Another Angel Flying

Another Angel Flying

As Moroni has come to represent the Angel In the book of revelation, members occasionally have enjoyed opportunities to make reference to the scripture in relation to the statue.

Santiago Chile

One such opportunity presented itself in early 1983 as construction was wrapping up on the Santiago Chile Temple.

Crews were ready for the installation, and the statue had been shipped from Salt Lake. It was traveling via air cargo. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a problem getting it through Customs in Chile when it arrived. The process took so long, that the plane returned to the states, statue still on board. When talking about the event, local members would often comment that ‘The angel Moroni was flying through the midst of heaven,’ before it finally returned to Santiago.” ^[1]Rae Olson, personal account submission to LDS-GEMS, via “Santiago Chile Temple”, crockettclan.org

Jordan River

The same phrase from the scripture came up in relation to an event that was funny, but only in retrospect.

The year was 1981, and preparations were in progress to finish the tower at the then under construction Mexico City Mexico Temple. The statue for the Temple was a 15-foot replica of the 18-foot statue Avard Fairbanks created for the Washington D.C. Temple. Richard young had cast the statue at his foundry, and the statue had recently been turned over to Salt Lake City Council member Ronald J. Whitehead.

Aside from being a city Council member, Brother Whitehead worked as a moving agent. On Friday the 17^th of April, 1982, Brother Whitehead was in the midst of the necessary preparations for shipping the statue to Mexico City. The statue had been laid on its back, horn arm in the air, so that he could get its dimensions, when an accident occurred.

He would later jokingly tell the tale to a reporter as follows: “I laid a ladder against the horn and took a measuring tape up when all of a sudden Angel Moroni turned on me. I became another flying angel!”

The statue, not secured to anything at the time, shifted under the extra weight placed against the arm and horn. The movement caused Whitehead’s ladder to fall, and Brother Whitehead fell, his right ankle landing against a wheelbarrow as he crashed to the ground.

He related the story to a Salt Lake Tribune reporter from the hospital, where he was staying several days to be treated, but the accident caused his ankle to end up in a cast.^[2]“City Councilman Suffers Ankle Injury,” Salt Lake Tribune, 22 April 1981, p17.

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