Go to LDS Church News Release
(4/5/99)
LDS Church members, particularly those in Illinois, are reacting with great excitement to some news from their General Conference yesterday.
Religion Specialist Carole Mikita shows us what it's all about.
President Gordon B. Hinckley made the surprise announcement at the end of General Conference.
"I FEEL IMPRESSED TO ANNOUNCE THAT AMONG ALL OF THE TEMPLES WE ARE CONSTRUCTING, WE PLAN TO REBUILD THE NAUVOO TEMPLE."
Reaction from church members in Nauvoo was amazement.
This is a replica of the temple near the site.And this is the actual site.
The interior was destroyed by fire in 1848, two years after church members were driven out of the state. A huge windstorm brought down the walls in 1850.
Now it will be rebuilt with the help of a private donor.
Mike Trapp, a Nauvoo Historian, says, "I MIGHT TELL YOU THAT I DID NOT SLEEP LAST NIGHT. IT WAS SUCH AN EXCITING THING THAT I COULDN'T CALM DOWN, IN FACT, I'M STILL PRETTY EXCITED YOU MIGHT NOTICE."
This is an original section of wall from the Nauvoo Temple, now in the church's museum in Salt Lake. Descendants of the stonecutters, carpenters and painters came West to Utah, including the museum's director.
Glen Leonard says, "MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER WAS ONE OF THEM. HE HELPED WITH THE STONEWORK ON THE INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE. I'M EXCITED AS I'M SURE ALL OF THESE DESCENDANTS ARE. HE WASN'T KEEPING A JOURNAL THEN BUT THE RECORDS OF THE NAUVOO TEMPLE INDICATE THAT HE AND HORTENSIA WERE THE FIRST COUPLE MARRIED IN THE NAUVOO TEMPLE, IN JANUARY 1846."
Church members have many questions... will the new temple be built on the site of the old one? When will the plans be finished? And when will the building begin? They remain unanswered for now.
