If you have never been inside a Mormon Temple, below is a link for a beautiful photo tour. This Payson Temple is about 20 minutes south of where we live. Before temples are dedicated, they are open to the public for a short time. We’ve visited the open house in Draper three times now with family and friends. This temple is exquisite! World-wide there are 173 LDS Temples in operation, under construction, or announced. This Payson Temple is the 10th largest temple in the world, made from the finest materials. Marble from Portugal and Spain, Mahogany from Africa, tapestries and fabrics from Italy. It’s absolutely beautiful. Please enjoy the tour!
Here we are with the Sissokou family, our friends from Mali:
https://www.lds.org/church/temples/why-we-build-temples?lang=eng
Why Latter-day Saints Build Temples
A Commandment with Blessings
From the days of the Old Testament, the Lord has commanded His people to build temples-sacred structures where He could teach, guide, and bless them. For example, the Lord told the Israelites to build a portable tabernacle that would be their temple while they traveled in the wilderness (see Exodus 26-27;40:35). Additional Old Testament references to temples are found in 2 Chronicles 5:1-14; 7:1-2 (Temple of Solomon) and Ezra 3:1-13; 6:3 (Temple of Zerubbabel).
Portable Tabernacle
The Lord told the Israelites to build a portable tabernacle that would be their temple while they traveled in the wilderness (see Exodus 26-27: 40:35).
When Jesus Christ was on the earth, the only existing temple was known as the Temple of Herod. Jesus was often found in this temple (see, for example, Luke 2:40-49; Matthew 21:10-14).
After the rejection and deaths of Jesus’s Apostles, there were no temples on the earth for many centuries. When the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored in the early 1800s, the Lord again commanded His people to build temples (see D&C 88:119; see alsosection 95). The earliest temples of the restored Church were built in Ohio, Illinois, and eventually in Utah. Today, the Church has 140 operating temples around the world. Regardless of the place or time period, temples are the most sacred place on earth-a place where earth and heaven meet and where we feel close to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
Reblogged this on Our Yakima Washington Mission.