The year of the temple

As far as the Mormon church in our area goes, this will be the “Year of the Temple”. Sometime late this summer or fall the building that was announced five years ago and has been under construction for the past two years will be completed. There will be several days of open house when all the area residents and VIP’s will be invited to tour the temple before it is officially dedicated. Although the actual dates for the celebration are unknown, we are now close enough that real preparation is beginning in earnest. All wards and stakes in the area are being asked to appoint Public Affairs representative and to start collecting the names of ministers, minister’s wives (they haven’t figured out that many ministers have husbands or partners), and other public officials living within the ward and stake boundaries who should receive special invitations.


As the action gets closer there will be committees for just about everything from directing the parking around the temple to helping people put on booties before walking through the building. Call center volunteers will be needed 12 hours a day and others will be involved with food preparation. This will be a major “meet the Mormons” sort of activity. Church leaders are hoping that everyone age 12 and over will get involved.



There was a lot of negative reaction when the temple building site was first announced and it took much longer than normal for all the permits to be obtained. It will definitely be interesting to see how the press and public react for the grand finale.