Rebekah Hope | Memories and Melodies from the Mississippi Coast: A Sunday Afternoon at Temple Square

With the exception of driving through Hurricane and St. George as we left the north rim of the Grand Canyon two summers ago (click The Grand Trip Out West tab for more about that!), we had never been to Utah before our trip in March. The night we got to Provo, we asked our friends for ideas for things we could see and do in the area. They all answered, "Go to Temple Square!"

Early in the afternoon that Sunday, as Sarah and I were about to leave the church we'd visited in Lindon, we got a text from Bryce, "Hey, do you want to come to Temple Square with me this afternoon?" Of course we wanted to. Bryce's friends Jeff and Emilee joined us on our drive to Salt Lake City for an absolutely beautiful afternoon.

It was fun to drive by Thanksgiving Point since Vocal Point has performed there in recent years.

The first place we saw when we got to Temple Square was the Salt Lake Tabernacle (also known as the Mormon Tabernacle). It was a little smaller than I'd thought it would be! One of the sister missionaries gave us a demonstration of the acoustics - wow. We loved listening to a recording of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing "God Be With You Till We Meet Again" and sang along - all of us on the same harmony part!

Jeff served a mission in Sweden and was so happy to talk to a sister missionary who was from there!

We spent several moments of quiet reflection at the Christus.

(Yes, that's snow on the roof of the Tabernacle! It had snowed earlier that week, but the weather when we were there was perfect.)

Kyle and his friend Krissy joined us for a short while. It was so good to spend some more time with them before we left!

I've always loved beautiful light coming through windows, and the light streaming into the lobby of the Conference Center was gorgeous.

The entire stage is moveable and can be configured many ways - they were already getting it set up for General Conference, which took place about a month after we were there.

Take note of those skylights - you'll see them again later, from a much different angle.

The Conference Center seats 21,000 people!

We had a wonderful tour guide who shared with us many fascinating details as we walked through the building.

The Utah State Capitol and the historic McCune Mansion, as seen from the roof of the Conference Center.

Remember the skylights? Here they are! Since they're directly above the stage, they're covered, so the light isn't reflected down (with a prism-like effect) onto it.

(Thanks, Bryce, for the picture!)

Thank you, also, to our tour guide for this picture of all of us!

There were a few patches of snow here and there that hadn't melted, and this was on the roof of the Conference Center. Living on the Coast of Mississippi, we get snow "once in a blue moon" (aka about every 10 years, and even then, only an inch or two), so yes, I had to take a picture of it. :)