#mormon temples

[midwesternartlovertraveler]

The Salt Lake City Temple is going through a major renovation and seismic upgrade. The Tabernacle is open. The rest of Temple Square is closed. These pictures were taken on June 6, 2024.

https://midwesternartlovertraveler.tumblr.com/

[dewpostcards]

Sent to Germany. Thrifted.

"Christmas Time on Temple Square

Salt Lake City, UT

The lighting of temple square at Christmas Time has added so much to the beauty and serene surroundings of this area. The history "Mormon" Temple can be seen in the background"

[pointandshooter]

Mormon Temple, Kensington, Maryland

photo: David Castenson

[nerdragenewvegas]

Me, before playing Honest Hearts: I've left the Mormon church because I was unable to reconcile the Plan of Salvation doctrine, which honestly supports and validates the existence of trans and non-binary people if anything, with the Church's stance on trans and non-binary people. I have complicated feelings about it and I'm unsure how I identify religiously, which is complicated by the fact that I converted to Mormonism of my own choice when I was in my early 20's, but I still believe the teachings to be mostly true at their core, and I hope that the Church comes around one day and changes their stance on LGBTQ+ people so I can maybe re-join. Me, after playing Honest Hearts for the first time: oh my god I was in a cult.

[hiseyeisonthesparrow]

Something I've found that I love about the Gospel is that when you're interviewed for a temple recommend, they don't ask you how often you read the scriptures. They don't ask you if you pray every single day, or if you attend every meeting and activity that the Church holds. They ask you if you have faith; if you believe and have a testimony in the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. They ask you if you uphold your covenants and are honest and kind. And also if you pay your child support for some reason

Obviously, things like attendance and prayer and scriptures are important. But, from the point of view of someone with severe depression and ADHD who has a tough time remembering and getting into the habit of scriptures and prayers, it strengthens my testimony to know that I'm not any less worthy of a member because I forget to talk to God or read my Come Follow Me sometimes. The Lord doesn't love me despite my shortcomings; he loves me because of them.

[witekspicsoldpostcards]

The MORMON TEMPLE / SALT LAKE CITY - UTAH / USA (photo set 2).

[heathersdesk]

My grandfather was killed in a hit and run accident in 1978.

His mother and sister struggled with life after that. They decided to go on a trip across the United States together to get away from things for a while.

I discovered this trip when I was going through photo albums and suddenly saw a place I recognized.

The Salt Lake Temple.

They went to many places during that trip. But there was something truly special to me that, in one of the worst seasons of their lives, they ended up at the temple.

I served part of my mission at Temple Square. I was waiting for a visa to Brazil that I began to think was never coming. I had a truly horrendous time in the MTC babysitting a district of Elders who spent weeks on end bullying me and tearing down my self-esteem. I was told directly by someone, I forget who now, that I was being sent there to recover. And when I realized that the mission had no young Elders in it at all, that it was only Sisters and senior couples, I came to appreciate what that meant.

I had so many wild interactions there with so many people. Some of them were strange, like the guy who viewed the Book of Mormon as proof of alien interactions with humans. There were moments of heartbreak, like the woman who was in tears at the Christus statue who attacked us when we checked in on her. There were moments of pure delight, like when an LDS family with two young daughters came to that same Christus statue. The oldest girl, no older than 4 or 5, squealed "JESUS" and ran to the Savior's feet, little sister in tow. Whenever I hear someone mention the teaching to become as a little child, she is exactly who I think of.

There were also moments that were meant solely for me, like when I met the first Sister to ever be called to the Boston mission I had hoped to go to to wait for my visa. Boston has a large Brazilian population, many of whom are members of the Church. I had begged in prayer to be sent there and was told by other people it wouldn't happen because "Sisters don't go there." I had an entire conversation with the woman who was going to be that change. It seemed cruel to me at the time, dangling the carrot of something I wanted right in front of my face. In time, I've realized it was so I would remember that God does miracles and is aware of the desires of my heart, even if it means I don't get what I want. Someone needed to exercise enough faith to push that door open for women. I put my full weight behind it, and I can be just as proud that it opened for someone else.

