The Thirteenth Temple: The Logan Utah Temple (The last one)

Thats right people, we finally made our goal and went to the last temple on our list which was the Logan Utah Temple. We went this past Wednesday to a nice night session. It felt good to finally achieve our goal but it was also hard because it was our last one. In less than a year we have been able to visit all 13 Utah Temples. Maybe our next goal will be all Idaho Temples.

History:

The Logan Utah Temple was announced on May 18, 1877. The site dedication and groundbreaking was on May 17th, 1877. Orson Pratt did the site dedication and John W Young did the groundbreaking. It then took 7 years of volunteer workers to build the five story temple. The temple was then dedicated on May 17-19, 1884 by John Taylor. Some interesting things about the temple is that it was first painted white to hide the stone color, but in the early 1900s the paint was allowed to weather away leaving the original stone color showing that is still seen today. Another instead fact is that in December 4th, 1917 there was an electrical fire that burned the southeast part of the temple (it was of course fixed). This temple was also the first temple to have progressive style mural ordinance rooms, but in 1977 it became the first temple to be completely gutted and rebuilt inside to work with film ordinance rooms. Some people were sad about this because they felt it lost a lot of the original pioneer beauty. After the renovations the temple had an open house from February 5th to March 3rd, 1979. Then it was rededicated by President Spencer W. Kimball from March 13-15, 1979.

Architecture/Decor:

The Logan Utah Temple is an interesting temple in that on the outside it has all the majestic beauty of an older temple such as Manti, and St George, yet on the inside it has more of a look close to the other temples built around it's renovation time period (aka Provo and Ogden). The color skeem is also green and gold. The Temple is also built on a hill making it so that you can see it throughout Cache Valley.

Helpful things to note when visiting the temple:

Location:

The temple is located on top of a hill off of Highway 91.

Scheduling and Temple Clothing:

If you are going to the Logan Utah Temple you do not need to call ahead and schedule an appointment. There are also temple clothes available to rent there.

The source that I used and a great source to learn more is:

Logan Utah Temple: http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/logan/

The Twelfth Temple: The Provo Utah Temple

So first I like to start off by saying sorry I have been horrible at updating this blog. Its almost April and I am finally making my post for last February 5th, when Tyler and I went to the Provo Utah Temple. It was my birthday and so for one of the things I wanted to do on my birthday was go to another temple on our list. I picked the Provo Utah Temple.

History:

The Provo Utah Temple was announced to be built on August 14th, 1967. The site dedication and ground breaking was done on September 15th, 1969. The dedication was done by President Joseph Fielding Smith and the groundbreaking was done by Hugh B. Brown. The open house was then January 10th-29th, 1972, and was dedicated by Joseph Fielding Smith on February 9th, 1972. There were two session to dedicate the temple. There were over 70,000 people that attended the dedication. People were seated at the temple, and BYU buildings that include: Marriott Center, Fieldhouse, JSB, HFAC for the temple dedication. The Provo Utah temple is located across from the Provo Mission Training Center and close to the Brigham Young University Campus. It is also known as being the busiest temple in the world. Its sister temple is the Ogden Utah Temple.

Architecture/Decor:

The architecture is much like the Ogden Utah Temple, and within the past year the colors have been redone to be green and gold instead of pink and white. Something that is interesting about the original design of the Provo Utah Temple is that it was made to look like a "cloud by day and a pillar by night" referring to how the Children of Israel was looked over by God. This was done by having the lower part like a big white cloud (hence it's interesting shape) and the spire being originally gold. This was changed in renovations in 2003 where the spire was painted white and an Angel Moroni was put on the top. The original design had planned to have an Angel Moroni on top but it wasn't until thirty-one years later that one was put on it.

Helpful things to note when visiting the temple:

Location:

The location is pretty easy to find. If you just get off I-15 at University Parkway and follow it into Provo through Orem and then turn on 9th in the direction you see the temple.

Scheduling and Temple Clothes:

You don't need to call ahead to schedule a time to do a session and there are also temple clothes that you can rent there.

The source that I used and a great source to learn more is:

Provo Utah Temple: http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/provo/

The Eleventh Temple: St George Utah Temple

During Martin Luther King Jr. Day Weekend, Tyler and I as well as my roommate Melissa traveled to St. George to attend the St George Utah Temple. It was a jam packed weekend with attending the temple, visiting Brigham Young's Winter home, and exploring two National Parks (Zions National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park).

History:

The St George Utah Temple has a long and rich history (especially due to it being the oldest operating temple) . This temple was announced on November 9th, 1871 and the groundbreaking and site dedication was also on the same day by the prophet Brigham Young. It was then dedicated on January 1st, 1877. It was actually dedicated in a series of three private dedications on that day. Wilford Woodruff dedicated the baptistery, Erastus Snow dedicated the main floor and Brigham Young dedicated the sealing rooms. It is interesting to note that this was the only temple finished during the time Brigham Young was president of the church. Other interesting facts is that it has gone through three major renovations. The original design was modeled after the Nauvoo and Kirtland temples that had a large assembly room. This assembly room was then separated into smaller rooms by curtains for endowment rooms. Then in 1937-1938, the temple was remodeled for the first time where the assembly room was taken out and live acting endowment session rooms were put in. This made it so that there could be 3 endowment sessions a day. Then in 1975 the last major renovations took place to make it so the endowment rooms were for film presentations. This made it possible to have 14 endowment sessions a day. There was then a public open house from Oct 15-15, 1975, and it was then rededicated on Nov 11-12th, 1975 by Pres. Spencer. W. Kimball. Now one of the most fascinating facts about this temple is that this was the temple were the founding fathers appeared twice to the prophet Woodruff Wilson asking why their work hadn't been done. This lead to the church doing the ordinance work for all of the American founding fathers and other influential leaders of the past.

Architecture/Decor:

I found the decor and architecture of the building very fitting. The overall theme seemed to be colonial Americana mixed with ancient Greece. Colonial Americana due to American stars and just the over all colonial look. Then the mix of ancient Greece by having Greek pillars in it. I thought it decor for the temple where the founding father's appeared ( I think they would have approved). Some other interesting historical/decor facts, the temple site was originally a spring. To fill in the spring they used volcanic rock that they packed down with a canon. It took a long time but made it so that they temple could be built there.

Helpful things to note when visiting the temple:

Location:

The St George Utah Temple is located in the heart of old downtown St George. Originally when it was built the temple was on the outskirts of town but now it in the middle of the older district of town. The roads around it are extremely wide and over all is an easy temple to find (it towers everything around it). I would recommend going there in an off season of the St George craze (summer) or at least not on a holiday weekend. I say this because the town was a mad house and traffic was stressful. I would even say worse than Provo (yes that bad).

Scheduling and Temple Clothes:

There are temple clothes to rent there and you don't need to worry about scheduling with 14 sessions a day. Each session can hold around 140 people (so you don't need to worry about getting in).

Other random advice:

Don't go to Zions or Bryce Canyon during the winter if you want to go on any trails, because a lot of the trails are closed due to snow or are ,very icy. On the bright side it is less busy and during MLKJ Day Weekend it was free. I would still recommend going during the summer over winter if you want get the most out of these parks.

The source that I used and a great source to learn more is:

St George Utah Temple http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/stgeorge/