LDS temple gives priest blogger 'a glimpse of heaven'

Related: A complete list of Mormon temples

An Episcopal priest told readers of her Huffington Post blog that she began to better understand why Latter-day Saints build temples during her recent tour of the church's Kansas City Missouri Temple.

In the temple's Celestial Room, which the Rev. Danielle Tumminio described as "a simple room yet ornate at the same time," the tour guide "asked us to be silent and said we were welcome to sit wherever we liked to take a moment to pray.

"I have few words to describe what I felt in that moment," Tumminio wrote. "But I can say this: While it did not convert me, nor did it make me want to be a Mormon, the silence and peace I felt reminded me of the many other times I've felt close to God ... And because of that, I came to understand why temples exist and why they are so important to Mormons across the world."

Tumminio also notes the irony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints building this temple in the same region from which the church was driven 175 years ago.

"It cannot be lost on those who visit the new temple that almost two centuries later, Mormons are often still held in suspicion by society," she writes. "But they are far from being as vulnerable as they were in their early years. They are building stronger foundations every day, and striving, as they do so, to catch a glimpse of heaven."