But some of my favorite people I met there were people who just made me laugh. I met a Jewish convert from New York who told us his conversion story, how what drew him in was the Plan of Salvation. He summarized it in a New York accent in a voice I can still hear in my mind: "So you're a god, eventually. But can you pay RENT?!"

One of my favorite people I met was a Scottish convert named Agnes who was doing the Mormon trail across the US, beginning in New England and ending in Utah. She was a much older woman and told us all about her pilgrimage, and how she had cuddled with the oxen at the baptismal font in the Manhattan New York Temple. (I've been there. You enter into the baptistry on face level with them, or did the last time I was there.) She shared her testimony with us, and I'll never forget what she said.

She explained that the story of Joseph Smith was really hard to get her mind around. It truly is an insane set of asks: angels, gold plates, polygamy, and all the rest. She talked about how she came to accept it—not through any kind of empirical evidence or proof, but through faith and what that looked like.

For her, it was the recognition that being LDS was the best way she had ever encountered to live an excellent life. She said that the worst case scenario she could imagine is one where God would say to her, "You know that whole business with Joseph Smith was a load of crock, right? But you lived such a good life, I have to let you in anyway."

That has always stayed with me. Agnes was one of many people who came to the Square looking for something. I saw people come there looking for faith, or a fight, and truly everything in between. And it's only now that I'm older and wiser that I see something clearly now that I couldn't see then.

Agnes didn't need to come to Temple Square to find faith. She already had a tremendous amount of faith. She, and many others, were looking for conviction. I was at Temple Square long enough to learn you don't get that from a place. While a place like Temple Square can illuminate the possibilities for conviction through the lens of history, it doesn't bestow that conviction through contact or proximity alone. Conviction is made from the materials of your own life and your own choices. Your will, how firmly you place yourself into an immovable and unyielding position, is the measure of your convictions. It comes from within.

Faith is the decision to believe in what you cannot see, and what cannot be proven objectively. That never goes away. Nothing we experience in life, no place we ever visit, will create a shortcut under, over, or around that decision to believe, to trust in God. Faith, at its core, is a decision. The ability to continue making that decision over and over again, under all species of hardship and opposition, is conviction.

Where Jesus walked is nowhere near as important as how Jesus walked, and with whom. The same is true for all of us. Our walk with God might never take us anywhere near a temple because of where God has called us to go. But we are the holiest dwelling places of God on earth—not any of the buildings we've made.

Be a holy place of living faith wherever you are, whatever your circumstances may be. Worship God, no matter what places you can or cannot enter. There is more than one way to access a temple. One way is to enter a place that people invite God to dwell. The other is to become that place. There can be no separation from God where communion never ceases. It is the refuge that is unassailable by others for as long as the person wills it so. The torch within will not go out.

The temple is not special because it has some holy essence that springs forth out of nothing, to passively be absorbed by others. The temple is special because it directs people to Jesus Christ, who is the giver of healing and peace. The temple is just a building. It's Jesus Christ that is the true power behind it all, whose objective is to make you, me, and every person you know the holiest creature you've ever beheld. You are the end goal.

[latterdaysainttemples]

Inside the newly renovated Manti Utah Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Read the Church Newsroom article. Learn more about Latter-day Saint temples, their purposes, and find a temple open house near you.

Built 1888, renovated 1985, rededicated 2024.

[loveerran]

Could you elaborate on the JS sealing practices?

Great question! Thank you :)

What I am referring to (in this post) is the breadth and depth of the sealing power as envisioned and implemented by Joseph Smith and practiced in the early church. The original post speaks to how our family is more than just direct line descent or blood relations.

I've previously noted that 9 of Joseph's first 12 plural sealings were to women already legally married. Today, we regularly seal deceased women to more than one man (and deceased men to more than one woman) if they were married to more than one individual in mortality. We understand it will all be sorted out later.

