last year, we talked about visiting sites in utah once a month, to see its beauty before we moved away (at that time david's name was on the transfer list at work, and we were planning on moving within the next 1-2 years). but then we bought a house. we will be staying in utah for a little while longer, but we don't want to stay here forever. david's name is currently off the transfer list, but we are planning on putting it back on in the next 3-5 years.so this year we decided to really see utah, via its temples. there are currently 13 operating lds temples in utah; we've already attended provo and mount timpanogos temples very frequently, and live in utah county, so that leaves us with 11 temples to visit, in cities with sites to see. we plan on being in montana in july, so we're hoping to sneak in visiting the billings temple while there. we want to set aside the last weekend of every month as our weekend to take off, but if something pops up, we'll head off sooner.
this weekend: jordan river temple in south jordan.
our first impression in walking around the temple was the architectural design. it reminded us of a mountain, with jagged peaks jutting from its core. david noticed it wasn't peaks, but parabolas, which actually made it look more natural in its peaks and shadows, like a saddle in a mountain. it was built to almost mirror its environment. the temple sat at the top of a huge grassy hill with flowers at its base and evergreens climbing the sides, and then finally with trees surrounding its structure at the top of the hill. it truly looked like a mountain meadow.
(lovely slc smog)
i was wondering about parabola the whole day, after david mentioned it. dictionary.com's cultural definitition: "a geometrical shape consisting of a single bend and two lines going off to an infinite distance." nothing special with that mathematical definition, but if we look at the word origin and history: "1579, from greek parabole "parabola, application" (see parable), so called by appollonius of perga c.210 b.c.e. because it is produced by "application" of a given area to a given straight line." the parabola is what it is due to the application upon the lines. if we take the suggestion to "see parable", it gets a little more fun: (from the bible dictionary) "a placing beside; a comparison;...in the new testament, (1) a proverb, (2) a typical emblem, (3) a similitude or allegory; (4) ordinarily, in a more restricted sense, a comparison of earthly with heavenly things, "an earthly story with a heavenly meaning"." a parable teaches us something due to the application of spiritual or heavenly pulls upon a given earthly lesson.
the parabolas were everywhere, inside and out. we felt like we learned more about the application of the creation, and literally ascended the mountain of the Lord to learn spiritual matters.
interesting fact: the jordan river temple is one of five temples featuring an angel moroni statue holding the gold plates. (The other four temples are the los angeles california temple, washington d.c. temple, seattle washington temple, and mexico city mexico temple). for more fun facts about the jordan river temple, click here.
instead of site-seeing in south jordan (i guess we could have stopped by ikea...), we decided to have a date nite at home: homemade pizza and rootbeer floats. 
