MONTICELLO UTAH Mormon Temple
In October 1997 President Gordon B. Hinckley, Mormon Prophet, announced the building of smaller Temples; he stated, "…I have been with many [members of the Church] who have very little of this world’s goods…they have in their hearts a great burning faith concerning this latter-day work. They love the Church. They love the gospel. They love the Lord and want to do His will…they make tremendous sacrifices to visit the temples. They travel for days at a time in cheap buses and on old boats. They save their money and do without to make it all possible. They need nearby temples – small, beautiful, serviceable temples."1
Temple ordinances are an essential part of the Mormon Church. Worthy members participate in sacred ordinances and make covenants with God. Like baptism, these ordinances and covenants are necessary for the salvation of man and they must be performed in the temple. It was then decided in 1997 by Church leaders to take the Temples to those remote areas of the world where members of the Mormon Church could accomplish the temple work.
Less than one year after President Hinckley announced the building of smaller temples, the Monticello Utah Temple was dedicated on July 26, 1998. This is a town of only 2,00 residents, so everyone is acquainted with each other; it is a personal project for many of the residents in that it brings about integration of temple, church and the community together. The temple provides opportunities for members to receive the ordinances and spiritual solace that only the temple can offer as well as in keeping the interior and exterior presentable to the community and to God.
The exterior of the Temple is absolutely breathtaking with its finish of marble, referred to as Noah’s Crème, and which seems to change with the weather conditions, the time of day, and can withstand the severe sandstorms that afflict the area. Thirteen thousand tiles were used and were carefully chosen and constructed to be sure that each complimented the other.
The angel Moroni which was placed on the spire of the Temple was to be different than those placed on the larger Temples. It was a new model of only six feet tall and made of white fiberglass. However, when the first overcast day appeared, the Angel Moroni seemed to disappear against the gloomy sky and it was rather hard to light properly at night. Church leaders decided to use a different style of statue; one covered with 23-karat gold and one that was to be used on all smaller temples for the future.
When the Monticello Temple was finished and the open house was to begin, a member of the Temple committee arrived to find thousands of moths covering the ground and wall of the Temple. After some fruitless attempts to remove the moths, the workers began to scatter the moths with air blowers. As they did so, ’starlings that had been building nests on the nearby meetinghouse swooped down and caught the moths in mid-air, ridding the Temple of most of the insects in about twenty minutes.’2
Following the Monticello Temple’s dedication, faithful members performed nearly fifty-seven thousand ordinances in the first three months of the opening of the Temple.