Goal #22 Visit 5 new temples (4-5/5): Redlands and St. George

One of my goals was to visit 5 new temples. I was intending to just go to the other temples in Utah that I haven't been to before, but I ended up doing a few out of state. These last two were Redlands, CA and St.George Utah. (If you want to know why Mormons build temples and how they're different from chapels, click here.)

Redlands California Temple:
This one was SUPER cool because I had just written an article about its history for the new temple website (it'll be published soon on mormontemples.org). The temple is built on land that was part of the original Mormon colony in San Bernardino. The land used to have orange groves on it, and at the ground breaking they served all the guests orange juice from those oranges. Now they have baby orange trees growing on one side of the property. There's a painted glass artwork of the First Vision right when you walk in that has quite the history. It was such a rich experience, attending the temple just after writing its history.

Photo Credit

 St. George Utah Temple:
This one was also really cool, and I got to go with my awesome friend Tiffany. This was the third temple built, and thus it has pioneer handiwork all over the inside!

Beehives as decorations

Can you see me? I'm super tiny.

#besties #wind

 So now I've been to 19 temples total:

• San Diego California Temple
• Los Angeles California Temple
• Redlands California Temple
• Newport Beach California Temple (just on the grounds)
• St. George Utah Temple
• Vernal Utah Temple
• Provo Utah Temple
• Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple
• Draper Utah Temple
• Bountiful Utah Temple
• Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple (just for the open house)
• Salt Lake City Utah Temple
• Manti Utah Temple
• Seattle Washington Temple
• Rexburg Idaho Temple
• Nauvoo Illinois Temple
• Manhattan New York Temple (just outside)
• São Paulo Brazil Temple
• Campinas Brazil Temple

After writing temple articles on another 10-20 temples, I think I want to make going to each of those temples a life goal. Some of them are really far away (Ukraine, the Philippines), so it'll take a while. But I feel really connected to those temples after writing their histories, and I'd really love to go.

My dollar for completing this goal goes to the GoFundMe account for Mrs. Sanchez, who supports herself by selling homemade tamales.