Since we are in the Salt Lake
area, our visit would not be complete without an actual trip to Salt Lake
City. After arriving on Temple Square,
we entered the North Visitor’s Center and walked up the curving, ascending ramp
to see the Chirstus statue. The trek up the ramp was a bit rough on Ben,
but he managed with same help from his “human cane” and we set on the benches
for a while to rest and look at the statue.
I’ve always liked this particular image of Jesus for the way his arms
are depicted. The outstretched position
of the arms suggests a beckoning—either for an embrace or as a way to signify
Jesus’ call to “Come unto me” (Matthew 11:28).
A Book of Mormon verse that comes to mind for me when I see this statue
is when Jesus tells the people of the Americas that He was lifted up upon the
cross that He “might draw all men unto [Him]” (3 Nephi 27:14). I like how He invites us to Him, but we need
to make the move to come up to where He is.
Jesus doesn’t step down to us in the sense that He doesn’t compromise
His teachings to conform to us. We need
to humble ourselves and step up to where He is.
A young woman Jennifer approached agreed to take our picture in front of
the statue; this is my favorite of the two.
Luckily, we located an elevator
to get us back to the ground floor. We
decided next to walk around the Temple Square block and take some pictures of
the Salt Lake Temple. This is Ben’s
favorite temple, so he made sure we took our time. There were several wedding parties taking
pictures in front of the temple. It was
interesting to watch the family groups move from place to place as the wedding
photographer took his or her requisite family poses before breaking the bride
and groom from the group to take photos in all the photo album worthy places.
From the temple, we entered the
Joseph Smith Memorial Building and went to check on the times of the showing of
the Joseph Smith film that has been showing there for quite some time. Two reasons, 1) we all like the film, every
time we come to Temple Square we end up seeing it), and 2) Jennifer was an
extra in the film. Back when the file
was being produced, she took the boys and drove up to Utah (stayed with
Joanna’s family back when they lived in Provo) for a week in order to
participate. She was in the Far West,
Missouri expulsion scenes. At one point
she was got scraped up a bit because of an accident during the scene and didn’t
want to leave—she felt she looked more authentic that way. When we first saw the film, we were pretty
sure we heard her voice and a scream. At
some point, however, the film was recut to add some things and give it the
point of view of Lucy Mack Smith and we’re not sure if Jen survived the
reconfiguration. Either way, it’s a fun
family story knowing that she participated in the production.
After the movie, we walked back
onto Temple Square and then decided to cross South Temple Street to visit the
Deseret Book store. We bought a few
things there and wandered out into the new (to us) City Creek shopping mall
area. Joanna had told us about a Farr’s
ice cream shop and said it was across the street from the temple. Ben’s legs were acting up and he needed to
sit. I told everyone to rest and I’d try
to locate the Farr’s. Thus began my
odyssey. I left my family and walked
south until I came across a “you are here” sign giving directions. A moment or three of searching helped me
locate the Farr’s on the map. I plotted
a course in my head and began walking.
My path took me east, up to the second level, then north. Before I knew it, I was standing … on South
Temple again (“Are you kidding me?”). I
walked west about 5o yards and there was the shop; if I’d just walked east from
where I’d left my family, I would have found the place easily. *sigh!* Just for the heck of it, I
retraced my steps back to everyone. As I
was approaching them, I noticed a Polynesian family walking nearby and a young
woman who looked familiar. I was still
several paces away from rejoining everyone when Jennifer noticed her and
immediately went to give her a hug. She
looked familiar to me because was a young woman from our ward back home who was
visiting her aunt and uncle and their family.
If I hadn’t gone through my odyssey to find Farr’s, we would have missed
seeing her. I guess sometimes it pays to
do things the hard way. :)
Our ice cream was yummy. Ben was feeling better and he wanted to see
the Conference Center, so that became our next destination. During our time inside the area where general
conference is held, Clay Christiansen, an organist for the Tabernacle Choir,
started practicing a musical piece on the organ. During my mission, I had the privilege of
hearing Brother Christiansen play the organ in the Riverside West Stake
building during the Christmas season. I
heard him again on that same organ a few years later during the same season. Isaac was manning the video camera at the
time. Since I didn’t want to
conspicuously snap a flash picture while he was practicing, I whispered to
Isaac to take a video of him in order to preserve the moment. Turns out he played the piece he was
practicing on the Music and the Spoken
Word program two weeks later. Midway
through the tour, Ben began to hurt again.
The sister missionary serving as our tour guide left us in the area
where the Arnold Friberg Book of Mormon paintings are located to get a
wheelchair for Ben. When she returned
and Ben settled into the chair, Isaac quietly grabbed the handles and pushed
Ben around for the remainder of the tour.
I was very impressed by that.
We’ve all dealt with Ben’s situation in our own ways over the last
several months, but to see Isaac step up and want to be the one to push Ben
showed me the love my sons have for each other.
Our last stop before returning
to Joanna’s house to have dinner with Andrea, Kirsten, Heather, and Joanna’s
family was to go to the Salt Lake City cemetery to look for some more
gravesites of general authorities and prominent church members. The visit to President Snow’s gravesite had
been the catalyst for wanting to make a return trip to this cemetery. I mentioned in yesterday’s post that we came
to this cemetery in 2011 to find some gravesites. At that time, we found Orrin Porter
Rockwell’s grave as well as those of past presidents of the Church (Hinckley,
Hunter, Kimball, Lee, Joseph Fielding Smith, McKay, Joseph F. Smith, Wilford
Woodruff). Since we had already visited
many former church president’s grave sites, we decided to look for other
earlier church members this time. We
spent such a long time looking for Eliza Snow’s site that we didn’t have as
much time as we had hoped. During our
visit this time, we found William W. Phelps’ gravesite as well as Bruce R. McConkie, Hugh B. Brown, Emmeline B. Wells, Daniel H. Wells, William
Clayton, Frances Monson, and Jane Elizabeth Manning (one of the first African-American
saints). It’s interesting finding these
gravesites and being able to talk a little bit about each of these people and
their role in the restoration and moving forth of the gospel. Tomorrow we’ll be heading back home.
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