Leaders of the LDS Church placed a variety of items in a titanium, globe-shaped time capsule on Wednesday during ceremonies to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the church's Sunday School program.
President Gordon B. Hinckley placed blueprints for the rebuilding of the Nauvoo Temple in the capsule. Noting that it was built at "great sacrifice by impoverished Saints," only to be destroyed by those who drove them from the city, he expressed hope that they will serve "as a reminder to the generations to come of the price that has been paid for this cause."First held on Dec. 9, 1849, at the home of Richard Ballantyne, the Sunday School was originally designed for children, with 50 attending the first session. Expanded in 1902 to include adults, the doctrines taught in weekly LDS Sunday School classes are "the glue that hold the church together," President Hinckley said.
Looking ahead to when the capsule will be opened in April 2049, the 89-year-old leader quipped, "I hope I'll be here during that time. It's a rather forlorn hope, I know, but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless. . . . I'll have to peek in and see what's going on."
President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, placed a copy of Tuesday's edition of the Deseret News in the capsule, noting he has been associated with the newspaper's operation for more than 50 years.
He also placed a piece of the Berlin Wall inside, with an emotional remembrance of the day he and Elder Russell M. Nelson were given permission for the church to build a chapel inside what was then the communist bloc. "We watched as the darkness of tyranny and fear gave way to light and truth, and now freedom will ring in a new millennium for the people of that area of the world."
President James E. Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency, offered a Portuguese copy of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price -- all LDS scriptures -- as his contribution, recalling that as a missionary in Brazil 60 years ago, the only scripture he could teach from in Portuguese was the Bible.
LDS scriptures are now available in scores of languages used worldwide by missionaries for the church.
Also included in the capsule was a laptop computer and power source, sealed in a stainless steel case and filled with argon gas, as the audience watched, to preserve it for future generations. The computer -- complete with an instruction manual for what will then no doubt be a more technologically advanced audience -- will allow those who open the capsule to play several CD-ROM discs with myriad information about the church, including audio and video clips, digital photos and even a digital copy of Tuesday's ceremonies, held in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Church officials do not yet know where the time capsule will be kept.
Among other items included in the capsule: a copy of the Proclamation on the Family, issued by the church in 1995; trowels from the cornerstone layings at the Billings, Mont., and the Bountiful temples; a piece of granite broken off the new Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City when a huge crane fell on the roof during the tornado last summer; and a stone from the original foundation of the Nauvoo Temple.
To administer the affairs of the church as it continues to grow around the world, 28 geographic areas have been designated, with general authorities of the church assigned to each area. Every area, and all of the church's auxiliaries, donated items for the 1,600-pound capsule.
Several wooden boxes, fashioned with a variety of temple motifs, were included, as were coins from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland before the euro replaces them all.
After a horseshoe nail engagement ring -- known as a "prairie diamond" by President Hinckley's ancestors at Cove Fort in central Utah -- was one of the final items placed inside the capsule, he smiled widely.
"How would it be if I crawled in too?"