Haroutioun Arslanian’s first experience with the temple endowment wasn’t exactly smooth.
“I had a very hard time passing through the veil because of my language,” he says. Haroutioun (pronounced Hah-roo-chewn) is Armenian and grew up in Lebanon. No one in the Salt Lake Temple that day in 1977 could speak Armenian to assist him.
But a rough first experience and a language barrier didn’t stop Haroutioun. After returning home, he turned to his wife, Manoushag, and said, “Would you like to go every Saturday to the temple with me?”
For the next year, Haroutioun didn’t miss a week. But it didn’t stop there. He is now 90 years old and hasn’t missed a week in 49 years.
But temple service for Haroutioun is about far more than reaching a numerical milestone. He says that he “[feels] a lot better” while in the temple and has learned important truths about God’s plan that weren’t a part of his cultural upbringing.
“I’m slowly learning, one temple visit at a time,” Haroutioun says.
He also carries on a legacy of faith that began over 100 years ago—when his in-laws became some of the very first Armenians to join the Church.
An Armenian Legacy of Faith
Haroutioun and Manoushag (pronounced Mah-noo-shahg) have a remarkable family history.
Manoushag’s grandfather Moses Hindoian was one of the first Armenians to join the Church. He was baptized in 1893 while living in Turkey.
About 20 years later, amidst severe persecution against Armenians in Turkey, Moses worked with the mission president to help local Saints flee the country. The Church provided wagons, and many in their small branch walked 76 miles to Aleppo, Syria.
Later, Moses’s son Abraham wanted to go to Salt Lake so their family could be sealed in the temple. President Gordon B. Hinckley (who was president of the European mission at the time) told Abraham that because he owned a house and a business, Syria wouldn’t give them permission to come to the US. President Hinckley advised Abraham to sell his home and business and immigrate to Lebanon. There, Abraham could approach the American embassy as an immigrant who wanted to be with other Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake. So, that’s what he did.
Haroutioun’s own family (who were Catholic) had also fled violence in Turkey and eventually settled in Lebanon, where he was born and raised. It was there that his family met Manoushag.
A Match with Manoushag
Manoushag’s family had to wait longer than anticipated to get visas to the US. During that waiting period, her parents arranged for her to marry Haroutioun. (Arranged marriages were a common practice at the time.)
Soon after the two were married, Manoushag’s family finally received visas to immigrate to America. Haroutioun believes there was divine intervention in this timing, allowing him to meet and marry his wife.
Haroutioun did not receive a visa, however, because he was still Catholic—he couldn’t cite religion as a reason for leaving the country. So, he and Manoushag stayed in Lebanon for another eight years, during which they had two sons.
Then, in 1967, they were able to join Manoushag’s parents in Utah, when Haroutioun was sponsored by a US company to work as a machinist.
Temple Service Begins
Manoushag continued to practice her Latter-day Saint faith in America. The couple welcomed another child, a daughter whom they named Liza. Thanks in part to the combined missionary efforts of ward members and friends, Haroutioun was baptized in 1977, shortly before Liza turned eight. He was able to baptize her.
One year later, he received his endowment and began his weekly temple trips. When his bishop heard he was going regularly, he suggested Haroutioun become a temple worker.
“I told the bishop, ‘I can hardly speak English, and I hardly understand what’s going on,’” Haroutioun says. “The bishop said, ‘Do you believe in God?’ I told him, ‘Yes.’ Then, he said, ‘Then you are going to work in the Salt Lake Temple.’”
Haroutioun did so until the Jordan River Temple opened, and then he served there. In 2005, he served for a year and a half as a full-time missionary in the Manila Philippines Temple.
Haroutioun has had many spiritual experiences in the temple, but he says there was one moment when he thought he might have to stop being a temple worker altogether.
“This Is My Last Day in the Temple”
Haroutioun says that a few years ago the workers at the Jordan River Temple were asked to memorize the spoken ordinances. Though his English has come a long way, memorizing religious text presented a big challenge for Haroutioun. Discouraged, he thought, “This is it. This is the last day I can work in the temple.”
But he decided to give memorization a try. He and other temple workers gathered in a room in the temple to study two pages worth of material.
“I stared at these pages, and I had no idea what I was going to do,” Haroutioun remembers. “Then, suddenly, I read the whole thing and memorized it. Everyone in the room was shocked when I … could say it all. But it wasn’t me. Heavenly Father was with me helping me out. I know everything by heart, and I know Heavenly Father is 110 percent behind me. If I ever do mess up a word, I know Heavenly Father helps me get [back on] the right track.”
Lessons Learned in the Temple
Haroutioun says that nearly 50 years of weekly temple worship has had a big impact on his faith.
“I’ve learned a lot of things I didn’t understand before, but I understand now,” he says. For example: “No matter who you are, how rich you are, it doesn’t matter [to] Heavenly Father. As long as you are humble, nice to people, honest in your work, [and] help other people as much as you can, … [that’s] what’s better for you.”
He says the most important thing he’s learned from serving in the temple is the valuable role of women in God’s plan of salvation:
“I hate to say it, but in the Middle East where I come from, the man is number one and the woman is number two. The woman has no say—whatever the man says, goes. But because of the temple, I now have more respect for women and for mothers than I did before. … Coming from the Middle East, we lived in a different situation, but I’m slowly learning, one temple visit at a time. And I’m getting a lot better. … I feel a lot better working the temple.”
His dedicated service has also been an inspiration to his family. As a child, his daughter, Liza, remembers overhearing her parents discussing if her father could serve in the temple due to the language barrier:
“I remember my mom saying to my dad, ‘You can’t be a temple worker. You can barely speak English. How are you going be able to do all these things?’ And my dad saying, ‘Well, if Heavenly Father wants me to do it, He’ll figure out a way to help me to do it.’ That always stuck out in my mind.”
Liza has a memory of her father’s car breaking down, yet he still found a way to get to the temple that week. “The temple was a huge priority for him, and that was a good example for me growing up,” she says.
Today, Haroutioun continues to serve one day a week in the Jordan River Utah Temple, with a noble goal in mind: “I’d like to, if I can, if I am still alive, I [would] like to do it until 50 years [of weekly service].”
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