Travels with Auntie M: Temple Square, Salt Lake City, UT

The Temple took 40 years to build which is detailed in the museum, along with an open model that shows the layout of the Temple. I always thought the Temple was one big open room like a cathedral. I was surprised to see it consists of several multi- purpose rooms and offices. This link will give you an inside tour:
Navigating around Salt Lake City is easy once you understand the street grid or layout. I remember visiting the City in my early 20's. Teri, David and I drove there to spend a few days with David's family. David had been raised Mormon and knew the town well...Teri and I were jaded Californians who thought their street names and addresses were stupid and confusing. Example: KFC is located at 555 East South Street...in San Pedro their address is 415 South Gaffey Street. In San Pedro, it's easy...south end of Gaffey Street in the 400 block. In SLC, there's two number and two directions...stupid! (Remember, at twenty-something, you know it all.) Then, David explained the streets are labeled according to their distance & direction from the Temple. This means KFC is 400 blocks south of the Temple on the east end of the street, in the 500 block. Oh. This time, I found it very easy to navigate around because I could see the Temple and the sun was shinning, so I knew what direction to drive.

Temple Square, in the heart of downtown, is 35 acres of Mormon culture and pioneer heritage. Consisting of lovely gardens, a large reflection pool and many statues. There is a North & South Visitors Center, the Tabernacle (where the choir performs), the Salt Lake Temple, the Relief Society Building, the Family Search Center, the Church History Museum, the Beehive House (Brigham Young's home), the Assembly Hall and the LDS Church Office Building. (Temple Tour)

The Angel Moroni, who sits on top of the temple, is their international symbol.

Signage: Assembly Hall, constructed of granite stone left over from the building of the Temple, was completed in 1880. It is a place of public worship, in which visitors are welcome. Although the building is used mainly for conferences Latter-day Saint congregations located in Salt Lake City and for other Church meetings, it is also available various cultural and civic functions. The Gothic Revival structure 68 feet wide and 120 feet long, and the center tower 130 feet high. The auditorium holds almost 2,000 people, with choir seats for 100. The truncated spires were originally chimneys."

The Tabernacle, where the world-famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs, has such perfect acoustics that a pin dropped at the pulpit can be heard at the back of the hall.

Here’s the Creator’s Star, on the Assembly Hall building…like I talked about in my last blog entry, where it was on a Baptist church. I also learned that Mormons use the word Gentile to designate anyone who is not of the LDS faith…hence, Temple Square is the only place where Jews become Gentiles.

Statue below: Joyful Moment

Signage: “Salt Lake Temple – The temple is used by Church members for marriages and other sacred ordinances designed to strengthen families, both now and for eternity. Begun in 1853, it was completed forty years later. Granite rock used in its construction was hauled twenty-three miles by ox-drawn wagons from Little Cottonwood Canyon. The walls are nine feet thick at the ground level and narrow to six feet thick at the top. The east center tower is 210 feet high and is topped by the statue of an angel heralding the restoration to earth of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the latter days.”

TW gets into trouble:

Much better and safer:

Below signage: “Handcart Pioneer Monument is a tribute to the thousands of hardy Mormon pioneers who, because they could not afford the larger ox-drawn wagons, they walked across the rugged plains in the 1850s, pulling and pushing all their possession in handmade, all-wood handcarts. Some 250 died on the journey, but nearly 3,000, mostly British converts, completed the 1,350-mile trek from Iowa City, Iowa, to the Salt Lake Valley. Many Latter-day Saints today proudly recount the trials and the triumphs of their ancestors who were among the Mormon handcart pioneers.”

Below signage: “Restoration of the Aaronid Priesthood – On May 15, 1829 Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery went into the woods to inquire of the Lord concerning baptism. As they prayed, ‘a messenger from heaven descended in a cloud of light’ (Joseph Smith – History 1:68). This messenger was John the Baptist, who had baptized Jesus Christ in the River Jordan and was a resurrected being. He laid his hands ob Joseph and on Oliver and conferred upon each of them the Aaronic Priesthood. This priesthood, which has been absent from the earth for many centuries, includes the restored authority from God to baptize for the remission of sins.”

Below signage: “Restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood – The Melchizedek Priesthood is the authority of God to lead His Church, give the gift of the Holy Ghost, and perform other saving ordinances. This authority has been on the earth whenever the Lord has revealed His gospel. It was lost from the earth after the death of Jesus’s Apostles, but it was restored in Mya 1829, when the Apostles Peter, James, and John conferred it upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. In the ordinances of the Melchizedek Priesthood, ‘the power of godliness is manifest’ (Doctrine and Covenants 84:20).”