The following is excerpted from the Church Newsroom. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Arkansas’ first house of the Lord is opening for free public tours this week. Invited guests are touring the Bentonville Arkansas Temple from today, June 12, through Friday, June 16. Public tours will then commence on June 17 and continue through July 1, Sundays excluded.
The Bentonville Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was first announced by Church President Russell M. Nelson at the October 2019 general conference.
“As the Church grows, more temples will be built so that more families can have access to that greatest of all blessings, that of eternal life,” President Nelson said before making the announcement. “We regard a temple as the most sacred structure in the Church. Whenever plans are announced to construct a new temple, it becomes an important part of our history.”
This new house of worship will help local Latter-day Saints who have historically traveled long distances and sacrificed much to attend temples in Salt Lake City, Mesa and Dallas. Currently, members travel to temples in Oklahoma City and Kansas City. The Bentonville Arkansas Temple will serve Latter-day Saints in Arkansas and Missouri.
The temple will be dedicated on Sunday, September 17 in two sessions (10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.). Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who lived in Arkansas for nearly 20 years in the 1980s and 1990s, will preside at the dedication.
Media Day Kicks Off Open House Tours
“We have come back home,” Elder Bednar said at a news conference on Monday, June 12, 2023. “We are not Arkansans by birth, but whatever degree of adoption is necessary to be a full-blown Arkansan — that’s what we are.”
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
