LDS singles are delaying marriage

After all the bad dates, and some heartache, loneliness and despair, Amy Bonella finally did it.

She got married.

On March 3, Bonella, 32, and her new husband, Shane, 35, were wed in the Salt Lake Temple. It was a longed-for milestone and the "perfect" day, Bonella said. "If I could choose to relive a moment in my life, that would be the day, my wedding day," she said.

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Church Announces Three New Missions

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the creation of three new missions in Africa, Ukraine and the Caribbean, bringing the total number of missions to 347 worldwide. Church growth in these areas made it necessary to split three existing missions into six to accommodate the needs of the people. The new missions are headquartered in Freetown, Sierra Leone; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine

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Ghana: New Temple for Mormons At Ashiaman

THE CHURCH of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormons, has built a new temple at Ashaiman to serve its members in the community and its environs.

To this wise, a tour was organised for the people in the area last Sunday to have an insight of the new temple.

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Will Pope Benedict become a Mormon after he dies?

Pope Benedict was baptised at birth and will most likely be baptised again one year after his death, not by his Roman Catholic Church but by a Mormon he never met.

The Mormons, a United States-based denomination officially named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), encourage members to baptise the dead by proxy in the belief they are helping the deceased attain full access to heaven.

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Groundbreaking Held for Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple

resident Gordon B. Hinckley, leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, presided today at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple. His counselors in the First Presidency, President Thomas S. Monson and President James E. Faust, also participated. Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles conducted the service.

President Hinckley announced that the new temple, to be built on a bluff on the west bench of the Salt Lake Valley, will be known as the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple. The temple will be the 13th for the Church in Utah and the fourth in the Salt Lake Valley. Both the Oquirrh Mountain and Jordan River temples are located in South Jordan, Utah, making it the first city in the world to have two Latter-day Saint temples.

The sacred edifice will feature a single copper-clad spire soaring to a height of 193 feet, topped by a 9-foot statue of the Angel Moroni. Latter-day Saints believe that Moroni, an ancient American prophet, was a key figure in the gospel restoration that took place in the early 1800s through Joseph Smith, the Church’s founding prophet.

To be built on an 11-acre site, the temple will sit at the foot of the Oquirrh Mountains that form the western edge of the Salt Lake Valley and face east toward a panoramic view of the majestic Wasatch Mountains. From the site, temple visitors will be able to see the other three temples in the valley: the Draper Temple, Jordan River Temple and Salt Lake Temple.

The Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple will serve approximately 83,000 Latter-day Saints living in the western Salt Lake Valley. The building will be faced with light beige granite quarried and milled in China.

Prior to dedication, the public will be invited to tour the new temple during an open house period expected to last several weeks.

To members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, temples are the "house of the Lord," the most sacred place on earth, where Christ’s teachings are reaffirmed through marriage, baptism and other ordinances that unite families for eternity

In the temple, Church members learn more about the purpose of life and strengthen their commitment to serve the Savior and their fellowman. Unlike meetinghouses where Sabbath worship and weekly activities take place, temples are open throughout the week and closed on Sundays.

LDS plan fourth S.L.-area temple

The LDS Church is moving forward with plans to build its fourth Salt Lake County temple - this one inside Kennecott Land's Daybreak development.

South Jordan City's Planning Commission has unanimously approved a site plan for the 60,000-square-foot building. Across the valley to the east in Draper, construction is under way at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' third Salt Lake Valley temple.

Home to the Jordan River Temple - the valley's second - South Jordan will be the first city in the world to have two of the edifices that LDS faithful hold sacred.

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Mormon temple a tourism draw for tiny Nauvoo

Chandler Whipple recently logged his third 1,000-mile drive from Salt Lake City to this tiny, out-of-the-way town overlooking the Mississippi River, where history and faith have forged one of Illinois' hottest tourism draws.

Fellow Mormons Mark and Holly Gold also made the long drive from Utah to western Illinois recently to revisit ground they consider sacred, built by church founders who were chased west more than a century-and-a-half ago amid waves of violence.

"People see so many Utah plates here they probably think everyone from out there has to make a pilgrimage," joked Whipple. "They don't, but a lot do."

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