Has anyone ever been through the live endowment? What is your opinion? I would think it would be just as dreadful as the video one.

It was even more dreadful and sappy!

I went to one in the Manti Temple. After it was over the TBM's told the "actors" that they did a good job. It was like the meet and greet after a high school play. Weird!

In Russia (and maybe some other cultures) the spectators will go up next to the stage and give the actors/singers a bouquet of flowers. Much like bouquets tossed on the ice after a figure skater's performance. It's a tradition Americans don't do.
So, are TBMs allowed to do the same thing during the live endowment?

And can they contact the Actors' Guild to nominate them for the Oscars? I mean, the Oscars could screw up like they usually do and give the award to something like this.

I always liked the live Endowment better than the cheesy films. Of course, it's been more than 30 years, so maybe the films have gotten better.

There were two films during my time--one with a blond Adam and Eve; the other with a dark haired couple. I think the blond Adam was a BYU football--he was big and Teutonic looking. In one of the films, Gordon Jump (a 70s sitcom star) was Peter.

Sadly, the Protestant minister was axed. He was a BYU professor, and friends would point him out on campus.

As to the live part--the actors were OLD men and a woman. Sometimes they'd mess up their lines, and another worker would correct them.

In the SL Temple Garden Room, there was an elevator behind the altar and Elohim and Jehovah would go up and down in it (I shit you not!). Old Timers will tell you that there used to be a neon sword that would light up at "Let Cherubim and a Flaming Sword Be Placed..."

So, if you've been reading this, I've saved the best for last--Stan! That's right, old Satan wore a business suit. But, he had a blue Masonic apron on. The films only showed blue cloth.

Well, the blue apron had pillars, trowels, and a big square and compass embroidered on it. I once asked a temple worker why there was a Masonic apron. He quickly told me it was NOT a Masonic apron! Yeah, and the guy with the funny collar wasn't a minister either!

It's too bad that the Morg toned the ceremony down. I miss the old death penalties. The young TBMs no longer have to practice slitting their throats, cutting their chests open, or disemboweling themselves--talk about taking the fun out of the temple! The Boner.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2017 03:31AM by BYU Boner.

Love thy snarkiness, ye olden Boner!

The best part of the live endowment was going to different room. You got to actually get up and walk.

I went to the temple the first time, about 2 weeks before my mission. No one, not my dad, not my mom, not the bishop et al, gave me one hint or instructions as to what would happen. And no one said a word when I was done.

I was taken with the old live men and women doing it. It was always fun waiting for them to mess up and have to either start again or get a replacement. One time, they had the volunteers out of the audience and the man's hair was way down his back. It caused quite a stir.

I was married in 1973 and my bride's parents weren't active at all so a couple of days before our wedding, we went to the Provo temple and her aunt, about the only active person she knew, went through with her.(Her aunt is one the of the most racist people I ever met). I remember seeing the movie for the first time there. It was embarrassing to watch.

The worst experience I ever had was going to the Chicago Temple, about 1994, while we were on a little vacation. My wife and her boss were at a convention and that left me to play tourist (with his wife, which is a whole 'nother story). I took it upon myself to find out how to take the EL train to the temple and apparently I didn't read the map right. We ended up taking a cab from the end of the line another 10 miles or so to the temple

By the time we got there at about 730PM, (to the temple that was very orange inside and about the size of a small Utah chapel), I wasn't in the mood to be there at all. But we stayed and finished.

We were done about 930 and a nice couple from Wisconsin volunteered to drive us back to Chicago in their van because it wasn't good for "people like us" to be on the EL that time of night. We gave them money for gas :) The van was so mormon, full of kids toys and leftover food etc. You know how they get.

Towards the end of my activity, we only went to the Jordan River Temple a few times. Never cared much for that.

I'm old enough to remember the transition from live to film sessions. I attended multiple live ones.

They both were creepy but amusing in different ways.

