The visitors to the Laie Temple Visitors’ Center come from all around the world. Quite a few were driving by, saw the building, turned around, and stopped. Many others come from the Polynesian Cultural Center in the afternoon on the Laie Tram Tours. Some have read about the Temple and come to see what it is all about. Almost all talk with us about how beautiful the Temple and the grounds are and the peaceful feeling that abides. Very often I hear them call it “The Taj Mahal of Hawaii”.

Last year in January, 2015 Nina and I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go to India and spend a day touring the Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is stunningly beautiful and consists of much more than the central mosque. It is simply impossible to get the whole thing into one photograph. I’ve put pictures of the Taj Mahal and the Laie Hawaii Temple side beside at the top of this post to compare and contrast them. One can also go to a beautiful garden on the other side of the river on the backside of the Taj Mahal, where this picture to the right was taken.

The Taj Mahal itself is a burial crypt whereas the Temple is a place of worship. On either side of the Taj Mahal are two mosques, mirror images of each other. Neither of them are used for worship services. We use our 150 temples (the count today … several more are under construction) for sacred ceremonies that have eternal consequences, but only during the week. They are closed on Sundays and Mondays. We hold our Sunday worship services in more than 10,000 meeting houses worldwide. Our Temples are closed to all but members of the Church in good standing. The Taj Mahal is open to all who can get there. Both have beautiful surroundings maintained by world-class groundskeepers. Both have a wonderful feeling that is immediately apparent when one steps onto the grounds. We treasure our visit to the Taj Mahal in India … and we definitely treasure the time we’re able to spend in the shadow of the Laie Hawaii Temple as well as the time we spend inside the temple performing and participating in sacred ordinances and covenants.

Today was our Preparation Day. I had a doctor’s appointment at Tripler Army Hospital in Honolulu for a followup with the hematologist (more on that below). Afterwards we stopped by the Hawaii Honolulu Mission Office to pick up some materials and then did some shopping at Don Quixote, a very eclectic and delightful store featuring excellent produce along with just about everything Japanese. They have a large electronics section and I bought a few things that needed to be paid for at there rather than at the cash registers in the front. The fellow saw my name badge, which says that I’m at the Laie Hawaii Temple Visitors’ Center. His face lit right up and he said, “That’s a beautiful place!”

I asked him when he had been there. He said that a group of them went up there surfing a couple of weeks ago and stopped at the Visitors’ Center on their way back to Honolulu and that the people at the Visitors’ Center were so nice. “It’s kind of like the Taj Mahal,” he said. He’d been to India a couple of years earlier on a university trip (he’s finishing up his degree currently at the University of Hawaii) which included a visit to Agra and the Taj Mahal. Another customer came up so I wasn’t able to carry the conversation much further, but thought about that short conversation on the way home. I’m so very blessed that I’ve been able to be both places. I also think that the Laie Hawaii Temple can be called “The Taj Mahal of Hawaii.”

The doctor visit was Very Short. He looked over the lab results from my last visit, said he needed more data (but what was there looked pretty good), and ordered up a bunch more blood work and urine work. I’m to call him in a couple of weeks and he’ll go over the results with me on the phone so we don’t have to make a special trip back in to see him. That’s definitely goodness! One very good result is that my kidney function is improving. The contrast material used when they did the stent placements last year at the Hiranandani Hospital in Mumbai were very hard on my kidneys and the fact that they’re coming back is very good news.

Ta ta for now!