which means a lot of flat, flat, flat land. But the Terrestrial room was one of the most beautiful I've seen; the ceiling is curved like the inside of a barrel, and is painted to look like the sky. Then there is a gold pattern painted over that (like gold-rimmed squares). The Celestial room has huge stained-glass windows on each side and a huge chandelier with either feathers or leaves framing it (this pattern is continued throughout the room). Then the ceiling has stars (I'm pretty sure some of them were Texas stars) carved from wood.

It was pretty hot in Lubbock, but it was beautiful.

Next up will probably be Vancouver, BC in a few weeks. It's been open for over a year and we haven't been there yet!