#42 Memphis Tennessee- A

Dec 1 & Dec 3, 2022

I got to take an amazing trip to Tenessee.  Since the smaller temples aren't open very long each day and I had to coordinate driving 3.5 hours between the temples, I did some ordinances in Memphis when I arrived there on the 1st, and some right before I left on the 3rd.

Memphis was originally built in 2000, but they had mold growing and they had to take it down to the studs and rebuild it, and it was just rededicated in 2019.  So it is very new and VERY nice inside.  I give it a solid A.  It has beautiful white and grey marble through out.  

The creation room in the endowment has a beautiful mural with a lake on one side and a grove on the other.  The grove has a lot of purple flowers on it, and I wonder if they are the purple flowers depicted on the stained glass, which are paw paws.  There is no challenge in this temple, and I was seated directly in the creation room, which held about 44.

The decorating is all very tasteful and the trim is exquisitely done.  Not too much and not too little.  The terrestrial room has chairs that I loved that I didn't see the fabric anywhere else.  They were a powdered blue, with a beautiful coral floral pattern.  

The Celstial room was beautiful and tastefully decorated.  I would have lived to see more of the pattern from the chairsbin the terrestrial room, but this room had more of a very soft green and coral floral pattern.  The carpet was fun and they had made a criss cross cut pattern in the entire carpet.

The sealing rooms had 12' ceilings.  Not as tall as Draper, but tall enough to make them feel grander than most sealing rooms.

The baptistry had a font that had white and grey marble around the top and blue mosaic tile.  The tile was nice, but nothing exceptional.  The baptistry had a beautiful glass door on the confirmation room.  While this was a small temple, this temple felt a bit bigger than Nashville

The intiatory area was nicer than average as it had beautiful curtains and crown casing that held the curtains that separate the sections.

If this temple had granite in the bathrooms or something else exceptional, I would have given it an A+.  It was close.  It was nicer than most Temples.  Particularly with the taller ceilings in the sealing room and the upgraded intiatory area.

When I left Memphis, not far from the temple, I had to stop and take a photo of a shopping center called "Chiles Plaza".  It's my mother's maiden name, and not a name I have ever seen anywhere.  The more surprising thing came when I came to the next street called Reese Rd. My brother, who died 2 years ago, was Reece Chiles Madison.  It felt like a confirmation that he was there with me.  The even more interesting thing is that when I came back later from a different direction, I saw that Chiles plaza was on the intersection of Brother Blvd.  So within 2 blocks I had Brother Reese Chiles signs.  I was little tempted to see if Madison was around the next corner!