Answer

What Should I Know Before I Go to the Temple for the First Time?

You may have prepared carefully and still feel unsure what the first visit will actually be like. Almost everyone finds it strange. Very few people say so, which is why you may arrive thinking you are the only one.

Know that it is unlike anything else you have done at church, and that this is deliberate rather than a failure to explain it beforehand. The temple teaches through symbol, ceremony and covenant rather than through a lesson, so the first time can feel disorienting even when you are ready.

Eternal Truths

You are preparing to make covenants, not to pass an exam. You will promise to keep the commandments, to be morally clean, to give of what you have to build the kingdom, and to consecrate your time and effort. None of those will be a surprise. What is new is the setting, the ceremony, and the promises being made formally rather than privately.

The temple teaches the whole plan at once. Where you came from, why you are here, and where you are going are presented together rather than in pieces. The Family: A Proclamation to the World teaches that sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for families to be united eternally. That is the substance underneath the symbolism, and people who go repeatedly describe understanding more of it each time.

What Can Make This Confusing?

Nearly everyone feels they are not spiritually strong enough yet, and that misreads what worthiness is. A recommend is not a certificate of exceptional righteousness. It is a judgement that you are keeping your covenants and are honest about where you fall short. Waiting until you feel ready usually means waiting indefinitely. Preparation can also feel harder as you get closer, which unsettles people. Opposition tends to concentrate around significant covenants, and the week before often feels heavier than the month before.

Questions to Think About

• Am I waiting to feel worthy rather than to be worthy?
• What am I actually afraid of about that first visit?
• Who has been recently that I could ask?

What You Can Do

Go with someone who has been. Ask a temple worker anything you are unsure about, because that is exactly what they are there for and nobody will think less of you. Then plan your second visit before you leave the first one, rather than treating one visit as the event. The essay behind this answer covers preparation in more depth.

Jesus Christ invites you into His house to teach you, and He does not expect you to understand it all the first time.