Also found it fascinating that the land for the L.A. Temple was acquired from Harold Loyd’s film company. I love old Hollywood lore as well so it’s all very interesting.

Regarding the Angel Moroni statues, I try to separate fact from folklore which is abundant. For example, I heard a constructon company employee explain to a cleaning crew prior to the Timpanogos temple open house about the sun lining up through the east window medallion with a medallion being painted at the time on the West precisely on April 6. She eagerly pointed out doctrinal symbolism in the architectural glass. I found that interesting as I made that purchase and the architect wasn’t LDS, but had received a letter AFTER his design asking about the symbolism, so in a attempt to comply, he consulted a copy of Mormon Doctrine and complied to the request. Similar stories exist such as the artist who painted a cloud mural in LV temple subconciously painting the face of a young girl, then stepping back to see for the first time–his daughter who had been killed in a car accident. FALSE The artist who related the story to me never had any daughters. There are many wonderful true stories that are not told, I assume, because details quickly become altered and people tend to focus on trivia instead of substance.

So, I will try and stick to the facts. Angel Moroni statues today are made of fiberglass which is brushed with sizing (glue) and covered with high grade German gold leafing. Since gold does not rust, the foil lasts many years without any exterior coating. Some statues prior to being grounded have been struck by lightning and have turned black. One which had a lightning rod retrofitted was not properly sealed allowing water to seep inside the hollow cavity. When it was struck by lightning, the water turned to steam causing immense pressure which blew the face of the statue off. More attention was given to the sealant process in the future.

My point is that while most people seem to think that every detail of temple construction is akin to the “two cubits of gopher wood” explicit revelation of the Old Testament, there is a lot of trial and error. For example, some drawings remain for the original Nauvoo temple, but some were lost crossing a stream enroute to Utah. No one knows now exactly what the furniture looked like so time-period pieces were procurred after much research. The mechanical complexities of modern architectural design obviously were not incorporated into the original temple such as HVAC and elevators. Keep your interests but don’t lose your focus. Knowing Orson Pratt recorded the phases of the moon from his observatory on temple square which now appear on the 50 buttresses aroung the Salt Lake temple is interesting, but becomes distracting in search of deeper meanings. In fact, while no common standards exist for the exquisite design and construction of our temples, a two-hour discussion one day resulted in “temple quality” being defined as “not distracting patrons from the sacred purposes of the temple.” Worthy pursuits of historical accuracy should aupport rather than distract our pursuit to embrace true principles. Early believers in Africa absent direction from the Church made their “angel” of concrete painted gold. Standing, flying, aluminum, fiberglass, east, west–does it really matter?

Concerning the Statue in question
During one of his frequent visits to the temple, President David O. McKay noticed that the angel faced southeast as did the temple. He informed architect Edward O. Anderson “that it was not correct in that position…that the angel must face east.” The angel had generated much conversation among the neighbors, and one indicated, perhaps tongue in cheek, that she “certainly never would be interested [in learning more about the Church] until the angel faced her home.” One morning she awoke to find the statue “was looking directly at her place.” Brother Anderson had followed President McKay’s instructions to turn the angel.
I guess Pres. Mckay didn’t pass along that bit of wisdom to his successors, although most of the Angels Moroni face East or some derivative

This is not an urban legend!!!! I found it in a Book!!! … And on the internet!!!! Ardis, if you’d like the source you might find it encoded in my grandfathers diary.

The Taipei, Taiwan Temple Angel Moroni faces west symbolically sounding his trumpet to the vast Chinese mainland.

The Chicago Temple Angel Moroni Faces north toward the great land of … Milwaukee?

Manhattan New York Temple Angel Moroni Faces South West most likely towards Hoboken, NJ

The São Paulo Brazil Temple Angel Moroni faces South towards Antarctica (all those penguins!! )

The Stockholm Sweden Temple Angel Moroni also faces South while the Preston England Angel Moroni faces South East

“Bullet holes in the Angel Moroni” sounds like a headline you would never see in the Ensign magazine. It sounds plausible though.

Lightning sounds more probable, especially on some of the bigger temples. For example. the Washington D. C. Temple has five spires, the tallest of which is 288 feet high. You can see that the spires change color going up from a nice gold to brown near the top. The tips of all the spires are even darker, presumably where lightning has scorched them. (Gold is an excellent conductor of electricity).

On the Logan Temple you can see an inch-thick cable wire coming down from the top of the west tower straight into the ground. Its pretty obvious its a lightning rod.

When I visited the Billings Montana Temple in 2003 the head groundskeeper showed me around and one of his stories was the origin of a dent in a metal utility door on the north side. It was a about an eighth of an inch deep and round with what looked like dimples. One day he had noticed a lot of golf balls around the temple grounds and figured someone had hit the balls from atop the ridge line directly north of the temple. I didn’t take a picture of the dent but you could call the current groundskeeper 406-655-0607 and ask for verification.

The same groundskeeper also told me that once, after dusk, he heard some gunshots and saw a truck driving away from the field directly west of the temple. He thought they were taking potshots at the temple. He might have filed a police report so you could check that out.