Spectators in the thousands were on hand to watch, take pictures and experience a temple moment as the angel Moroni was hoisted and placed upon the Provo City Center Temple on 31 March 2014.
Construction workers have placed a 13-foot statue of the angel Moroni on the Provo City Center Temple, marking another milestone for the transformation of the former Provo Tabernacle into a temple. The statue is on the center tower 160 feet from the ground.
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Less than a year after a fire gutted the inside of the tabernacle in December 2010, Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced the construction of Provo City’s second temple during the October 2011 general conference.
The angel Moroni stands atop most of the Church’s 142 temples. It is not a figure of worship, but rather symbolizes his role in the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Moroni was an ancient prophet in the Book of Mormon who revealed the location of gold plates to the young Joseph Smith in 1823. From these plates, Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, the sacred book of scripture that became the foundation of the Church.
Most angel Moroni statues are patterned after the one on the Salt Lake Temple, which was completed in 1893. Placement of the angel Moroni is one of the early visible highlights of the construction period of a temple. There is no formal ceremony attached to the statue’s placement.
Almost ready for placement, the angel Moroni is hoisted in the air by a crane.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles conducted ground breaking ceremonies for the new temple on 12 May 2012.
Angel Moroni is now home on the center tower of the Provo City Center Temple.