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I looked at those pictures of the Temple undergarments, following your links, CC, they have raised some questions with me, and I was wondering if anyone, Mormon, or ex-Mormon could supply an answer...

For many years I worked in nursing homes...and I had the chance to meet and care for many aged seniors, from many and various religions...often, since many seniors did not get a lot of visitors, the seniors enjoyed talking to nursing home staff members about many aspects of their lives...and often the subject of their particular faith or religion would come up...

Now, understand, that in the nursing home situation, with very aged seniors, much of their care, involves very private and intimate details...we dress them in the morning, for their day, we undress them in the evening, and get them ready for bed, we shower them, we take care of any toileting accidents they might have...

And when I began taking care of a couple of seniors, that I knew were from the LDS church, it concerned me, knowing just from scant information, that many LDS members wore temple undergarments, and I wanted to inform myself about this, before taking care of LDS seniors, in the most private needs...

However, when I asked them about the temple undergarments, they all said that they could not tell me anything, since I was not of the LDS faith...so of course, I just let it go...aged seniors come into the nursing home, with their own clothing, and of course, that includes their underwear..with these LDS seniors that I took care of, I noticed nothing different about their underwear, nothing greatly different from any other seniors in the nursing home...

So I just assumed one of two things...either their underwear was not greatly diffent from everyone else’s, or that they did not bring their LDS underwear to the nursing home...

Looking at these pictures, of the LDS underwear I see that my second assumption would have been the correct one, because the LDS seniors that I took care of, did not have underwear that looked like anything in those pictures...apparently an assumption, that the LDS seniors that I was caring for, either did not wear temple underwear, or that they wore it, but not to the nursing home, would be correct...

Which leads to my question...are LDS members required to wear temple underwear or it is a matter of voluntarily wearing the underwear?...and if you have all of your life, worn the temple underwear, and then you wind up having to be in the hospital, or in the nursing home situation, I was describing, I was curious as to how LDS members deal with this...if the have been wearing their LDS underwear for their entire lives, but now must go into a hospital or nursing home situation, and dont want non LDS people to see their underwear, do they just leave it at home, and secondly , if they have to leave it at home, and cannot wear anymore for their time either in the hospital, or nursing home, does this place a particular hardship on them, as evidentally wearing the underwear was meaningful to them, and I am curious about how hardships are dealt with, if they come, regarding the inability to now wear the temple underwear..

Some may think this a silly inquiry, or a nosey one, but I think it is an important one...when we take care of aged seniors, in the nursing home, we do attend to their physical needs, that is why many of them are there in the first place, they need a lot of assistance with their activities of daily living...however, we also do want to be able to deal with their more non-physical needs, we want to be able to deal well with their frame of mind, while in the nursing home..it is difficult for many seniors to be in a nursing home anyway, away from home and loved ones, and perhaps many of them will be in the nursing home for the rest of their lives...

So, I am hopeful that some LDS member can inform me about this...it think it is important, as more and more people are living longer and longer, and many are going to live their last days, weeks, months or years in a nursing home, and frankly, dealing with the matter of temple underwear, and whether one can or cannot wear those garments in the situations I have described, and are there mental hardships, that result from that, would be quite informative..

Thanks for anyone who does not believe this to be an idle, and silly questioning, and who respond...

To begin to answer your question, I will tell you that not all members of the LDS Church are considered “worthy” enough to attend the Temple. I think it is estimated that only 20% of active LDS members have been through the Temple, and so they are not required to wear the reminder of the covenants that take place there.

There are also many members who live great distances from the nearest Temple, and therefor have never partaken of the ceremony that would require them to wear the under garment.

It is considered a privilege to wear the garment. It isn’t a duty, and so if those in your care were denied the opportunity to don the garment, it would bring them a certain amount of discomfort and sadness. Many LDS believe there are protective powers in the wearing of the garment.

Even members who do not, or cannot wear the garment would not be likely to talk about their meaning. It is considered sacred within Mormonism.