LDS temple in Moses Lake opens its doors ahead of dedication

MOSES LAKE – A new temple with a 117-foot steeple towering over Interstate 90 is a sign of the growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – and overall growth – in central Washington.

The Moses Lake Washington Temple is the church’s 181st temple and the fourth in Washington. It will serve about 18,000 members in 40 congregations across Adams, Chelan, Douglas, Grant and Kittitas counties.

“Moses Lake will be a better place because of this temple, because the spirit of the Lord will be felt more strongly in this area,” said Elder Shayne M. Bowen, a General Authority Seventy visiting from church headquarters in Salt Lake City.

Considered “houses of the Lord,” temples are special buildings for the faith, distinct from meetinghouses where regular Sunday worship occurs.

In fact, temples are not open on Sundays. Instead, temples are for special ceremonies called ordinances, including baptisms for the dead and weddings.

For Latter-day Saints in the area, the new temple will make it easier to attend more often.

When member Judy Miller moved to Ellensburg in 1971, she had to drive hundreds of miles to attend the nearest temple in Idaho Falls. Since 2001, she has attended the Columbia River Temple in Richland, nearly two hours away. Now, Moses Lake is just over an hour.

To her, the temple represents peace and reflection.

“It’s an ideal place to petition the Lord for perplexing life questions,” she said.

For two weeks beginning Friday, an open house will be a rare opportunity for the public to see inside an LDS temple and to learn more about the religion.

Once the temple is dedicated in September, it will only be open to church members with a card called a temple recommend. To hold the card, active members must answer a series of self-reflective questions about their faith and obedience to the church’s commandments.

“No one checks on whether it’s true or not. It’s self-reported,” said Elder Gary B. Sabin, a General Authority Seventy and assistant executive director of the church’s Temple Department.

The tour of the building begins in a new meetinghouse, built next door to the temple along Yonezawa Boulevard, where visitors will watch a short introductory video.

A granite facade covers the single-story 20,000 square-foot temple. Construction began in 2020. It sits on immaculately landscaped grounds with grass, flower beds and walkways surrounding the building.

Noticeably, the Angel Moroni statue that is emblematic of Latter-day Saints temples is missing from the spire.

The statue of the ancient prophet blowing a trumpet symbolizes the call to the gospel, but it is not required and not all temples have one, Bowen said.

Each temple is customized based on local considerations, he said.

The interior of the Moses Lake temple is adorned with motifs of blossoms from the region’s agriculture, and includes landscape paintings of the Moses Lake and Potholes reservoirs. There are many more paintings of Jesus Christ throughout the halls.

The temple has different rooms for different ordinances.

The baptistry contains an octagonal baptismal font resting on 12 brass oxen symbolizing the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

Baptisms in the temple are performed only for deceased ancestors, not for the living. Names are found by researching the church’s vast family history library.

The baptisms are done vicariously, with a living person standing in for the individual.

“We’re not baptizing cadavers,” Bowen said.

An instruction room is used for learning and for making covenants with God.

At the center of the temple is the Celestial Room, a place for quiet contemplation. A grand crystal chandelier hangs from a lofty ceiling in the bright room representing heaven.

Several sealing rooms have an altar at the center where a man and a woman can be sealed together “for time and all eternity.” Bowen said Latter-day Saints believe families can remain together forever. Tall mirrors on opposite walls create an infinite reflection symbolizing that eternity.

The Moses Lake temple is about twice the size of the Spokane Temple built in 1999. The Columbia Basin has grown rapidly in the decades since. Moses Lake alone has grown from 15,000 people to 25,000 since the 2000 U.S. Census.

The church is growing too, which is why it is building more temples to bring the ordinances closer to the people, Sabin said. The church reports nearly 300,000 members in 521 congregations across Washington.

In the Northwest, more temples have been announced for Tacoma, the Willamette Valley and Missoula. The Helena Montana Temple was dedicated in June.

The Moses Lake Temple will be formally dedicated Sept. 17 in two sessions for church members.

The open house runs from Friday through Aug. 19, except for Sundays. Free reservations for tours can be made at MosesLakeTemple.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

Scott Robinson, a local spokesman, said tour reservations are filling up, but people are welcome to still attend if they can’t make a reservation.