LDS temple to open for tours before rededication

Arizona’s oldest LDS temple in Mesa’s massive temple will open for public tours this fall before it’s formally rededicated after a three-year renovation.

The 94-year-old Mesa Arizona Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints near downtown has been closed since May 2018 for renovations of the 75,000-square-foot building and surrounding area.

Members of the public can get a rare glimpse inside the building in October and November, with a public open house and free tours held from Oct. 16 through Nov. 20, except for Sundays. Registration details will be announced later.

Typically only church members are allowed inside the temples, with these types of public events taking place only after renovations and before buildings are rededicated.

The temple will be rededicated Dec. 12 by President Dallin H. Oaks, a prominent church leader.

The area surrounding the temple also saw redevelopment over the past couple years, including new apartments and townhomes as well as some shops and landscaping immediately around the temple. The project also included a new visitors center, which will be dedicated Aug. 12 and broadcast to churches across the state.

The Mesa Arizona Temple was the church’s seventh operating temple and the first temple in Arizona. It first opened in 1927 and was rededicated in 1975 after expansion and remodeling. There are now five other temples in Arizona: in Gila Valley, Gilbert, Phoenix, Snowflake and Tucson.

Temples are different from meetinghouses or chapels used for Sunday services — they are “‘houses of the Lord,’ where Jesus Christ’s teachings are reaffirmed through baptism and other ordinances that unite families for eternity,” according to the church.