June 16, 2017

June 16, 2017

In our travels around the country, we have run into many Mormon historic sites.  Nauvoo and Salt Lake City are well-known, but LDS history is intertwined with that of the US West. We have visited historic sites in Independence, MO, San Diego, CA and along the Mormon Trail that follows their migration route to Utah.  Soon after settling the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young sent parties to explore and colonize the surrounding area hoping to eventually establish a new country.

Arizona is a member of this Mormon Belt. The church recently built a Temple in the Tucson area and it is open to the public until its dedication later in the summer.  After that no non-Mormon is allowed entrance.  So we take advantage and sign up for a tour this afternoon.

After driving to a local LDS meeting house, we watch a short film and then board a bus that takes us the few miles to the new Temple site.  There we don booties and are escorted through the richly decorated building.  I am surprised to find it is unlike other Christian churches.  There is no central assembly area, rather a series of special purpose rooms.  Sabbath services are conducted at local meeting houses.  The temple is reserved for special occasions.  There is a small chapel, an instructional room, a Celestial room for meditation, and several Sealing (Wedding) Sites.  Mormon couples travel great distances to be married for eternity in a Temple. There are also changing rooms where congregants don white robes that symbolize purity. The most unusual room is the Baptistery.  This room contains a spa-size pool riding atop twelve oxen that represent the tribes of Israel.  Surprisingly it is not for ordinary baptism.  It is for baptism of dead ancestors by proxy.

Every aspect of the tour is organized and staffed by dozens of volunteers and young women doing their Mission work.  Every fifteen minutes another busload of visitors arrive.  This will go on for the next month.  While many are curious locals like us, more than a few seem to be Mormons coming from all over the country for a visit.  I never dreamed this was a must-see event.