TORONTO, ONTARIO - Mormon Temple
The Mormon Temple is literally a house of God. Throughout history, the Lord has commanded His people to build temples. Today, there are 122 Mormon Temples dotting the earth.
The Mormon Temple is a house of learning wherein the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are reviewed and profound truths of the kingdom of God are unfolded. Here, in the Temple, the cares and worries of the world are put aside.
The main purpose of the Mormon Temple is to provide the ordinances necessary for exaltation into the celestial kingdom. It is a place of covenants where those that enter declare to obey the laws of God and promise to use the knowledge of the Gospel to bless their own lives and those of others. Promises are made, conditioned upon the faithfulness of those that attend, and which extend not only in this life, but also throughout eternity.
The Mormon Temple is open to all who fulfill the requirements of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All who accept and live the Gospel and keep themselves clean may partake of the Temple. Indeed, all faithful members of the Mormon Church are invited and urged to make use of the Temple and to enjoy its privileges. It is a sacred place in which holy ordinances are given to all who have proved themselves worthy to partake of its blessings.1
The Toronto Ontario Mormon Temple is located on thirteen acres in Brampton, which is twenty miles west of downtown Toronto. High above the gleaming white temple is the gold-leafed statue of the Angel Moroni with his familiar trumpet in hand.
The Temple district includes Mormons who live in an enormous geographic area that has been called "the cradle of Mormonism." It covers six Canadian provinces and parts of five American states.2 The area is representative of members from many nationalities: English, Scottish, German, French, and Italian and predominate, but also there are members from Greece, Hungary, Finland, Holland, Estonia, and Poland.
Mormon missionaries arrived in eastern Canada as early as 1830. When Phineas Young received a Book of Mormon from Samuel Smith, brother of Joseph Smith, it took only a few months before he left for Canada to preach the Gospel. He arrived in Kingston and gave his first testimony of the restored Church to those beyond the borders of the United States.
One of the great families to join the Mormon Church in Canada was that of Archibald Gardner in 1843. He stated, "…I could not describe my feelings at the time and for a long time afterwards…reading the scriptures and secret prayer occupied my leisure time…I had no trouble believing the Book of Mormon. Every time I took the book to read I had a burning testimony in my bosom of its truthfulness."
Mormon Temples like the Toronto Temple are built with stone, glass, wood, and metal. But they are also a product of faith and example of sacrifice. The funds to build Mormon Temples come from all tithe payers and consist of the widow’s mite, children’s pennies, and workmen’s dollars; all sanctified by faith.
The beautiful Toronto Mormon Temple prepares all who enter to return homeward, homeward to heaven, homeward to family and homeward to God.3