People Try To Convert Us To Mormonism

After some deliberation, Mum and Dad decided to shorten our stay in Utah from three nights to two, since there’s not much to see in the city besides the Temple. I

was allowed to sleep in in the morning, which was nice after the long drives we’d had in the last two days. After breakfast, I got all the bikes down from the rack so we could bike into town, since we were only a few kilometres from where we wanted to be. We left at around 11:00am and it took us about 20 minutes to make the trip. It took us a little bit of time to find a place to lock up the bikes, but after we did, we headed right over to the Temple visitor’s centre. We spoke with one of the Sisters, who was out on a mission from somewhere overseas (whoops, I can’t remember where exactly), and she arranged for two other Sisters to come and take us on a tour. While we were waiting, Dad and I had a conversation with a Sister over from France. I had a hard

time coming up with some words, so I guess I need to practice my french a lil bit. The two Sisters who came to escort us around were from Canada, Alberta as it so happens, and the Philippines, respectively. They were very nice and they lead us through the basement of the visitor’s centre, where there is a small museum discussing various famous prophets, especially Joseph Smith, who was the founder of the Mormon religion in the 19th century. They explain how, when Smith was a boy, he was confused as to what religion he wanted to choose so he went into the woods and prayed. Lo and behold, God himself, along with his only begotten son, appeared to tell Joseph that no single religion was true and that he must follow his own path to faith. Then later, an angel appeared to give Joseph the first copy of the Book of Mormon, which was inscribed upon golden plates. When Joseph had finished translating the tablets, the angel returned to take the original book back. From that point on, Joseph began to gather a following and lead them towards the land that God had promised them. He was killed before he could make it far and the rest of his followers were lead by Bringham Young the

remainder of the way. Then the party started building the massive Temple Square that the city of Salt Lake is centred around. It took forty years to complete. The guides also explained how, ever since Joseph Smith, there had been a prophet alive on the Earth, who, along with his twelve apostles, would come to the Temple twice a year to give a weekend’s worth of speeches and sermons. Shockingly, all twelve apostles and the “living prophet” himself were all old, white men. Absolutely shocking. After giving us the brief history of the religion, the two Sisters lead us out of the visitor’s centre and over to the Tabernacle, a very unique building. It was constructed to have the best acoustics possible and was designed by a bridge architect. The building itself has not supports inside it, so as to lessen the amount that sound is muffled, and is essentially a series of arch bridges in a row. At it’s widest point, it is 150ft across, which the bridge architect said was the widest he could make it without additional supports. We arrived in the Tabernacle just in time to witness an acoustics demonstration, in which the Sister up front rustled a piece of newspaper, ripped the piece of newspaper, dropped some pins and a nail, and then spoke to us

without a microphone. It was quite amazing how far the sound carries. In fact, when the building was completed, the noise inside was so deafening that a freestanding second level had to be added, to lessen the sound slightly. There was also an incredible organ at the back of the stage, visible from all the pews. It has over 11 000 pipes. The last building we visited on our tour was the Assembly Hall, which was the last worship building built, using the leftover granite from the temple itself. The original building had been constructed with irregular pieces of stone, which had been amended with the magic of concrete. The exterior now looks a lot nicer than it did originally. The interior was very similar to that of the Tabernacle, except for the fact that it wasn’t a massive dome and the acoustics weren’t nearly as good. It also continues to

display its original pews, which are very close together and had to be mounted on stilts, because the people of the 19th century were much tinier than the people today. After the tour was over, our family was presented with a copy of the Book of Mormon and were invited to pray on it and ask God whether the book was true, to find out about the religion for ourselves. After that, we walked around a second museum, where they had a timeline of the process of migration over to Utah and the building of the Temple. There was also a cross-section, scale model of the Temple itself, since anyone who isn’t Mormon isn’t permitted to go inside. The inside seemed to be furnished very lavishly. During the time I was looking around the museum, I was approached by two Sisters, since I was by myself and, as a teenager, I appeared impressionable. Well son, do I have news for you. I had a nice conversation with both of them, however. The first was from India and she was very sweet. The second was from Japan and she was also very nice, and pretty quiet.. Both of them were very interested in the big trip we’re doing, once I told them about

it. Of course, both of them talked about the religion and the church, making it seem as appealing as they could. Sure, the idea of going on a mission somewhere else in the world is kind of cool. But the church is very oriented around men, which I don’t approve of as someone who thinks men and women should have equal rights everywhere. Also the whole no-relationships-before-marriage doesn’t make any sense really. There’s also the thing about disowning your children if they choose to marry outside of, or leave, the church. I’d have to be capable of placing all my faith in higher power that I personally do not believe in, as well. If you do believe in God or anything else, all the power to you, that takes dedication. But not me. Plus, if I was anything other than heterosexual, they would be praying for my soul and telling me that I was going to hell instead of approaching me. So you know, not really interested. After we finished looking around, we took some pictures of the buildings, met a couple more Sisters, from Guatemala and Taiwan respectively, and then went off for lunch. We chose a nearby café called The Blue Lemon, and I ordered an iced macchiato and a mango-chicken salad with a side of roasted potatoes. It was very good. Once we finished eating, we rode our bikes back to the campground where we started packing up in preparation for an early departure the next day. There’s nothing like leaving at 7:00am in order to drive eight hours to Montana. Oh yeah, good times. Peace out m8s.

#camping #utah #saltlakecity