Today is June 9th, 2010, and as of today Tyler and I have visited 3 of the thirteen temples together. I will try to make up the other two posts for those temples as soon as I can. The first temple we visited was the Salt Lake Temple on April 24th, 2010. We went to one of the last sessions that Saturday. It was a nice peaceful evening and just a nice night in Salt Lake. Now to Mormons and to non-Mormons alike, the Salt Lake Temple is probably the most iconic of the LDS temples. Maybe it is because it is one of the most famous landmarks of Salt Lake City (maybe even in Utah in general), maybe it is because people saw it over and over again during the 2002 Winter Olympics, or maybe it is just because it is an amazing architectural structure that took 40 years to build.
Architecture/ Decor:
The detail in the Salt Lake Temple is amazing, and from looking at it it is no wonder it took 40 years to build at a time with very little technology (at least compared to today), and with it starting to be built in the middle of an untamed desert. The design was based off of many other famous architectural landmarks in Europe, as well as a vision Brigham Young had as to what it should look like. Every feature in the temple has tons of little details. It is one place where you can sit in one room and be amazed for a long period of time by just looking at the decor. Then after doing so turn to your friend to say what you saw and realize that that same person who spent the same amount of time as you in that same room saw something else completely different. It just has that much detail! Even doorknobs have exquisite detail. It truly is a testament to the faith of the early Mormon pioneers who gave up all they had to move to the Salt Lake valley and then spend so long to build it. These people truly had faith! They didn't just say"hey, I have faith in Christ." They lived their faith in Christ in everything they did, giving up all for Him.
History:
So some of you might not be familiar with the amazing story of how the Salt Lake Temple came about. The Salt Lake Temple was announced to be built on July 28th, 1847. That was four days after the first company of saints had reached the valley. Brigham Young was the one who announced where this temple would be built. The ground breaking though didn't take place until Valentines day Feb 14th, 1853 with Brigham Young doing the first shoveling of dirt. This was six years after the original announcement. You might ask, why did it take so long to get started on it? Now I don't know the official reason but I would imagine it was because they moved to the middle of nowhere and had to do the whole survival thing. You know build homes, plant fields, recover from walking across America, etc. On April 6th, 1853 the cornerstones were laid. The basement and foundation where made out of sandstone with granite serving for the upper levels. By 1855 the foundation was complete. Then in 1858, they had to bury the site to hide it from approaching US army troops (who had been sent out on false reports of a Mormon uprising). Construction didn't resume until 7 years later, in 1865. When the foundation was uncovered they realized that there were cracks in the foundation, da da dah. I think if I was one of the Mormon pioneers I would have cried then, because it turned out the foundation had to be pulled out and redone (bad news bears). It was a blessing in disguise because if they had not found out that it was cracked/could crack due to the way it was built it could never have supported the granite top. Anyway they had to start all over.
One of the biggest problems was the transportation of the granite from Little Cottonwood Canyon. It took four days to transport just one stone by wagon ( only forty miles road trip). As the railroad companies planned to build a railroad into the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young stopped work on the temple construction to have the men work on the railroad. Through the railroad the stones were then able to be transported much faster to Temple Square (the site of the Salt Lake Temple). Once the railroad was in the men continued work on the actual construction and the work greatly progressed due to the technological wonder of the railroad. On April 6th, 1892, the capstone was laid and a 12 foot angel Moroni was placed on top. Then the pioneers had one year to complete the interior to finish the project. It was then dedicated April 6th, 1893 by Wilford Woodruff (fourth prophet in this dispensation). After forty years, 3 prophets time as the acting prophet (Brigham Young, John Taylor, and Wilford Woodruff), and 3 other temples having been started and finished before this one had been dedicated (St George, Logan, and Manti), the Salt Lake Temple was finished!
Helpful things to know if you are visiting the Temple:
Transportation:
There is parking around Temple Square but you have to pay to park. If you are up to walking you can go a bit farther away and you can park free on the street in a residential area. I personally recommend Trax it is a nice light rail and not too expensive. Five dollars for a day pass and only four dollars for a round trip pass. That way you don't have to mess with parking.
Scheduling and temple clothes:
You don't have to schedule an appointment to go. This is the largest temple in the world! It is also fairly busy but don't worry you don't feel squished. They also have temple clothes for rent if you don't have your own.
Other Random Info:
It is a live session so it will take a bit longer to go through an endowment session. This is a great temple to go to if you have a lot of time but if you are on a tight schedule with a babysitter waiting at home best to go to another temple. Temple workers there though are super great. They are used to people not knowing where they are going because many people visit this temple from around the world. They are super helpful and will approach you to help you if you look confused about where things are as opposed to you approaching them for help. All temple workers everywhere are nice and helpful, its a true fact :)
Hopefully you have found this helpful. There is so much to say about the Salt Lake temple. Below I put the sources I used to make this blog. I highly recommend reading them if you wish to learn more about this beautiful House of the Lord. I loved the session I went to there with Tyler. It was a great evening. I hope this post has inspired some of you to go visit this amazing temple, either to stroll the grounds (all temples have nice grounds, and the larger they are the larger their beautiful grounds are), or to do some ordinance work there.
The sources I used for my information was:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint:Salt Lake Temple. http://www.lds.org/temples/main/0,11204,1912-1-40-2,00.html
Salt Lake Temple History. http://www.lightplanet.com/mormons/temples/salt_lake_temple_history.html
Mountain of the Lord. (Awesome Church Video on the history of the Salt Lake Temple)
Riding UTA. http://www.rideuta.com/ridingUTA/payingFare/fares.aspx (for Trax info)
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