When our children were still home, we ended every summer with a trip to Northern Utah. We did different adventures as a family. This past summer, we met our oldest daughter’s family and revisited some of these activities but also created new ones. We had 5 themes…Adventure, Water, History, Geology, and Church. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the church headquarters are located in Salt Lake City. Our grandchildren live in Iowa, so it was a great opportunity to introduce them to some church historical sites.
Our church theme was spread throughout the week…with the first one at the Bountiful Temple. This is the temple that many of the Apostles of our church are using since the Salt Lake temple is closed for renovations. Our family attended the open house in December of 1994, so it was truly a memory lane activity. Unfortunately at the Bountiful Temple, Jodi bent down to pick up some items she dropped, and tweaked her back, so we headed to the pharmacy and bought her a back brace.
Near the Utah State Capitol, we made a quick stop at one of the original meetinghouses in Salt Lake City, the 18th Ward Chapel, which was built in 1882. In 1973, it was renovated using the original windows, steeple, benches, and doors. It now serves as a non-denominational chapel.
Given the rough morning, Jodi had, we headed to one of our family’s favorite spots to eat…Hires Big H. We enjoyed homemade root beer, the famous Big H bun, and Utah fry sauce!!
The This is the Place Monument is located in Emigration canyon. This is the route that the first Mormon pioneers used to enter the SLC Valley. In July of 1847, after gazing at the valley for several minutes, Brigham Young declared, “This is the Right Place”.
The monument is dedicated to all who helped settle the area…the fur trappers, Spanish priests, explorers, as well as the Mormon pioneers.
As part of our church history theme, we headed to downtown Salt Lake City. The temple is being renovated and seismic retrofitted, with an anticipated completion date in 2027. The scaffolding was impressive.
Temple Square especially at Christmas, has always been one of our family’s favorite spots. The Assembly Hall was built in 1852 and was one of the first meeting houses in SLC. It is now used for music recitals and small concerts.
We were able to walk into the the Tabernacle. The building was constructed from 1863-1875. There are 12, 623 organ pipes, and the acoustics are world renowned. The wood columns were painted to look like marble, since that was not available in Utah in the 1870s.
We walked to the Church History Museum. We have visited many of the church sites mentioned, but still learned a few things. There were interactive exhibits, movies, and even a trivia game show.
On Sunday morning, we attended the live broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word. Due to construction on Temple Square, the broadcast is currently held in the Conference Center.
The Conference Center opened in 2000. It has 2.4 million square feet of space and has a rooftop garden. This was so the people who lived on the hill above it, would have a nice “park-like” view.
We have attended a General Conference in the building, but not a Spoken Word Broadcast. This was Whitney and Wyatt’s first time for either, so we were excited to share it with them.
The inside of the Conference Center has seating for 21,000 people and there are 7708 organ pipes.
Music and the Spoke Word started as a radio program on July 15, 1929 and transitioned to TV in 1949. We were attending the 5003 continuous broadcast. There is always an inspirational message delivered in the middle of the broadcast and it is also printed in the program. The message was, “that we may not be perfect but we are still standing”.
Before the broadcast, the choir does a complete rehearsal, which we watched and you can take pictures. Once the actual performance begins, there are no videos or pictures allowed.
Our cousin Deby is one of the 360 volunteers who sing in the choir.
The choir took a short break and we watched an interview with the men’s wardrobe director. We learned that the men in the choir have 5 suits, 1 tuxedo and 15 different ties. Then the President of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, Mike Leavitt, who used to be the governor of Utah, welcomed everyone
Ready for the broadcast….you could have heard a pin drop as they counted down to the live performance. The choir was breath-taking even before they sang. It was an amazing program. We especially enjoyed the song, “Let Us All Press On” with the drum accompaniment.
It had been one week of adventure and the 3 Steinlages were heading back to Iowa. Wyatt was coming to visit us in Idaho. There were lots of long hugs. Safe travels and thanks for coming!!
What an Amazing week of Memories revisited and new ones made…
