Panama Temple Dedication

This is Trav taking my first turn at blogging. As most of you know, I am an Architect by profession. One of my projects for the past 3-1/2 years has been the Panama City, Panama Temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. After years of design, construction documents and construction administration, the temple in Panama City is finally finished. Although I made numerous trips to Panama during the course of the project, I had always wanted to have Jules along for a trip to let her see what it was like in Panama and what a great project it is. We had been planning to attend the dedication of the temple for quite a while. Last week that long awaited day finally came.

On Friday August 8th we flew to Panama City for the dedication. We arrived in Panama on Friday evening around 9:00 p.m. We went directly to the Marriott hotel (where we stayed while we were there), grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then went to bed.

Early Saturday morning we got up and went to the temple to check out the preparations for the dedication that would take place the following morning. As usual, the weather in Panama was hot and humid. Each day of the trip the heat was around 90 degrees and 90-100% humidity! Below is a view from the temple roof. The Panama Canal is in the background.


While at the temple that morning we met a few guys who were visiting from Costa Rica. Two of them were from Utah and were living and doing business in Costa Rica. One owned a real estate development business and happened to own a small helicopter. We talked for a while and he offered to take us on a little helicopter ride around the temple. We gladly accepted. The next photo is a shot from the helicopter looking down on the temple site. Later that evening we attended the typical Cultural Celebration which the Church organized to celebrate the culture of Panama. Hundreds of youth from the Church danced and sung, all to the delight of a few thousand attendees. President Monson, President Utdorf and Elder Perry attended the celebration.

The next day, Sunday, was the temple dedication which was just beautiful. It was great to be in the temple with the Panamanians who were so eager to have a temple in their country! President Monson, President Utdorf and Elder Perry also attended the dedication ceremony. President Monson sealed the cornerstone panel and gave a beautiful dedicatory prayer. It was such a great spiritual opportunity to be in the temple with Apostles of the Jesus Christ! After the dedication we went to the Panama Canal and toured the Miraflores Locks visitor center. We ate lunch on the patio at the visitor center overlooking the canal locks. The canal is an amazing engineering feat and one that really can't be appreciated until you experience it first hand.

Monday was spent touring around Panama City. We went to the old colonial part of town and to a resort in Gamboa where we took a tour of the rainforest and the adjacent town on Segway scooters. Check out the cute picture of Jules on her scooter!

Tuesday, Jules and I went to do a temple session, but just missed the last session of the morning. We decided to tour around a bit and then come back to the temple for the 4:00 session. We did a little shopping and then took a cab down to the causeway to do a little bike riding. We rode along the causeway for a couple of hours, grabbed a little snack, and then went back to the temple just in time to change into our good clothes and make the session. Jules always looks great near the ocean!

After our bike ride we went back to the temple and took in a session. It's such a great feeling to see your hard work pay off and see the temple being used and working in exactly the way it is supposed to. My only problem is that I spend almost as much time looking around and taking in the architecture as I do paying attention to the session. Got to be careful with that!

That night we went to dinner with a few people that I associated with during the project from Panama. It was really cool to introduce them to Jules and let her meet the people she had heard me talk about for the past few years. It was a very nice end to a great day and a wonderful trip.

Wednesday morning we got up early and headed to the airport for our flight home. What a great trip! It was great to get away with Jules and have her see Panama and the temple. Maybe next time we'll take the kids......hmmmm.........nahh!!! ;-) Trav