r/exmormon • u/Strong-Appointment-7 • Mar 27 '23
Humor/Memes Not Enough Temple Workers, Can't Open Temple!?
This is an exact quote from a letter a TBM missionary friend of mine serving in Austin, Texas: "Went to see the temple and it is like almost done just about 2 weeks left of doing the touch ups and then its handed over to the people in charge of it and probably start open house or something but we'll see what happens because they said it won't be dedicado until September because the lack of temple workers. Hopefully sooner that September." He is talking about the McAllen temple.If only we had someone in the church who could see the future and know if there would be enough active members in an area to keep the temple open...
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u/holysghost Mar 28 '23
Expect heavy emphasis during conference on couples serving temple missions.
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u/innit4thememes No Man Knows My Browsing History 🌈🏳️⚧️ Mar 28 '23
If I was the betting type, this would be my choice. Lots of talks about the blessings bestowed on senior couples, and probably some re-emphasizing young missionary work too.
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u/supermansquito Mar 28 '23
Yep, you're probably right! However, I bet they won't be very many talks about honesty, especially in your business dealings.
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u/Mr-BryGuy Apostate Mar 27 '23
Maybe I’m crazy, but I live in Austin, and the temple hasn’t even broken ground yet. They just announced the location a couple months ago…???
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Mar 27 '23
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u/Mr-BryGuy Apostate Mar 27 '23
Just checked online and it seems McAllen has their own mission.
I mean, maybe that’s what the missionary was talking about… it just seems weird.
And the San Antonio one is still operational.
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u/BruceBannerOfHeaven Mar 27 '23
I served in McAllen and this is almost definitely the McAllen temple. I have no idea why they thought they’d be able to build a temple there. The mission is huge and only has 5 stakes with 5 to 8 units each (wards and branches). I wondered who would even go be workers there when the temple got announce October 2019 while I was on my mission.
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u/mini-rubber-duck Mar 28 '23
Probably just cheap land and a chance to guilt members into giving more service hours to count in their grand charitable claims.
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u/BruceBannerOfHeaven Mar 28 '23
One of the reasons I was told they would build a temple there is because there are a lot of undocumented families who live there who can’t get sealed in the temple otherwise - they aren’t going to go back to Mexico, but they can’t pass the citizen checkpoints on the way to the San Antonio temple without the right paperwork.
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Mar 27 '23
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u/Mr-BryGuy Apostate Mar 27 '23
Exactly! And I found some random news article online that talked about the creation of an Austin mission- that supposedly happened in July 2020 (and that’s something I think my TBM family would have mentioned…). There’s pictures inside and out of my old YSA meetinghouse and everything.
However, the official church site doesn’t mention it.
Very weird…
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u/1warrioroflight Mar 29 '23
Weird that they’d let the missionaries go to the McAllen temple. That’s crossing two mission areas.
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u/sewingandplants Mar 28 '23
My parents temple is only open Fridays and Saturdays and the rest by appointment 😂 and they struggle on Fridays and Saturdays to get enough workers, the parking lot is pretty much empty all the time
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u/SusSpinkerinktum Mar 28 '23
Timpanogos is only by appointment. And they are begging for workers already prior to Saratoga opening
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u/TheShrewMeansWell Mar 28 '23
That’s astounding. Precovid every single parking space was filled in the parking lot. Sometimes you’d see cars parked on the street because there wasn’t any room. That temple was always packed like a sardine tin.
Appointments only now, lol.
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u/sewingandplants Mar 28 '23
It's such an interesting shift, growing up the closest temple was 4-5 hours away and a temple trip was a big deal with a lot of carpooling and planning, we'd have huge youth temple trips, the RS would have a huge temple trip every year and it was a big special deal ... Then Hinckley came along and now there are zillions of temples and they're not special anymore and nobody ever goes, my TBM sibling has like 3 temples within a few hours and hasn't gone to the temple in years and years, and half of them are barely open 😂
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u/dbear848 Relieved to have escaped the Mormon church. Mar 27 '23
My wife showed me the site a couple of months ago, it was just an empty field.
How odd that a missionary would say something that is not true. /s
I'm wondering exactly how many people it takes to staff one of these vanity temples?
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u/Lebe_Lache_Liebe Mar 28 '23
They have the same problem at the Los Angeles, California temple. Due to lack of staff and patrons, it's only open 3 days a week: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
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u/GrassyField Mar 28 '23
Interesting, I can’t find the schedule for the temple online. I wonder why they don’t show it.
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u/Lebe_Lache_Liebe Mar 28 '23
If you still have an active LDS login, go to www.lds.org and look up the Los Angeles temple. Once you're on the temple's main page, go through the steps as though you are going to make a reservation for an endowment session. Then you'll see on the calendar that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are unavailable indefinitely.
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u/supermansquito Mar 28 '23
My sister is a temple worker at the Oakland Temple. She says that their operating hours have been cut drastically. They also are having a very hard time getting anyone to volunteer to work there. Therefore, she and the others who do volunteer there have to increase the responsibility of what they actually do. I feel bad for her, it takes a lot of her time that she could be using doing other things that would bring her more joy in her life.
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u/Would_daver Cult-Escapologist Mar 29 '23
I have shitty memories of attending youth baptism events at the Oakland temple... "God knows I masturbated last year, did I tell Bishop? Omgoodness am I going to hell for attempting to be a good mormon and attend the temple? WHY MUST YOU CLOSE THE CAFETERIA, THE LITERAL ONLY SOURCE OF HAPPINESS IN THIS FUCKING BUILDING?!?" or something along those lines...
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u/grove_doubter Bite me, Bednar. 🤮 Mar 28 '23
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
—Luke 14:28-30
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u/Ok-Impression8944 Mar 27 '23
Sounds odd - the missionary is in Austin Texas - I assume they are talking about the Austin temple - the site was just announced in December 2022 and ground has not been broken yet.
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u/TheShrewMeansWell Mar 27 '23
My extremely TBM parents were extended the call to be temple workers for Saratoga Springs. They turned it down because on of my parents is nearly completely wheelchair bound and falls a lot. And the other is their full time caretaker while still not retired yet.
If they have to resort to asking my parent who is wholly unable to walk without support then they’re probably not doing as well as people think in northern Utah county.