The live ones had old people acting out Adam and Eve, which was sort of comical (I was in my late 20s then, so there was the ick factor). I remember Eve falling asleep and the Adam dude with a cane and hoarse.

Then the film version came. Adam and Eve being told to procreate seemed nasty.

When they started using the projected film version, it seemed somehow less "sacred" to me. You could put the most sacred part of the church in a skit to hit replay? Funny how God finds a way to use technology to keep up with the times.

ever imaginable, so when it was time for me to go to the temple, my older sister told my mother that she thought they ought to warn me about what was going to happen.
But, mother remembered she wasn't supposed to talk about the temple outside the temple, so she didn't say anything. I think older sister must have hinted at a few things. I can't remember. All I know is that I thought it was hideous. I can't figure out for the life of me why I stayed in the church nearly 40 more years. And went to the temple many times after that. (Oh, one reason---"they" told me that if you keep going, you'll understand it, that every time you would learn something else. Not true. By about the third time, I had the whole thing memorized, and there was no spiritual enlightenment either.) The last time I went to the temple I sat in the prayer room and prayed to God, saying, "I've decided this is the last time I'm going to the temple. Please if this is the wrong decision, please let me know." After those words passed through my brain, I had the most wonderful feeling of peace that I was right in my decision. Was that God? If so, then a lot of people might be fooling themselves. Or, was that the devil? Well, they say the devil can't abide in the temple of God. ???

Well I get that same feeling on those times I let myself call out of work

OMG, it was horrible. The actors were all hunched over and walking with canes.

My first experience was the live endowment with the penalties, the protestant minister working for Satan, and the 7 points of fellowship. The whole experience was bizarre and even more bizarre were my family, friends and local leaders that were there with me weren't weirded out, they didn't flinch or even wink at me to let me know i wasn't in a freaking bizarre dream. I wouldn't have been surprised at that point if anything had happened.

In the mtc I sat through the 1960's era film, with plastic plants, Brady bunch hair on Adam and Eve and fake beards on the apostles with the Maytag man/"WKRP in Cincinnati"star Gordon Jump as Peter. That was surreal too - I was on my mission in 1990 when the ceremony was changed.

Isnt the SLC temple still live? It has been a while since I went through that one.

I forgot about the plastic plants! Oh, and the forbidden fruit--is was something egg shaped with various colors spray painted n it--definitely not an apple! Hey, the curly-haired Satan was better than the dark haired one. "You can get out of my kingdom!"

I went through the Salt Lake temple and did the live one. It was terrible. Adam and Eve and everybody else old and wearing glasses. h I hated it.

I remember the surprise of going through my first FILMED endowment. I got my endowment in Dec 1968 in the SLC temple, with live (barely live--the people were ancient) session. Then I went numerous times to the Manti temple in order "learn" and "understand" the endowment. Because the endowment is poorly written and based on stupidity, one never "understands" it. If they say they do, they are being presumptuous. I did end up working there a bit, even before my mission. It made me feel all growed up.

What I really liked about SLC live sessions was god and Jeebus descending and ascending in a lift, an elevator. Wicked awesome idea. And Satan wore a standard Masonic apron as a symbol of his "priesthoods." Of course, they used to have the minister, a preacher, who led us all in a hymn, and who had no luck convincing Adam of a "God without body, parts, or passion." And in the end, Satan, who was (naturally) the employer of the preacher (because all other churches are of the devil), stiffs the preacher and doesn't pay him, because he gets converted by Adam. God, it was a long day back then, at least 4 hours to get through a session with few people, and maybe 5 to get through a large session.

In the old movie, there were glaring errors. Satan wasn't wearing an apron, and Eve asks, "What is that apron you're wearing?" Satan SHOULD have said, "I ain't wearing no goddamn apron!" But instead, he says it was a symbol of his powers and priesthoods. The fruit was plastic--you could see the molded seam in it.

In the movie, the preacher had a drawl, and said that he had heard that Satan had horns, black skin, and "claws lak a b'ar!" I'm thinking, who does this guy think he is? Fess Parker?