DRAPER — After one of the most widely attended open houses for an LDS temple, the Draper Utah Temple will be dedicated this weekend, with President Thomas S. Monson conducting the 12 dedication sessions spread out over Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
President Monson also will conduct the Friday cornerstone ceremony at the temple, marking the completion of the building prior to the first dedication session at 9 a.m. Friday. The ceremony will be at the cornerstone on the southeast side of the temple, 14065 Canyon Vista Lane.
Four sessions will be held on each of the three days at the Draper temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Also, a satellite broadcast of one of the temple dedication sessions will be broadcast Sunday afternoon to meetinghouses and stake centers throughout Utah.
During its two-month open house from Jan. 15 to March 14, the Draper Utah Temple drew 684,721 visitors. Other recent temples with the highest totals of open-house visitors include the Bountiful Utah Temple, 870,361 visitors in 1994; the San Diego California Temple, approximately 720,000 visitors in 1993; and the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple, 679,217 visitors in 1996.
The announcement of a planned temple for the Draper area was made by President Gordon B. Hinckley during the church's October 2004 general conference. The Draper temple is the church's 129th overall and the 12th in Utah.
The new temple will serve approximately 60,000 LDS Church members in and around Draper. It will open for temple work Monday, March 23.
— Scott Taylor