Santo Domingo Dominican Republic LDS Temple

In the car headed to the temple.

Entrance to the temple grounds.

Growing up I always had a dream of visiting every temple in the world. Haha. Then President Gordon B. Hinckley started announcing new temples left and right. I still think it would be fantastic to visit all of them, so when we went to the Dominican Republic, we made it a point to visit the Santo Domingo Dominican Republic LDS (Mormon) Temple. It was a beautiful temple and a very special experience.

We wanted to do a full session but the only portion of the temple that was open was the baptism font. So we performed some baptisms which was really neat because I haven’t been able to perform baptisms since before my mission. (Once you are endowed you have to have your own family names for baptisms and that’s kinda hard for me given my ancestors have been LDS since the time Joseph Smith sent out the first missionaries.)

Anyway, we did some baptisms and then we were able to visit the Celestial room of the temple. There was only one other visitor there besides us and the temple workers (volunteers) – one of which was from Cache Valley and I went to high school with his daughter Buffie, what a small world it is huh?

I am glad that we were able to visit the temple and grateful for the knowledge that I have about temples and their part in making our families forever.

Temple entrance.

Holiness to the Lord, the House of the Lord

Some very awesome and unique palm trees on the temple grounds.

The beautiful grounds.

The window to the Celestial Room

Walking the grounds.

Looking up at the Angel Moroni atop the temple.

I just love the gospel; it makes me happy. I am thankful each and every day for all the things I know and have because of it.