I served my mission in San Diego, California. The temple there is one of the most beautiful and striking temples in the world. Due to its beauty, and its location near a major freeway, the temple has become a well-known landmark in San Diego. In one part of one area in which I served people could see the temple from their front doorstep. It made for an interesting backdrop for tracting.
Accordingly, I must have had some variation of the following
conversation at least a thousand times on my mission: We would knock on a person’s door, and as
soon as they found out that we were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they would tell us that they had
visited the temple during the 1993 open house, and they would compliment us on
the beauty of the building. However,
they would inevitably proceed to complain that they felt that such a beautiful
building was unnecessary, and that we ought to be using that money to help the
poor instead. Some people would also
complain that we ought to let everyone go inside the temple, and not just
certain members.
