Myth 16 | The Sign of the Fallen Trumpets
As I am sure you are aware, earlier this year Moroni’s trumpet on the Salt Lake Temple was dislodged by the earthquake in March. Someone posted online that this was not a first-time event and there had actually been three other times the trumpet had fallen for various reasons on other temples, but with this fourth event trumpets that had faced north, south, east and west had fallen, and it must be a sign.
It needs to be remembered that, at the simplest level, the angel Moroni Statue is nothing more than ornamentation. At the most cynical, it is little more than branding. While it has symbolic meaning to the members, the very first statue, the one on the Salt Lake Temple, was actually intended to be the Angel Gabriel, similar to weather vanes and statues on churches worldwide. An Apostle suggested the name change during its sculpting, and the new identity stuck. It was not then intended to represent anything more than an angelic proclamation of the divinity of the son of god. We have built much mystique around the statue, perhaps too much. I have not read anything that indicates that the Angel Moroni Statue is intended/prophesied/predicted to be a sign of anything.
This was not the recent loosing, and it was not a full loss of the trumpet, either. During the construction of the Hotel Utah (Joseph Smith Memorial Building) in 1910, The local Iron Workers Union became angry that the hotel construction was not being limited to Union Workers. John J. McNamara set of a bomb at the construction site, that, while not hurting anyone, shattered windows all around the area, and bounced Moroni’s trumpet about 1-2 feet through the statues grasp. It hung precariously, but it hung. It was worked back in by a daring team of steeple jacks from New York about a month later.
STATUE FACES: East
TRUMPET FACES: South East
(We will consider this Temple #1)
The Santiago Chile temple lost the trumpet in an 8.0 earthquake in 1985. The trumpet was immediately returned
STATUE FACES: South South East
TRUMPET FACES: roughly South West by South
(Temple #2)
The Tokyo Temple lost its trumpet to an earthquake in 2005. It was returned
STATUE FACES: North East
TRUMPET FACES: South East
(Temple #3)
The Apia temple (new Apia, not pre-fire Apia) lost the trumpet due to an earthquake in 2009.
STATUE FACES: East North East
TRUMPET FACES: roughly South East by East
(Temple #4)
The Santiago Chile Lost the trumpet again in 2010.
STATUE FACES: South South East
TRUMPET FACES: roughly South West by South
(Temple #4)
This one needs no explanation, the trumpet fell into a lower parapet, and was mangled badly. I would not be surprised if it is replaced, rather than repaired.
STATUE FACES: East
TRUMPET FACES: South East
I should mention that, since about 2010, every time one of the fiberglass statues was renovated, a large bolt has been placed through the hand and trumpet to prevent future loss of the trumpet. By now, most all of the fiberglass statues should have been fixed in such a manner. Salt Lake, being a metal statue, has had no such fix applied. It’s also interesting to note that, since the coming of President Nelson, we have gone from 8 temples without the statue to nearly 40.
As you can see, all the statues that have dropped trumpets have faces roughly eastward, if we include south east and north east in that. The trumpets cover only about half the compass, rather than all 4 points.