For Heather and Kerry, their tour through a Mormon temple is a bittersweet experience

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Kerry Pray and her wife, Heather, sit on a stone bench across the parking lot from one of the most striking buildings in the Washington D.C. suburbs.

"It's beautiful, but it's intense," Kerry says.

"There's definitely an other-world vibe to it," adds Heather Pray.

Anyone who has driven the Capital Beltway north of D.C. has seen the Latter-day Saint temple. It seemingly pops out of nowhere, a marble fortress with golden spires that shoot through the thick Maryland forest. It's like something out of a fairytale.

While it's been a reliable part of the D.C. landscape since 1974, what's inside the temple has been a mystery to most who drive past. Only members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — commonly referred to as Mormons — who are living according to all church tenets are allowed in. But over the past few weeks, the public has been given a rare peek inside.