For years, downtown Salt Lake City’s historic Temple Square represented some of the most internationally diverse blocks on the planet. And leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints weren’t shy about showing off that fact.

The square’s global fleet of female-only volunteers — responsible for staffing the site 12 hours a day, 365 days a year — wore a special accessory donned by no other missionaries.

Below their black plastic nameplates, common to the church’s full-time proselytizers around the world, these women also bore the flag of their nation of origin.

The practice began mid-2001 in preparation for Salt Lake City’s 2002 Winter Olympics. The athletes and masses came and went, but the flag tag stuck.

Attached to the nameplate with a bit of tape, the flag serves a dual purpose: showcasing the global nature of the 17.8 million-member church and signaling language assistance to Temple Square’s many international visitors.

This month, the church sunsetted the Utah Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission — known for pioneer-era architectural gems, including the iconic Salt Lake Temple — which first launched a little more than 30 years ago.

Missionaries there no longer are assigned exclusively to the popular tourist destination, but, as with other visitor centers the church operates, instead hail from surrounding missions.

On a visit this past week to Temple Square, some missionaries still sported country flags on their nametags, while others didn’t.

With the official Temple Square mission now gone, will the flags remain or disappear? Stay tuned.