But more interesting to many of us is the notion that sealings were performed for things other than marriages and the sealing of direct-line ancestors to direct-line progeny. Consider this account from the diary of John M. Bernhisel relating a sealing between friends and cousins, aunts and nephews and so on:

"The following named deceased persons were sealed to me on Oct 26th 1843, by President Joseph Smith: Maria Bernhisel, sister; Brother Samuel's wife, Catherine Kremer; Mary Shatto, (Aunt); Madalena Lupferd, (distant relative); Catherine Bernhisel, Aunt; Hannah Bower, Aunt; Elizabeth Sheively, Aunt; Hannah Bower, cousin; Maria Lawrence, (intimate friend); Sarah Crosby, intimate friend, /died May 11 1839/; Mary Ann Bloom, cousin."

A Gospel Topics essay notes early sealing practices may have been intended to extend family ties "both vertically, from parent to child, and horizontally, from one family to another".

Of additional interest is how proxy ordinances for the deceased, including proxy baptisms, could be performed by someone of any gender, prior to Brigham Young clarifying the same gender requirement in 1845. We also note non-related individuals were sealed by adoption to Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and other church leaders, including men sealed to men as father/son adoptive pairs.

Some believe our current evolution in practice aligns itself more closely to God's will and the original practice was at fault or incomplete. However, I give Joseph's expansive vision a lot of room. And the truth is that non-family, non-lineal sealings were performed by Joseph and others. Will those sealings be honored in the eternities, or will they be null and void? I have a hard time believing the latter. And what of OP's case for "the spinster aunt who had no kids but made sure that three of the six kids her sister abandoned survived into adulthood"? Church doctrine is big on adoption already, and I can only imagine that relationships like found family and adoption continue in the eternities.

To me, the sealing vision feels more expansive than our current understanding and practice may be.

[myexmosafespace]

I don’t mind if people are religious. They can believe what they want. But WHY must they make it their entire personality?!

[ghostlyerlkonig]

so sorry but everytime I see fanart of joshua graham with a cross my little exmormon heart cringes just a little

[midwesternartlovertraveler]

The Vernal Utah Temple https://midwesternartlovertraveler.tumblr.com/

[icarianlibrary]

Church Doodles 🫶🫶

I LOVE drawing BOM people as modern day memes, it’s an issue.

the second drawing is from this book “The Temple Secret” by Angie Welsh! Expect fan art of it, and please read it 🤭🤭 (I may or not be helping out with the second book via cover design)

The 3rd doodle is for this art contest on instagram 🫶🫶

[bulbagarden]

i was in downtown salt lake city taking a look around today, and there was this really cool ice cream/dessert place! it's called the penguin brothers and they have ice cream sandwiches!! go there if you're in the area, support small businesses!!!!!!!!!

but i wanted to share this cute kanto (penguin!) ash + piplup.. and what i got too LOL. honeycomb ice cream w snickerdoodle! it was sooooooooo goood omg..

[mrreed]

i know mormons don’t wear crosses but the mental image of sister paxton riding mr reed and her cross necklace bouncing with her is too powerful

and what about him making her wear it on purpose as an extra added layer of degradation.

[thebunnylord]

So… funny church story that happened to me when I was little…

When I was in primary, they decided to have the kids come to the temple with our parents and teach us the importance of temples and all that. We didn’t go inside the actual temple itself, we just looked through the door.

Well, right before we walked from the church building to the temple building, they had an activity where we built our own temples out of toothpicks and mini marshmallows. Of course being a little kid, I made an igloo temple for Antarctica complete with an outdoor baptismal font for the penguins.

And then I devoured it.

Of course I got sick. As we were walking up the steps from the church parking lot to the temple, I turned to my primary teacher and was like “sister [cat], I think I’m going to puke…”

I was immediately rushed to the front of the line to puke in the bushes and it just so happened right at that moment, one of the adults took a picture of us from behind. It featured me and sister [cat] hurrying up the steps while I stumble behind trying not to puke.

A few weeks later they used that picture as part of their bulletin board right outside of the chapel to show every one of our trip. Out of context and from the position it was taken in, it looked like a group of primary children climbing up the steps to see the temple.

However! If it was taken facing us from the front, you could probably see just how sick I was and the anxiety on the poor sister’s face of not having me yak all over the beautiful temple grounds. Only me, her, and my parents know of the full context of that picture.

Moral of the story: don’t gorge yourself on a crap ton of mini marshmallows right before a temple trip.