For a long time, I’ve wanted to go to Salt Lake City. Most people go to check out the mountains and the national parks but I’ve always really wanted to go see the Mormons. I’m serious. I’m not religious but I’ve always been a little fascinated with religion and enough to take a ton of university courses on it. One of my final papers was on the culture of Latter-Day Saints.
I saw my first Mormon, in missionary uniform right at the airport after stepping out of the plane. He had the typical white dress shirt, black pants with a little black name tag that said Elder whatever-his-name-was. It kind of set me up for an expectation that there would be a lot more Mormons in uniform walking about but I didn’t see anyone else other than him at the airport.
So I was at the pick-up zone and I requested for an Uber ride for me to get to my place from the airport. The driver I got turned out to a very sweet lady who helped me deal with my luggage. When I got into the backseat, I heard that she was playing a very different kind of music at a louder-than average volume but I didn’t mind it. She got into the front, started driving, and we had the typical Uber chit-chat. I started to see all the mountains which were right by the city and they were stunning. They were very different from the mountains on the Canadian West Coast which are very green and eternally ice-capped. These ones were dry at this time of year and had a dusty orange-y clay colour that kind of served as a nice background that enhanced the colour of the Autumn leaves. In between the chit-chat, she’d sing along to the music.
“You’re the one true thing I know I can believe in. You’re the things that I desire you save me you complete me.”
It wasn’t radio music. It was much more mellow and it was definitely being played from a CD because the next song had the same singer. I had a feeling it was religious but I wasn’t sure. A couple more songs in, I had an even stronger suspicion.
“Heaven bend to take my hand and lead me through the fire.”
Out of curiosity, I used SoundHound to tell me what I was listening to. Turns out it was Sarah McLachlin. Prior to this Uber ride, I had no idea who Sarah McLachlin was. I’ve heard the name in passing but didn’t really know what kind of music she sang but being in that 45-minute Uber ride, I really got to know who she was. And though Sarah McLachlin does not claim she is religious, her songs sound oddly Christian. My first hour within Salt Lake City definitely had left me with a strong impression of mountain and mormons.
The main thing to see within the Salt Lake City was Temple Square. Because the entire city is architecturally designed around the Church, this complex is right smack in the middle of downtown. Even within the city, I didn’t see as many uniformed Mormons as I had expected and though it didn’t look like the musical cast of Book of Mormon, it was really easy to pick out who was Mormon based on how they dressed. If I had to describe it in as few words as possible, I’d call it conservative-preppiness. The men were usually clean cut, clean shaven, in fitted dress shirts and nice shoes. The women tended to wear skirts that go past the knee, with either boots or short heels. Both usually look like they came straight out of church and maybe it was coincidence but their shoes would always stand out.
Temple Square, typical Mormon dress.
I strolled through this area for a while and though I was too shy to go into any buildings like the visitor center, I spent a lot of time looking at the Mormon statues. While I was studying one of them, I saw a missionary smile at me from a distance and walk towards me. I couldn’t help but panic and I quickly walked away because I was afraid of any sort of conversion speak.
If I’ve learned anything from the past, it’s that it’s really hard to say ‘no’ to a Mormon. For my university paper, I chose to study Mormons, because I knew they’d come straight to my house instead of me having to go to them. Yes, I was interested in studying their beliefs and culture but my laziness was kind of an added factor for this religious group to be my pick. No shame. They assigned me to the closet church within the vicinity of my neighbourhood and that church assigned two sisters to me who came to my house the day after I had sent in a request to speak to someone. When they came in, they introduced themselves to me, told me a little bit about their views and even let me keep a Book of Mormon. They were wonderful people. I kept in contact, going on a couple of church visits with them to further my research but sometimes they’d call me just to check up on me and ask me how I was doing. Close to Valentine’s day, they had decorated the door of my house with foam hearts with little notes on them saying “We love you!” “Good luck on your exams!” Even though I made it clear that my interactions with them were strictly for my paper, they were always eager to convince me to get baptized. And though I continually told them that I didn’t want to be, I spent a lot of time with them even after I had completed the paper just because they were just so kind and it was hard to ever turn them down.
Apart from a stroll in Temple Square, there wasn’t really much else to see in the city. Everything that was worth seeing was within that area or close by it. Utah’s house of government, The Capitol Building was a block down. Their third biggest landmark or attraction within the city was probably the Trolley Square, a mall. Perhaps the only thing that might be worth taking a long walk to is the Gilgal Sculpture Garden where I found their prophet Joseph Smith’s face on a sphinx. Bizarre. I went during the night and because they didn’t have any sort of lighting there, it was kind of creepy.
SLC’s food scene was pretty surprising. I had some amazing hipster dinners and for such a religious city, they also had a number of really cool cocktail bars. I was only able to do one hike on my week there to Grandeur Peak. I was a little nervous while I was climbing it because it was very rubbly, very steep, and I didn’t pack my hiking shoes. I could imagine myself rolling all the way down if I had ever tripped and since there weren’t many trees or the like, nothing would stop me.
The thing that really surprised me about SLC was that everyone was happy with where they live. They loved their city. Most of the people that I talked to weren’t even Mormon or religious; they were just really happy with the small-town vibe and the access they had to the mountains and the wilderness life around them. I had a chat with someone I met who told me that it reminded him of his super religious hometown in India which, like Salt Lake City, was surrounded by mountains. He told me that though it was a religious city, there was a sort of counter-culture that existed within it. It was nice being in a place where people constantly told me that they couldn’t imagine themselves living anywhere else.