SOUTH JORDAN — Having led a group of journalists Wednesday through The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' new Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple, Elder M. Russell Ballard of the church's Quorum of the Twelve summarized the purpose of such tours.
"It's a wonderful thing to take the media and our friends who are not members of the church through and explain the beauty of the ordinances of the temple, because it eliminates this business that we're secret about what goes on in the temple," said Elder Ballard.
"Anybody who walks through knows now that (in the temple) we relearn where we came from, why we're here, where we're going — the great plan of happiness our Heavenly Father has for his children — and that we're able to enter into some covenants in the temple with him because the priesthood is once again on the earth."
To be dedicated in late August, the Oquirrh Mountain Temple will become the church's 130th temple in operation, its 13th in Utah and its second in South Jordan.
As will subsequent tours for civic and religious leaders and other dignitaries, Wednesday's media tour meandered through the temple, with various rooms seen, basic operations explained and temple ordinances reviewed.
The public open house, scheduled from June 1 to Aug. 1, excluding Sundays and the July 4th and July 24th holidays, will follow the same route through the temple.
The primary difference: While public open houses are quiet, self-guided affairs aided by a smattering of signage, specialized tours are led by LDS general authorities, who take time to offer details and answer questions.
Joining Elder Ballard on Wednesday were Elder Quentin L. Cook, also of the Quorum of the Twelve; Elder Ronald A. Rasband, senior member of the Presidency of the Seventy who also currently supervises the church's Utah areas; and Elder William R. Walker of the Quorums of the Seventy and temple department executive director.
Of his many experiences on such tours over the past two decades, Elder Ballard recalled the first tour for local media and religious leaders, when he and Bruce L. Olsen, the church's former managing director for public affairs, conducted a similar session before the 1989 dedication of the Las Vegas Nevada Temple.
Another recollection comes from a Catholic priest who related his impressions while in one of the temple's sealing rooms, listening to Elder Ballard explain the church's sealing ordinance in a tour prior to the Orlando Florida Temple's dedication in 1994.
"As we were leaving the temple, he came up to me and took hold of my hand and said, 'I have felt the power of the Spirit predominantly now twice in my life: Once was in the Garden Tomb in the Holy Land, and the other was today in this beautiful temple,' " Elder Ballard said.
"That says a lot for people — who really want to know and come with an open mind — and the feelings they get when they walk through the house of the Lord."
Wednesday, the media walked into the 60,000-square-foot building made of exterior granite quarried from northern China and along hallways and rooms replete with light limestone from Morocco, darker limestone from Egypt and woods from Indiana and Kentucky as well as the German Alps.
They climbed the dual grand staircase and gazed at hand-painted murals in the instruction rooms and the many chandeliers, highlighted by the 15-foot, star-designed chandelier in the celestial room that features 19,447 individual crystals.
Kirk Johnson, the Denver-based bureau chief for the New York Times, accepted the church's invitation to make his first such temple tour but was unsure if he would file a story, since his publication has covered other new temples, including the Manhattan New York Temple.
"Still, I figured it was worthwhile to come," said Johnson, who said he was drawn to the church's temple construction endeavors and intrigued by the closeness in proximity and construction time of the Oquirrh Mountain and Draper temples.
"Some of the rooms were astonishing," said Johnson, noting the design of taking patrons through the various rooms for their temple worship experience and the effects of the lighting, tones and aesthetics made for "a very profound processional."
KSL-TV reporter Carole Mikita, who has covered a dozen-plus temple tours and dedications across the globe, admitted to being touched each time by "what these sacred buildings mean to the church members, some of whom have waited generations to have them."
Saying "there are wonderful stories to be told in every temple district throughout the world," Mikita added the same is true for temple stories in Utah — "some of them from your own neighbors."
E-MAIL: taylor@desnews.com