Sometimes, the Boner needs to get out and roam around. I found myself gazing at that most exquisite of all Mormon Temples--Manti. Now, you may think it strange that a Boner would keep a picture on his phone of a Morg Temple, but I do--Manti. Why Manti?

My first Mormon love was a woman from my home ward. She was a very recent RM who was going back to the Y to complete her degree. I, too, was on my way to the Y to complete my degree. We spent a lot of time together, and gradually, I found myself in love. Of course, my parents didn't like her--she was Mormon.

Theresa and I explored the beauty of Northern Utah on the weekends. She's the first person I ever explored the Alpine Loop with. Provo, in those days, was a small town with some charm--long lost to sprawl. So, it was fitting that she took me to see that most beautiful of Morg Temples.

We packed a box lunch and headed through the small towns of Springville and Spanish Fork. It was September, and I had never seen Fall colors before. The beauty of the old Spanish Fork Canyon nearly overwhelmed my visual senses. It was a perfect day! We got stopped on US 89 as a rancher moved his herd of black angus cows across the road. Then like a vision, the temple came into view.

Theresa and I sat on the green expanse of lawn, ate, and talked about the beauty of the temple. The Victorian cupolas, covered with silver, glistened in the Autumn sun. After lunch, we went into the small visitor's center where I bought a brochure showing pictures of the interior and a brief history of the building. The couple manning the shop thought Theresa and I were married, I smiled at that.

Later that night, Theresa was making fresh peach pie, and I got chewed out for snitching some of the peaches! As I said, it was a perfect day!

A few months later, Theresa broke up with me because she told me I needed to go on a mission. She would not consider a relationship because she was not willing to keep me from going. It hurt like hell. I would bump into her occasionally, and I later received an invitation to her wedding reception.

During Summer term, I would go to the temple lawn to sit and watch the Manti Temple pageant, and secretly I would laugh at the hyperbole of the dramatic narration of the westward expulsion which, even at that time, I recognized as propaganda.

It would be many years until I was "worthy" to go to the temple. When I got my first recommend, Manti was closed, so I had to go elsewhere for the slicing and dicing.

Eventually, I got to go to the Manti Temple. What a beautiful interior! The temple matron even took us to see the free-standing spiral staircase with their sensuous carved banisters that are no longer used. Supposedly, there are only four such staircases in the US, and two are in Manti! The murals are particularly stunning, and it's easy to find pictures of the domed sealing room on the Internet.

The next time I attended the Manti Temple, my shelf would break. This was the experience where I sat next to a young man who was totally freaked out by the Endowment. When we got ready to go up to the veil he had a look of terror on his face and whispered to me, "I have to say all that!?"

I walked him up and told him someone would whisper it into his ear. I went through first, and being a good Boner would give the name of the token without any errors. Eventually he walked into the room shell-shocked, but as his family hugged him, the look on his face changed to a glazed look of stoned happiness. My shelf collapsed--I realized I was in a cult.

I told Mrs. Boner that the church was a lie and that I didn't believe in it. She told me if I left the church, our marriage would be over...the rest you know.

So, the Manti Temple's silver cupolas have been reduced to black shingles for the last couple of years. It's disgraceful! Of course, the Morg has to build new temples to provide the illusion of participation and interest in temple attendance.

I still have feel mixed feelings for the Manti Temple. It represents my naive TBM younger-self that needed something beautiful to believe in. But, just as the silver has been removed to expose not-so-beautiful black asphalt shingles, so has Mormonism's black underbelly been exposed for me and all the world.

I love the Manti Temple!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2017 12:44PM by BYU Boner.

Mansions in the sky, er, on the ground. Family member married there a while back. I stayed outside. I hate worshipping a facade. They make then "pretty" to appeal to our earthly senses. I agree with the canyon, etc., though. Thanks for the story.

BYU Boner Wrote:
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>
> A few months later, Theresa broke up with me
> because she told me I needed to go on a mission.
> She would not consider a relationship because she
> was not willing to keep me from going. It hurt
> like hell. I would bump into her occasionally, and
> I later received an invitation to her wedding
> reception.

Don't worry, she would have jack hammer kick you in the crotch too, just to see you in utter agony, except that would have been considered inappropriate pre marital sexual contact.

Used to drive by it on trips south from my aunt's place in Mt. Pleasant. Unique architecture for sure.

I wonder whether Theresa still believes in Mormonism, all these years later?

If you were to cross paths, would you still recognize each other?

I mention that because of how much we change as adults through the years. Seeing pictures of my grade school classmates, would not recognize many of them today based on how the years have aged them. (Some have aged better than others.)

It sounds like a pretty temple grounds, with memories from happier times. Lost innocence, and all that.

My guess is that she is dead. She became very heavy and had major health problems when I last saw her 40 something years ago. And you're right on, Amyjo, my post was really about an innocent first love that wasn't given a chance! Hugs, Boner.

