Rain in Salt Lake City

This is our first full day in Salt Lake City, Utah and the weather is cool and rainy.  However, we have two days here before we join the Insight bus tour of the national parks.  Today we took the tram from near our hotel, the Marriot City Centre, up to Temple Square, a 35 acre site in downtown Salt Lake City.

Temple Square contains the international headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, more commonly known as Mormons, a religion with 14 million followers around the world.  We had two friendly guides show us several buildings.  They have two big visitor centres.  From the South Centre we could see a model of the Temple which we are not permitted to enter.  We visited the inside of the adjacent Assembly Hall built in 1882, with materials left over from the construction of the main Temple.

Then on to see the Tabernacle (more on that below), and the North Visitors Centre with its imposing 11 foot marble statue of Jesus. 

After that we went to see the Conference Centre and had a great tour.  We were amazed at its size - it seats 21,000 people and have two tiers of balconies, without any visible support pillars - a clear view for everyone.  This Centre was used during the 2002 Winter Olympics for the medal ceremonies and concerts.  Upstairs are art galleries, mainly depicting Mormom legends. 

Conference Centre

We then went for lunch at the Lion House where I innocently asked for tea before remembering Mormons don't drink coffee or tea.  It was built in 1854 as the official residence of Brigham Young, one of the original colonizers of Utah.

Then on to one of the Family Search Centres - this one in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  We had a helpful guide show us how to use their genealogy sites and got mesmerized for hours searching for our ancestors, even Neil enjoyed it.  This Centre mainly focused on US ancestry and I was able to trace back to a great great grandmother Johana Kern who came to the US from Germany at the age of 4.  I found the ship's record listing her name with her parents and siblings.  Tomorrow we will go to the other search centre where we have been told they have specialists who can help us with other countries - I want to try to find ancestors born in Scotland and Ireland.

I had read that the Mormom Tabernacle Choir rehearsed on Thursday evenings and so we took the tram back to the Tabernacle after dinner.  It was teeming rain and we got soaked.  Normally they only let visitors into the Tabernacle at 8:00 p.m. for the rehearsal, but they very kindly let us in at 7:30 p.m. because of the rain, to see the tail end of a private concert.  The choir of course is magnificent.  We were thrilled when they sang the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as their last concert number.  Gave us the shivers it was so moving.  Then we stayed for the rehearsal - they rehearsed "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" for a while.  The choir does Sunday morning broadcasts around the world from the Tabernacle.  Very worthwhile to see this.

Mormon Tabernacle Choir