Spring at the Temple

I took more pictures this month each time I went to the Portland temple. I also took some this winter from similar angles, and thought it would be fun to compare. 

As of February 25th of this year, the Portland Temple has a visitors center in the building that use to be the distribution center. It is open 9am - 9pm, 7 days a week. It is very small, but very interesting. As you walk in there is a Christus statue (smaller than the S.L.C or Oakland visitors center statues) with a beautiful painting behind it, that reminds me of the local landscape. They have some amazing technology set up as well. For example, as you walk in and to the left, there is a flat screen with a message from President Monson. At the next screen you can choose a Book of Mormon in any language you would like (25 languages to pick from) off the shelf, then wave it in front of the cabinet they sit on, and the flat screen will tell you the language, show where on the map the country is located, then read you Moroni's promise (Moroni 10:3-5) in that language. They also have an exhibit with an interactive touch screens called, "This is the Savior of The World," where you can choose places in the the holly land to learn about. There is another station that shares local history of the church and building of the Portland temple. In the center of the room there is an interactive (you control it with an iPad) station called "And I'm a Mormon." I also saw they have a room off to the side where they have movies playing as well, but we were not able to take the time during this visit to see/watch everything. I do look forward to going back, and learning more.