An excellent example of Latter-day Saint outreach

Just a couple of hours ago, my wife and I toured the Tabernacle exhibit that the Poway California Stake has put up.  I was very pleased.  And I was especially pleased to see that good numbers of visitors are turning out — including people who are obviously not Latter-day Saints.  Near us, for example, I saw a Jewish man wearing a yarmulke (or kippah), as well as a young Muslim mother with her children.

The tour starts with a brief video in a small tent.  There, introductory brochures are available in English and in Spanish. The English brochures come in three forms — for Jews, for Christians, and for Muslims.  Each group interprets the Tabernacle and sees its significance in a rather different fashion.

Then visitors enter the Tabernacle proper, where volunteer hosts stand to explain different features of the shrine.  Guests see the altar of sacrifice — complete with authentic living and breathing sheep who, I’m assured, will not be sacrificed — and the laver, and then they enter the “holy place,” where the menorah and the shewbread and the altar of incense are to be found.  Finally, they go into the holy of holies, where only the high priest was able to enter in ancient times — and, even then, just once a year.  In the holy of holies, they see a replica of the ark of the covenant that is open, so that they are able to look in and see the pot of manna, the tablets of the Law (the Ten Commandments), and the rod of Aaron.

After they leave the Tabernacle model, guests are invited to walk over to the “Old Testament” room in the stake center, where there are illustrations of various events described in the Hebrew Bible, as well as cookies and water.  Finally, on their way out, they can visit a room filled with illustrations of the Latter-day Saint temple and quotations on that subject.

We were told that the mayor of San Diego came through (on Monday, I believe).  While in that final room, looking at a whole wall covered with photographs of happily married couples after their temple weddings, he commented that he wished that there were “more of these” (indicating the happy couples).  He spends a significant portion of his time, he said, dealing with the consequences of family failure and dysfunction.

Posted from San Diego, California