When I was a newish member, on a Friday evening 3 or 4 times a year I drove 90 minutes to the nearest stake center, and got on a bus for a 12-hour trip to the temple. We arrived exhausted, and (some of us anyway
) slept through several sessions before getting on the bus again for the return trip. I usually got home in time for Sacrament meeting.In Britain, temple marriages are not legally recognized - marriage ceremonies must be held in public. Before a recent change was made by the church, newly-weds had to be chaperoned from the time of the wedding ceremony until their sealing, because if they ... ahem ... acted like newly-weds, then they had to wait for a year before they could be sealed. In the "old" days, when most members were relatively poor, and didn't own cars, that usually meant having a Friday afternoon wedding, then spending their wedding night on a bus with a couple of dozen members constantly making jokes about their situation, being sealed, going through one of more vicarious sessions, and getting back on the bus with the same people who had been tormenting them the previous night.
I could tell another couple of stories about these temple trips, but they would be rather off topic for this thread. Perhaps I'll start a thread for temple-related stories - faith promoting and faith damaging alike.