I like the dinosaurs in the mural.

I took a tbm girl friend to the pageant once, pageant was ultra cheesey but I do like the area up there it's cool how you can see the temple over all the farm fields coming from Ephraim way

If it's the one I'm thinking of, we stopped there during a family vacation once and we have some really cool pics of my siblings rolling down the hill that it sits on. Beautiful building, but that's what they want children to think... To be allured by its beauty and mysticism.

I left tssc many years ago. I was in shock and horrified when I recently learned that I was (past tense) in a cult. I cannot imagine what it felt like to have that epiphany when you did, right there in the temple. Glad you escaped when you did!

I have some poly relative-of-relatives-of-relatives (Allred group last I heard, though they've switched alliances more than once, so they're probably with someone else or freelancing it by now). This particular faction thought the Manti temple was the one true temple.

I don't recall seeing the Manti temple, so I checked it out online.

It doesn't look like the standard fare LDS temple. It looks like a bleeping castle!

Just think, someday it may be converted into a highrise apartment or condos. That's what happens to churches where I live that run out of parishioners. Rather than tearing down the landmark ....

Now that's a landmark! Ever see it in the snow?

Krishna means all beautiful.

Seva is devotional service. In Krishna Consciousness (there are no secrets), there is growth, knowledge, awareness - no callings, tithing or forced anything. It's beautiful. It works. People are kind.

That's a reel temple...

You crack me up sometimes the boner needs to roam around ha ha but in all seriousness your story sounds interesting to me I too was enthralled with all the beautiful structures they put in front of me growing up so how could it not be wrong right why keep asking the questions about what the hell they do in there but now as a man having stepped away from all religion for a period of time and then coming back and finally have seen what they do I felt very betrayed so now I feel like I know nothing I don't trust anything really I don't even want to work hard anymore for fear of getting screwed over I just want to sink their ship and turn the tables make them all homeless like I might be. But you probably know much more of the darker side of Mormonism than I do probably from the way you talk.

I was sealed there. It is the only temple I enjoyed because of the art.

Thanks for the nice reminiscences about the Manti Temple.

I grew up on stories of how my great-grandfather, a master carpenter from Denmark who lived in Moroni, UT, worked on the staircases in the Manti Temple.

It's always seemed like the most beautiful and certainly the most unique of the temples. And, what a dramatic setting.

Clearly. the great western photographer, Ansel Adams, thought so, too, as he took an iconic photo of it, the prints of which come up for auction at Christie's from time to time and sell in the $3000-$4000 range.

It's the one temple I had an interest in seeing due to the family lore. But, the entry admission is far too high, in money and even more so in personal integrity.

Please protect us from the image of boners getting out.

I've only seen the Manti temple once from a distance. I'm going to tell my boyfriend that next time I have the weekend off (not this weekend), I want to drive the Alpine loop. Never been there. Believe it or not, having lived in Utah MOST of my life, I had never been up one of the Cottonwood Canyons and he took me there about a month ago. Loved both of them! I was impressed with the ski resorts.

I actually think the Logan temple is quite majestic except that they did redo the interior and I understand it is still mauve inside, which they did back in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

But my daughter announced to me the other evening that the reason she has been going to see the bishop several times is that he thinks it is time she should go through the temple. After all, she is 31 and not married (tall blonde, bailed on her wedding 18 months ago, which is a good thing). It upset me, of course. And I had to think it through, but then I thought I wanted to make sure she had what she needed and I gave her the money to buy her temple clothes. I didn't have a dress when I went and had to rent a horrible dress. I told my husband I'd never go again unless I had a dress.

But as I thought about it and I told my boyfriend last night, you do all this preparation. You spend this money on these clothes. This is supposed to be one of the greatest moments of your life AND . . . it is hideous.

If this is what she wants, I want her to be able to do what I did, go through the temple, whatever that brings. We are getting along well right now. I know I really shocked her when I gave her a gift card to the garment/temple clothes store.

The temple was truly one of the biggest disappointments of my life. Oh, I told her a lot about the temple before she went back to the lds church, when she was ANTI-mormon. I'm sure she'll be thinking about what I said especially when she gets her new name. She knows that mine is Lucy.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2017 11:47AM by cl2.

cl2 Wrote:
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>
>
> I actually think the Logan temple is quite
> majestic except that they did redo the interior
> and I understand it is still mauve inside, which
> they did back in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

You're right, Lucy, I mean cl2. Manti and Logan look an awful lot alike. Did you go in the Logan Temple before the interior renovation? (Which, I gather, one of the Profit-Prezidents later said was a major mistake. A lot of great frontier carpentry was given the heave.)

before they changed it. The only thing left was the rock exterior. They took out the windows and there were just big holes. I have some pictures of it when it was all torn apart from the outside. I think they should redo it. That was a long time ago.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2017 11:54PM by cl2.