The Beautiful San Diego Temple

One of our favorite things to do as missionaries is to spend a few hours on Sunday afternoon at the San Diego Temple grounds.  There is no Visitors Center there.  Yet.  So missionaries spend some time there every day to answer questions and talk with the people who come to visit such a beautiful and peaceful place.  Plans have been drawn up for a Visitors Center, but things are on hold for a little while.  Someday.

In the meantime, I simply cannot stop myself from taking pictures of the beautiful temple every single week with my phone.

 

Did you ever wonder why we build temples?  Throughout history, the Lord has commanded His people to build temples. Temples are literally houses of the Lord. They are holy places of worship where individuals make sacred promises with God.  There are 143 operating temples all over the world.  There are 2 under renovation, 13 under construction and 14 announced.  They are all beautiful, every one of them.  But I think the San Diego temple might just be the most beautiful one of all.

This temple is 72,000 square feet and was dedicated in April, 1993.  The open house was six weeks in length with 721,000 attending.  The principal architect was William (Bill) Lewis with the firm of Deems Lewis and McKinley.  The design team was largely non-members except for Bill Lewis and Ken Moeller who did the site design.

The front doors.

This is on the parking lot.

The design motif used throughout the temple is an octagonal figure with 8 points or a square within a square.  This motif appears within the temple, on the exterior and in the design of the grounds.  The figure has no particular meaning but was used to unify design.  However, after construction began this motif or symbol was noticed in one of the figures in a book by Hugh Nibley showing the same design in a mosaic from an early Christian church in Italy.  The mosaic shows Melchizedek and Abel standing on either side of an altar with an altar cloth showing an eight pointed star.  The caption of the figure, which was written by the illustrator and not Brother Nibley, called the eight pointed star “the so-called Seal of Melchizedek.”  However, the object on the altar, with its altar cloth, is a lamb representing Christ not Melchizedek.

The exterior towers are 220 (west) and 225 (east).  Angel Moroni is on the east tower.  He is 14 feet high made of fiber glass covered with gold leaf.  There is a lightning rod sticking a couple of inches out of his head.  There are 24 lightning rods on the temple.

I love this temple.

This week at the Battalion, the new Mission President and his family, plus some of their extended family came through.  That was fun and the Sisters who led their tour had a great time.

Sister Wells out by the well in the courtyard, wearing the Captain hat.  Captain James Allen who recruited the men in the Battalion wore a hat like this.

 Our spotlight this week is on Sister Wells, from Utah.  She is a dance major at BYU. Next time you see her, ask her about her Magic Dance Eye.  She is Mandarin speaking and we love to hear her at work.  She is a Trainer Sister and comes up with imaginative and fun training lessons for the Sisters each week with the other Trainer Sister.  She is trying to learn to whistle like her Dad.  She is always willing to do any assignment and is exceptional at doing school tours.