Spire Marks Progress for New Phoenix Arizona Temple

Contributed By From the Church News

  • 23 May 2013

Construction workers at the Phoenix Arizona Temple pose for a photo prior to the placement of the angel Moroni statue.   Photo by Cheryl Taylor.

“People have been watching and waiting for this for so long. … Everyone was so happy and excited to be there.”
—Sister Cheryl Taylor

PHOENIX, ARIZONA

Hundreds of people, including dozens of families, braved triple-digit temperatures May 15 in the Valley of the Sun to watch as construction crews placed a statue of the angel Moroni on top of the new Phoenix Arizona Temple. 

“It was supposed to be low-key—just the construction workers and their families,” said Sister Cheryl J. Taylor, whose husband, Scott, is president of the Arizona Phoenix Mission. “But it’s hard to keep it quiet when there are these two massive cranes towering over the temple. People have been watching and waiting for this for so long, so word got out pretty quickly.”

Some watched from lawn chairs outside the neighboring LDS meetinghouse while others watched from the hiking trails on the hills south of the temple in the Thunderbird Recreation Area as workers placed the pedestal portion of the temple spire followed by the glistening gold leaf-covered fiberglass statue of angel Moroni. “Everyone was so happy and excited to be there,” Sister Taylor said, adding that cheers erupted when the pedestal was placed and again when the Moroni statue was placed.

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