Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Angel Moroni


Today, I was privileged to witness the bronze statue of the Angel Moroni ascend to the top of the Gilbert Temple. I am pretty sure that I will never see anything like this again in my life. It was quite amazing. Hats off to all who made it happen. Here is how it started. The Angel Moroni statue is that piece of gold you can see on top of the silver car in the center of the picture? It was very windy and there was some talk that the construction crew were a little worried about the wind but in the end things happened perfectly.
Finally got him  Upright!


Moving around to the west side of the Temple.


Somehow word quickly got out and there were a LOT of Mormons there to witness this joyful happening.
Going UP!


And UP!
And UP!!!
They actually took him quite a ways above the top spire before coming back down and resting right smack on top of  it. I'm pretty sure it's because they had to get that long post that is under his feet to go right into a hole on top of the spire to secure the statue.  Now I know I am not an engineer, although I have a son who is one, and that was a super over simplification of what they did but I'm telling you the whole thing was genius and they made it look quite simple.
Here they are just securing him to the spire before the final resting spot...ok that sounded horrible but you know what I mean.  The Angel Moroni will face EAST and now that he is finally there it feels like it is really going to happen, this new Temple of ours.  What a great blessing it will be.  Us Mormons LOVE our Temples.  Super excited!