The public is invited to tour the newly completed Rexburg Idaho Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The First Presidency of the Church has announced a public open house that will begin Saturday, 29 December 2007 and continue through Saturday, 26 January2008, excluding Sundays. Tours are available on Mondays from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays from 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., and Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The temple is located at 750 South 2nd East in Rexburg. Tours will begin at the meetinghouse adjacent to the temple on 7th South. Free parking will be available at the meetinghouse and across the street in the lot located on the southern edge of the Brigham Young University-Idaho campus.
Following the public open house, the temple will be formally dedicated on Sunday, 3 February 2008. Four dedicatory sessions will be held to accommodate Latter-day Saints in the area who will be served by the new temple.
The Rexburg temple is the 125th temple of the Church worldwide and the third temple in Idaho, with others in Idaho Falls and Boise. A fourth temple under construction in Twin Falls is nearing completion. The Rexburg temple will serve some 47,000 Latter-day Saints in the surrounding area, including the nearby campus of BYU-Idaho.
The First Presidency of the Church announced plans to construct the Rexburg temple on 12 December 2003. Ground was broken on 30 July 2005. The temple’s exterior is covered with a radiant white-quartz rock finish. Original murals depicting the natural beauty of eastern Idaho grace the walls of the temple’s ordinance rooms. Various interior finishes were imported, including wood trim from Africa and stone and tile from Israel. Many of the temple’s nearly 700 handcrafted art-glass windows include a depiction of a wheat stalk.
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, members learn more about the purpose of life and make covenants to serve Jesus Christ and their fellow man.
Nearly 393,000 members of the Church currently reside in Idaho. The Latter-day Saint heritage of eastern Idaho stretches back more than 120 years. In 1883, four years after settlement of the upper Snake River valley began with the construction of the Utah Northern Railroad line, Church President John Taylor called Thomas E. Ricks as a bishop and asked him to lead a group of Latter-day Saints from northern Utah into eastern Idaho. These pioneers established several communities throughout the upper Snake River valley, including Rexburg.
For additional information about the Rexburg Idaho Temple, including downloadable, high-resolution photos of the temple interior and exterior, visit newsroom.lds.org .