lessons of a temple worker

I had my first official temple shift in the Newport Beach mini temple on Wednesday night. All the people were SOOOO nice to me. The workers went out of their way to learn about me and to relate to my experiences in life. They will be a great group to serve with. I think it’s different because when I worked in the DC temple the shift workers were spread ALL over the temple and I didn’t work too closely with them. In this temple we are almost elbow to elbow when passing in the halls and never out of ear shot when people are talking/laughing/joking in the common areas. I did learn some new things that I never knew before.
For example…
There are two washing machines in the basement. More impressive, there is a basement in the temple. Usually California buildings do not have basements because of the high water level!
If you walk out of the front temple doors between 9:30-9:45pm you can see the fireworks show from Disneyland (at least 15 miles away)
All temple workers have a cleaning duty at the end of their shift. Yesterday I had to clean out the women’s bathroom near the kitchen and waiting area (the area that you can enter without a recommend to wait during a sealing).
You can say “hell” in the temple. As in, “I will stand here until hell freezes over unless more couples join the prayer circle”. That wasn’t said in an endowment session, but it was said by a worker who said he wished he could have said that to make the reluctant people get out of their chairs.
There is a shower in the front bathroom. I guess they are seldom used, but IF a construction worker wanted to come to the temple straight from work there is a shower and private changing area in the bathrooms. They say mostly the office staff use that area to change and store their belongings.
There is no formal training to work in this temple. They literally said “hello, welcome, go do this and this and this for the next 6 hours”. Because I was formally trained in the DC temple I was able to immediately become a veil worker without much pomp and circumstance of training.

I am positive there is much more to learn as I continue to work in the temple. But first and foremost I already feel at home with the assignment and the people I’ll meet there. I am grateful for the opportunity to work in the house of the Lord.