Friday June 29, 2011
The Manti temple was the third Latter-Day Saint temple to be build after the saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. Interestingly enough the land where this temple is built had been prayerfully dedicated to be a temple centuries before by an American prophet of God named Moroni. Brooke and I went to visit this temple as part of a church activity. The inside of the temple consists of exquisite pioneer woodwork and beautiful paintings of the Lord. We came to see the temple, serve in the temple, and then to see the Manti Pageant.
We were able to go back to a very significant room for us, which our friend, Stuart, dragged us into after his wedding to so we could see ourselves together in the eternity mirrors. He pushed us together in front of the mirrors saying "Eternity with Brooke. Sounds wonderful doesn't it? Eternity with David......well....someone's gotta do it." Haha. We were just dating then, but since we were married in the temple 6 months after that, it has been a fun memory for us.
After serving in the temple for a few hours, we ran out into the heat to save seats for ourselves and our friends. We were some of the first to get in when they opened it up at 6pm. Then we went and bought some Chinese food to ease the rumbling in our stomachs. The sesame chicken and beef with peppers tasted wonderful. I recommend the Snow Dragon Restaurant in Ephraim.
We made friends with the people behind us. They helped us fend off all the would-be seat- thieves...who interestingly enough didn't try to take our seats while we were gone for an hour getting take-out in the next town over, but who saw their chance while we were playing paparazzi. :) You can see part of the lady we chatted with the most, while her friends napped on the ground or in a chair in the shade, in the picture above. She saved their seats in the heat of the day while they lazed around. If we'd caught her name, we'd post the link for you to the pics she said she'd post to Facebook. :) They were a pretty comical sight.
As we ate, we could see off in the distance what appeared to be clouds. These clouds however were not your friendly, "I'll give you shade" clouds. There were the, "I was made by a wild fire" kind of clouds. Aaah!!! Yes we were directly east of a huge fire that has given Provo and the surrounding areas (1.5 hours from the fire), slight ash showers from time to time.
Anyways, on to happier events.
We met some Nephites before the performance. The Nephite people lived in the Americas from 600 B.C. to around 421 A.D. They had prophets, the last of which was the Moroni who dedicated the land in Manti for the temple that now stands there. No, that is not him in the middle, I think that is a Nephite warrior.
We struck some awesome poses together. Then, we met some Lamanite royalties. The Lamanites are the people who eventually destroyed the Nephite nation and are the principle ancestors of the American Indians.
They were really popular for photo ops. I think we were third in line and there were people lining up after us as well.
I did not take any pictures of the actual event because they asked us not to take out our cell phones. They depicted the history of the Book of Mormon and its translation into English through the power of God. The whole thing was very inspiring and strengthened my faith in Jesus Christ; though, the fire bombs they created with special effects made me nervous because of the wild fires ranging around Utah right now. Thankfully, nothing burned down.
