PRESTON, ENGLAND - Mormon Temple
The Mormon Temple is a house of God; we are God’s family and we are His children. The Temple is a constant reminder that God intends the family to be eternal. The Mormon Temple is a place of learning. Here the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are reviewed and truths of the kingdom of God are taught. If those that enter the Temple are in the right spirit and are attentive, the mind and spirit are enriched in gospel knowledge and wisdom.
The Mormon Temple is a place of peace wherein the cares and worries of the outside can be put aside for a time. In the Temple, minds should be centered only upon the
spiritual truths. Promises are made to obey the laws of God and promises are made to those that attend, conditioned only upon faithfulness, which extends from time to eternity.
The gifts and blessings that are in the Mormon Temple are offered to all who conform to the requirements of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All who accept and live the gospel and keep themselves worthy may partake of them.
Mormon Temple work must be done first by each person himself; then it may be done for those that have passed on. All who have lived will have the opportunity to either accept or reject the work that has been done in the Mormon Temple.1
It was here in Preston England that the Mormon Church first took root, with Mormon missionaries arriving in 1837. Those missionaries were, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde and five other missionaries. They arrived in Liverpool and within the first week fifty people were baptized and after nine months of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, nearly two thousand people were converted to the gospel. The success of these Mormon missionaries brought a flood of converts from the British Isles.
Many of those converts immigrated to the United States, taking with them their strengths and talents in hopes of helping the Mormon Church at such a critical time in history. This exodus, combined with two world wars and economic difficulties, kept many Mormon congregations small and struggling.
Before 1951, there were only 6,500 members in the United Kingdom. With the addition of more Mormon missionaries and the approach of teaching the Gospel, the Mormon Church saw 1,000 people baptized that year.2
Because of the history of the Mormon Church and the growth of membership in Preston, President Gordon B. Hinckley announced that this would be the site for England’s second temple. The Mormon Temple is located in Chorley, Lancashire, England, a suburb of Preston and is the centerpiece of a 15-acre complex that includes a stake center, a missionary training center, a family history facility, a distribution center, temple patron housing, temple missionary accommodations, and a grounds building. The Temple itself, with its exterior of white granite and zinc roof, has been described as "reminiscent to the old churches built in this land many years ago."3
President Gordon B. Hinckley, Mormon Prophet, dedicated the Preston England Mormon Temple on June 7, 1998. "A [Mormon] temple is a unique structure: a monument to our convictions, belief and knowledge that life is eternal; that we go on living after death."3
To learn more about the Mormon Temples please visit the following websites:
Mormanity: Mormon Temples and "Secrecy"
History of Mormon Temples