It’s been more than 15 years since we left Salt Lake City, but every time we drive by the LDS Temple heading south from Auckland I’m jolted by an odd sense of familiarity, and even comfort.

Of course I’ve never been inside a Temple… gentiles aren’t generally allowed… but they’re so distinctive, and Mormon-ness so strongly colored our time in Utah, and Utah so strongly colors my sense of Mormon-ness, that I feel a strange closeness to this imposing building on the other side of the world.

If that Temple were a person, it would be like running into a favorite actor in the airport lounge and starting to chat as if they were the character they play… makes no sense, but I can somehow imagine it happening.