Racy title isn't it. Ok, I have not secrets. I did get to go into the basement of the Salt Lake Temple and some of the tunnels Saturday. I will tell you what I saw there later. I volunteered to help clean. It was the last day, so I got to do a lot of odds and ends type jobs--some cleaning, vacuuming, moving furniture, hanging curtains, putting stuff away, etc.
I have never done baptisms at the SL temple, so I've only seen the baptistery in pictures. It is beautiful. I'm a big fan of this temple. There are so many details on doorknobs and panelling and everything. It was kind of cool to take the time to look at some of it in detail instead of just walking past it on my way down a hall.
The hardest work was probably hanging curtains. Sadly I was not the shortest person in my work team, so I was one of two chosen to hang curtains. They got me a step box thing to stand on, but I was still on my tippy toes. Reaching above your head can be hard after a while.
The coolest thing I got to do was move random leftover stuff (air filters, boxes, etc.) to the basement. You've been waiting for this. What is in the basement under the temple. Furnaces, storage rooms, and vents & pipes. Not really exciting. It looks like the basement of any commercial building really--cinder block walls painted white, cement floors. Not the prettiest part, but it was cool cause who really gets to go down there? Janitors and engineers.
I have to say, I took more pains and attention to detail one stuff I cleaned there than at my own house. Every nook and cranny is cleaned. The white glove test is not a joke. The thing is everyone who was working--paid or volunteer--really put a lot of love into their work. You can tell. You can feel the love that went into building it, and it's neat to see that the love is still around.
Some other cool stuff I saw. They had painters in to touch up all the gold leafing. Oh, they also replaced some of the carpet. The main entrance is really nice. They put some dark marble on the sides around this carpet with beehives imprinted. Nice. I heard they redid the carpet in the Celestial room as well, but I never got to that area. Also I heard they redid all the chairs in the Garden & Terrestial rooms. They guy that did it is retired and did all the work for free. Nice guy.
I was also delighted to get to go down some halls that I haven't been down before. I found a Minerva Teichert in a little back hall that probably sees very little traffic. Teichert is one of my favorite LDS artists. Actually she's one of the only LDS artist I like. I know, I'm totally bad. I've never made it a secret I'm not the biggest fan of most LDS art (modern stuff mostly). Not trashing the content or the talent, the style just isn't my taste.
I'm serious though. You will not see a speck of dust if you go this week. I don't know how long it takes the dust to come back, but it is gone now.
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