Temple Square

Thursday we spent most of the day visiting Temple Square and the Conference Center. It was a great experience. There are some amazing paintings there. Here we are standing around the depiction of Christ being baptized by John the Baptist. This is just one scene in the paintings depicting Christ's life.




One of my favorite parts of our time looking at the sites at Temple Square was Rebecca and Miriam's excitement over seeing the Christus, the statue of the risen Lord. There is a circular ramp leading to where the Christus is, and the girls ran up this ramp right over to be at the feet of the Savior.

My other favorite part was touring the Conference Center. This is a huge building that takes up a whole city block. It is where General Conference is broadcast twice a year, as well as a cultural center for many different forums throughout the year. As I thought about touring this building, I was mainly interested in seeing the roof. This beautiful meadow is on the roof of the building, along with waterfalls and trees. It is amazing, and the view of the temple is spectacular. But what was most amazing to me was the overwhelming Spirit that I felt as we were within the building, especially as we went into the auditorium where Conference is held. There were also amazing displays of artwork, statues, murals and paintings.

After touring the Conference Center, we were able to take some pictures of the temple close up. It is nearly impossible to take pictures right up next to the temple, because there is a line of wedding parties waiting for their turn getting their wedding pictures. During our tour of the Conference Center, our tour guide told us on a typical Thursday there were between 40 and 60 weddings. Wow. I told the girls they should get married at whichever temple we live close to. There is no need for lines to take pictures!

Finally, we went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Here the girls are standing in front of a statue of the Prophet Joseph Smith. In this building there is a store where church materials are sold at cost, so we picked up a few things. We also stopped at the Family History Center so the kids could play at the fun interactive display there.