Good Morning Everyone,
This past week, some friends
and myself took a tour of the Mormon Temple Kansas City
First of all if you leave a
comment on my blog there will be no flaming here. Even if you do not agree with their religion,
in this country, the good old U.S.A.
I admit, I found their temple
and beliefs interesting even if I don't believe the same way. For this blog, I'm not going into a lot of
detail about the Mormon faith. I'm only
going to show some pictures and give you some interesting tidbits that I found
interesting.
If any of you are interested
in taking the tour the temple is open to the public until April 28th and after
that date it's only for church members.
There is no cost to the public.
The picture at the left and below are of the outside of the Temple. The Temple is not used for church services. 
These are the only two pictures I was allowed to take. Once inside, we weren't allowed to use our cameras. The pictures after this will have been downloaded from the Mormon website.
The picture on the left is the entrance to the Temple. The painting on the wall is beautiful as is the whole Temple. Once inside the Temple, the men and women go to dressing rooms to change out of their street clothes and put on white robes. 
Above is the Celestial room. It symbolizes life as eternal families with our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. There is a room called the Sealing room. In a sealing room, a bride and bridegroom are married not only for life but for eternity.
The picture on the left and below are of the baptism font. It is unique in that the baptismal font rests on the backs of twelve oxen, symbolically representing the twelve tribes of Israel. 
Baptisms are performed for the dead with the belief they can choose to accept being saved or not on the other side.
There is a lot of history about the Mormons in the Kansas City area. Did you know Mormons believed the Garden of Eden was located in Independence, Missouri? The rapid growth of Mormons in Missouri led to political and social conflict with non-Mormons in the area. They were driven out in 1838 and went to Illinois where they were driven away again. They returned again in the 1900's. The Latter Day Saints are a huge part of the history of Kansas and Missouri.
I hope you have found this post interesting and educational. There is so much more to learn than the bare minimum I have posted. If you wish to find out more go to http://www.mormon.org.
Have a great week, and I'll you next Sunday.
Sandra K. Marshall