Day 2, part 2:: LDS Church Sites

For the rest of our second day on vacation in St. George I convinced Steven to stop in at Brigham Young's Winter Home.  It was so interesting to see how our 2nd Prophet lived.  I thoroughly enjoy touring bits of history and visiting.  I don't think I could ever handle living in an older home, owning extremely old furniture, etc.  I'm not an antique enthusiast, either.  It creeps me out.  

I DO imagine how it would have been to live back then without running water and electricity, wearing the amazing outfits that women did back then and being able to survive solely on your land.  Really, it's quite fascinating to me.  (Maybe it's partly to do with my fascination with Jane Eyre period everything, too) It also allows me time to delve into my subconscious for a minute and wonder why we allowed to let some of those amazing skills of quilt-making and such die and why I'm not more motivated to learn a dying art...hm.  Food for thought?

After we continued our tour of Church History Sites by going to the St. George Tabernacle.  Talk about AMAZING!  We arrived there about 10 minutes before it closed and 20 minutes after the last tour, but a kind-hearted brother missionary took pity on us and gave us an incredible tour.  

Things we learned:
1. The extreme southern part of Utah is considered Utah's Dixie because many of the early settlers of St. George originally came from the southern states. They came to the "Cotton Mission" to grow cotton, but they also brought with them a phrase for the area which has become widely adopted--they called the St. George area "Utah's Dixie."
2. St. George was named after George A. Smith, who pioneers called the potato saint.  Brigham Young felt that enough people were living in that region that it needed an official name.  Therefore,  B. Young took the Saint and George and combined them to make St. George. 
3. The construction of the St. George temple was the first working temple constructed in Utah once the saints found Zion.
4. The pulpit we're standing at, ALL Latter-Day prophets have stood at and given a sermon, except ONE.  Which one you might ask???  Joseph Smith, of course!  We didn't give a sermon, but we did enjoy standing where many prophets have stood. 

{More St. George History Here}

 

Standing in front of the St. George LDS Temple.

 Isaac, Allison and Steven on the front steps of the St. George LDS Temple.

Allison felt I needed to take this picture of her.  I don't blame her.  She looks sooooo cute!!!