I attended the open house for the Syracuse Utah Temple with my ward’s youth group this week. This temple will be the first to have two baptismal fonts when it’s dedicated. I didn’t grasp the significance of that until after our group’s tour.
Members from the area taught us about the purpose of each room as we walked in. I was touched by the fact that these tour guides were not trained speakers. They were simply normal members of the Church who were willing to give up their evening to share their love for the temple, even if that meant speaking to a group of strangers and sometimes stumbling over their words.
The Significance of Two Baptismal Fonts
In the baptistry, two teenage young women stood ready to meet us. They patiently waited for our group to shuffle into the room before beginning to speak. It looked like the girls held small, laminated cards with a script, but the young woman who addressed our group didn’t reference it. She told us that Jesus had taught everyone needed to be baptized to return to God and that temples allow us to perform baptisms on behalf of those who have died.
Her message was simple, well-delivered, and made me smile. Everywhere else during the tour, adults did the teaching, but the baptismal font seemed to be reserved for the youth. In fact, Elder Kevin R. Duncan, Executive Director of the Temple Department, shared that they are why the Syracuse Temple has two baptismal fonts:
“The reason for that is the high concentration of members and especially high concentration of youth,” Elder Duncan explained in a Church Newsroom article. “Now they can come more frequently.”
Sister Kristin M. Yee attended the media day for the temple and said of the double baptismal fonts, “[The Lord] is helping this generation, and all of us, come more often, not just because we can, but [because] we need it.”
The Ripple Effect of Temple Blessings
Having a temple with two fonts to welcome in more youth is a monumental event worth celebrating. The love for God and others that they will develop through temple worship will ripple out to bless their lives and the world.
I could see that potential in the eyes of one of our 12-year-old young women who was attending a temple open house for the first time. Her face was aglow as we walked through each room. At the end, she turned to me and said, “I can’t wait to get married in that temple one day!” Her excitement was a testament that the faith that starts in temple fonts leads to lives centered on Jesus Christ.
You can see pictures and video of the beautiful Syracuse Temple fonts on Church Newsroom.
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