SLC Conference Center

We took a day and went up to SLC with Grandma. While she was in the family history library with Uncle Trevor, the kids and I toured the massive Conference Center at Temple Square.

 Here we are on the roof of the conference center. It was an impressive tour. The gardens on the roof are bedded with shale and peat moss because it is lighter than dirt for the structure to support. And the gardens represent the way the saints would have found the Salt Lake Valley when they arrived in 1847. They are not beautiful and manicured, but more of a wildflower look. Here we are in front of the fountain that is directly over the place of the pulpit in the building below. This is the source of the water for the water falls coming off the roof, and this represents the way the gospel goes to all the world, beginning with the prophet as the Lord's spokesman on Earth today.

On the other end of the roof, overlooking the Salt Lake Temple.

(David couldn't keep his eyes open in the bright sunshine. By the end of our trip, he didn't mind the sunshine one bit.)

This building seats 21,000 people without any obstructed views from support beams.We were told that President Hinckley went to the church architects and said, "I want a building that seats 30,000 people without any support posts in the center of it so each seat has an unobstructed view of the pulpit." The architects said, "That's impossible!" To which President Hinckley quickly replied, "No it's not. I've seen it." In the end, the prophet had to be talked down to 21,000 seats instead of the originally intended 30,000--which would have needed a bigger lot to extend the building another 30 percent deep. The entire building is an architectural feat of its own.

This little boy was beyond excited to see all the switches, wires, speakers, lights, etc inside the auditorium. I'm glad that he relates to this location, because he'll be seeing it on screen every 6 months for the rest of his life when General Conference is broadcast worldwide.