By ERIC D. SNIDER
The dates of the open house for the St. Louis Missouri Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been released by the church public affairs department.
From April 26 through May 17, excluding Sundays, the public will be invited to tour the temple and view all of its rooms. Following the open house, the temple will be dedicated in ten sessions on June 1, 2 and 3. Thereafter the temple will be open only to faithful members of the church, the news release said.
The St. Louis Temple, which will be the church's 50th, is actually in the suburb of Town and Country, Mo. The temple district will include Missouri, as well as parts of Nebraska, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, and Arkansas. It will serve about 80,000 LDS people who currently must go as far as Chicago, Dallas or Denver to attend a temple.
April Schenk, a junior majoring in communications from Kirkwood, Mo., anticipates the building of the new temple in her ward boundaries. 'I think it's great,' she said. 'I never really thought there would be a temple in St. Louis.'
Schenk, who got engaged over the holidays to a man from the St. Louis area, decided to wait until the temple opened so she could be married there.
'It's beautiful,' she said in reference to the temple. 'It's gorgeous and everybody talks about it. I think it's going to bring a lot of missionary work to the St. Louis area.'
Schenk said members of the Frontneck Ward, where the temple is located, have already been impacted by having the temple in their backyard.
'People are very excited about temple work,' Schenk said. 'The fact that it's closer gets people even more excited. Hopefully temple attendance will be up in our area.'
Jared Chapman, a junior from St. Joseph, Mo., majoring in communications, agrees. 'It's still going to be close to a five hour drive,' he said, 'But we usually had to fly to Chicago ... Lots of people will be able to go that couldn't go before.'
Cosmos Carey, a junior from Springfield, Mo., majoring in human development, used to drive to Dallas to attend the temple. 'Before, we had to drive eight hours, and now we can drive four,' she said. 'Also, I think it's cool that we're getting a temple in Missouri because Missouri is the best state anyway.'
The St. Louis temple will be the 26th temple in the United States. The others are located in 22 nations around the world. Fourteen other temples have been announced or are under construction in ten countries.