TOOELE, Utah, Sept. 23, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced its public open house for the newly completed Deseret Peak Utah Temple will begin later this week.
Following open houses for invited guests, the public open house will begin Thursday, Sept. 26, and continue through Oct. 19, Mondays through Saturdays, excluding Saturday, Oct. 5, the date of general conference.
The new temple, at 2400 North and 400 West, is nearly 72,000 square feet and sits on a 15.5-acre site. A new 20,000-square-foot meetinghouse was also built on the site. .
There is no cost to attend the Deseret Peak Utah Temple public open house. Reservations to walk through the temple can be made online.
The Deseret Peak Utah Temple will be dedicated on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, and the dedicatory sessions will be broadcast to all congregations in the temple’s district. When dedicated, the temple will be the 200th operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
About the Deseret Peak Utah Temple
The Deseret Peak Utah Temple was originally announced as the Tooele Valley Utah Temple in April 2019 by Church President Russell M. Nelson. The temple’s name became the Deseret Peak Utah Temple on January 19, 2021.
Construction began with a groundbreaking ceremony on May 15, 2021. Elder Brook P. Hales of the Quorum of the Seventy conducted the groundbreaking service and offered the dedicatory prayer.
“To reflect the local area in its design, the temple features lupine, cliff rose and grasses native to the region in the stone, rugs, paint, lighting, millwork and glass,” the LDS Church statement says. “Dolomite from the Tooele Valley was used in the admixture during the construction of the structure. ”
Utah, the Church’s world headquarters, is home to nearly 2.3 million Latter-day Saints, approximately two-thirds of the state’s population of 3.4 million people. The Deseret Peak Utah Temple is one of the Church of Jesus Christ’s 30 houses of the Lord dedicated or under construction or renovation in Utah. The others are the Bountiful, Brigham City, Cedar City, Draper, Ephraim, Heber Valley, Jordan River, Layton, Lehi, Lindon, Logan, Manti, Monticello, Mount Timpanogos, Ogden, Oquirrh Mountain, Orem, Payson, Provo City Center, Provo Utah Rock Canyon, Red Cliffs, Salt Lake, Saratoga Springs, Smithfield, St. George, Syracuse, Taylorsville, Vernal, and West Jordan temples.
Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ are different from meetinghouses or chapels where members gather for Sunday worship services.
“A temple is considered a house of the Lord, where the teachings of Jesus Christ are reaffirmed through marriage, baptism and other sacred agreements that unite families for eternity,” a Church statement says.
