The public is invited to tour the newly completed Sacramento California Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The First Presidency of the Church has announced that an open house will begin on Saturday, 29 July, and will continue through Saturday, 26 August, excluding Sundays. Tours are available on Monday from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. and Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m.
The temple is located at 2100 California Circle, Rancho Cordova, California.
Tickets are required of all visitors to the open house, and are available free of charge. They can be obtained by logging on to www.lds.org/reservations or by calling 1-800-537-6214.
Following the public open house, the temple will be formally dedicated on Sunday, 3 September 2006, by Church President Gordon B. Hinckley as the 123rd operating temple of the Church. Four separate dedicatory sessions will be held to accommodate Latter-day Saints in the area who will be served by the new temple.
The temple will serve more than 80,000 Latter-day Saints in the Sacramento area and joins six other California temples located in Los Angeles (dedicated in 1956), Oakland (1964), San Diego (1993), Fresno (2000), Redlands (2003) and Newport Beach (2005).
A cultural celebration featuring the talents of more than 5,000 local Latter-day Saint youth is scheduled for Saturday, 2 September, at 6:00 p.m. in the ARCO Arena.
The area is rich in Latter-day Saint history. During the mid-1840s, Latter-day Saint pioneers arrived at New Helvetia (Sutter’s Fort) and settled north and southeast of what is now Sacramento. Other early Latter-day Saints established the settlement of New Hope on the Stanislaus River, south of Sacramento. Irrigation farming was first practiced in the San Joaquin Valley by Latter-day Saints who planted and harvested some of the first wheat and built the first flour mill in the area. Following the discovery of gold, Latter-day Saints returning to Utah blazed the Mormon Emigrant Trail — a 70-mile stretch of trail from the foothills east of Sacramento, through the rugged and uncharted Sierra Nevada Range, to Hope Valley (south of Lake Tahoe), creating the first east-west road for wagons into northern California.
The Sacramento California Temple is located on a hill covered in native oak trees, overlooking Lake Natoma on the American River. Its interior features numerous art-glass windows, sculpted carpet and an original mural depicting the Sierra Nevada Mountains and foothills. A water feature is centered at the entrance of the temple with arched colonnades flanking each side of the main entry.
Latter-day Saint temples differ from the meetinghouses or chapels where members meet for Sunday worship services. Temples are considered "houses of the Lord" where Christ's teachings are reaffirmed through marriage, baptism and other ordinances that unite families for eternity.
Inside the temple, members learn more about the purpose of life and make covenants to serve Jesus Christ and their fellow man.
For additional information about the Sacramento California Temple and for photos of the temple interior and exterior, visit www.newsroom.lds.org.