This post is stepping back in time about a month to when we were in Utah. I never was able to post the rest of the temple photos we took while we were there. In the first post, I put up some pictures of the Salt Lake Temple, the Conference Center and other points of interest at Temple Square.  The current post will display a series of pictures taken at the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple and also the Draper Utah Temple.  For those unfamiliar with these edifices, they are the two newest temples built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the state of Utah (USA).  Part of the excitement of seeing these two temples was the fact that they are so new.  I tend to go for old historical buildings, but it is great to know that there are still very beautiful sacred buildings built in our modern day.

The Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple

We were able to drive up to this temple after visiting a friend that lives close by.  It was nice that they live so close, but we could see the temple from miles away as we approached anyways.  Once you get to the West Jordan area, you can see both the Jordan River Temple and the Oquirrh Mountain Temple way back behind it closer to mountains on the west (unfortunately, I couldn’t get a good shot of that view).  Due to our time restrictions, we weren’t able to actually go in and do any work in this temple, so we didn’t see the interior — which I really regret as the interior of these temples is even more awe-inspiring than the outside.

The following are a few of the better photos (we are not professional photographers, sorry) we took of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.

This style of temple with the tall, single spire is very nice.  You can see it from miles around.  It reminds me of the St Louis Missouri, Boston Massachusetts, Rexburg Idaho, Curitiba Brazil, Preston England (our current temple), and other similar temples.

The Draper Utah Temple

We went to the Draper Temple with the specific purpose of going in and doing temple work.  For those who haven’t seen it in person, it is placed in a magnificent location, a good ways up the mountainside to in the southeastern-most corner of the Salt Lake valley, offering a breathtaking view of the area.  From its heights, you can see the Jordan River and the Oquirrh Mountain temples as well as (on a clear day, I’m sure) all the communities up to downtown Salt Lake City.  I don’t know if there is a temple location in the world that better fits Isaiah’s description of the latter-day sanctuary, where “the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills” (Isa. 2:2).

I also found it incredible how this temple truly seems to have been designed to embody the idea of the temple being the “mountain of the Lord’s house”.  From the front, back, and sides the observer easily notices how the temple rises in levels or steps to the middle spire.  Besides being physically located in the tops of the mountains, the temple actually looks like a mountain.