Talk to Your Kids Before the Salt Lake Temple Open House

The Salt Lake Temple tour is going to be a poor teacher, and I'd rather say that now, six months out, than in April with a line of strangers behind us. A tour shows a child a beautiful building. It can't tell her what the building is for, and a child who has never heard a parent say that will walk out knowing the ceilings were high and the wait was long.

President Oaks gave the invitation this afternoon in the closing session of general conference. I'm writing a few hours later, dishes done and the roast mostly gone. We're a conference household (I laid out how our weekend runs last week), so the kids heard it once and will want it explained twice.

What was actually announced today

Here is what President Oaks said, as the Church's newsroom has it:

"We are welcoming the world, in person or virtually, to the Salt Lake Temple Celebration. On April 5, 2027, the temple doors will open to the public—the first such opening since 1893."

The open house itself wasn't new. The Church said back in February 2025 that the renovated temple would open for tours sometime between April and October of 2027. What today added was the date and the invitation. The Church's August release says the Salt Lake Temple Celebration runs April 5 through October 1, 2027, and covers exhibits, performances and activities as well as the tours. Reservations opened September 1, each guest could reserve up to six tickets, and the Church said the first wave was claimed in less than 24 hours. More batches were scheduled after that. Go to TempleSquare.org before you trust my summary of any of it, since the details are the part that keeps changing.

One more thing from that release matters for families. Reservations are recommended for the open house tours but not required for the rest of the celebration, so a family without tour tickets can still plan on being at Temple Square. I haven't seen an age rule for the tours and I'm not going to guess at one.

The rooms the tour won't include

David and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple in June 2003. I can't tell you whether the tour will pass through the room where that happened, and even if it does, a person walking through it in April will see paint and carpet and a guide with a lanyard. They won't see the part that mattered to me, which was two people kneeling across an altar from each other and the quiet in the room afterward.

The Church describes temples as houses of the Lord, where members make promises with God and take part in ordinances that draw them closer to Jesus Christ and their families. I've given my kids that much for years, and in August I wrote about the three plain sentences my father gave my brother and me, which I borrowed. Those sentences work at the kitchen table. What I haven't tried is saying them in a crowd, with a guide at the front saying everything except the one thing. Lily will hear that guide. She'll ask where people actually do it, and why she can't see that part.

I want that question to come, and I'd like my answer in the foyer to be the same one she gets at home. That's the work for the next six months.

Three children, three different April days

Ben will be three and a half, which doesn't leave much to teach. Show him a picture of the Salt Lake Temple a few times a week, say "house of the Lord" every time, and let him decide it's the house where people are quiet. He'll hold one idea from the day and it ought to be that one.

Lily is the one I think about most, since she'll be eight and turning nine in June and she was baptized last June, so she knows from the inside what it is to make a promise and have people clap for it. I'd start there with her. A temple is where people make bigger promises than hers, and they make them privately because they're serious, not because anybody is hiding something. That isn't a complete explanation but it's true, and she can stand on it while she waits for the rest.

Caleb is a different case, and the post I'd have written in July would have gotten him wrong. He turns twelve on February 2, which means that by April he'll have been inside a temple already, in the baptistry, doing baptisms for the dead. He's been counting toward January since the summer. So the tour won't be his first look at anything. He'll walk those halls knowing something about what the building is for, and he might notice details the rest of us miss. I'd like to ask him what he sees and mostly stay quiet.

A house of prayer for all people

There's a verse in Isaiah that fits this open house better than anything I've read this week:

"Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people." (Isaiah 56:7)

The verses before it are about foreigners and eunuchs who have joined themselves to the Lord and taken hold of his covenant, so it isn't a promise that everyone walks in. But the phrase "for all people" is there, and for six months the Church is doing something close to it with a building that hasn't had a public opening since 1893.

If you can't get to Salt Lake

Most of the people reading this won't be in Utah in April. President Oaks said "in person or virtually," and the Church's August release says guests who can't attend will be able to see the renovated temple through online virtual experiences. For families a long way off, I'd treat that as the real invitation. When the Barcelona temple ceremony was livestreamed in Catalan, the photographs on the screen did a lot of the work for my kids, and a virtual tour should do the same. Put it on a screen on a weeknight and let the youngest ask what everything is.

President Oaks also pointed people to the first episode of a new series called "Dedicate." I haven't seen it, so I can't tell you whether it suits a three-year-old.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does the Salt Lake Temple open to the public?

April 5, 2027, according to President Oaks in the closing session of the October 2026 general conference. The Church's Salt Lake Temple Celebration runs from then through October 1, 2027. Tour reservations opened September 1 and more batches were scheduled, so check TempleSquare.org for what's left.

Do you need a ticket?

For the open house tours, reservations are recommended. For the wider celebration (exhibits, performances, Temple Square activities) they aren't required. Each guest can reserve up to six tickets through TempleSquare.org or the Temple Square app.

Why is it the first public opening since 1893?

That's the Church's wording from this afternoon, and I'm using it as given. I haven't found an explanation beyond it and I won't make one up. No dedication date has been announced yet.

Can my kids go inside after the open house?

I can't find a Church statement on that and I won't guess. What I do know is that after a temple is dedicated, entry is for members with a current temple recommend, which is the Church's general practice and not something said about this building specifically.

Should I tell my kids about the ordinances before we go?

Tell them what you'd tell them anyway, at the level you'd tell them. I wouldn't save anything for the tour guide.

What I don't like is how the invitation to the world began with a ticket window. The first wave was gone in under a day, and more batches were coming, but the first thing most families learned about this was that there was a race. And I don't like how much a date like April 5 can press on a parent, as though there's a right feeling a child has to produce at the right door. I don't have a neat answer for either one.

with love, Melissa