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SALT LAKE CITY — The newest temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be dedicated this spring.
The church announced its Fort Lauderdale Florida Temple will be dedicated Sunday, May 4, in three sessions. A public open house will run from March 29 through April 19, excluding Sundays.
Church President Thomas S. Monson announce plans to build the temple in October 2009. Ground was broken for the project in June 2011.
The temple, which will be the church's 143rd operating temple worldwide and the second in Florida, is expected to serve about 25,000 church members from the area. The other temple in Florida is located in Orlando and was dedicated in 1994.
Earlier this year, the Sun Sentinel quoted Stake President Jim Robinson as saying, "The reason our temple is being built here now is because the ranks of our members have grown to such a size that we can use it to accommodate us."
He called the exterior sandstone color "very South Florida."
At the time of the groundbreaking, Elder Walter F. González, a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, said, "Florida will be brighter once a second temple is built within its borders," according to the Church News.
The church bought 32 acres of land and the temple sits on 12 acres of that.
Latter-day Saint temples differ from meetinghouses and are considered "houses of the Lord," where Christ's teachings are reaffirmed through marriage, baptism and other ordinances, according to Mormon Newsroom.
