Latter-day Saint temples differ from the church's meetinghouses or chapels where members meet for Sunday worship services. A temple is considered a "house of the Lord" 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 Jesus Christ and their fellow men.

Some 900,000 people have already signed up to tour the temple and the church is expecting a total of 1 million visitors during the open house.

Elder Ballard said he is often asked why Mormons are so secretive, because the general public cannot enter the temples after dedication.

"The work that occurs here is sacred," he said. "You'll feel that (on a tour)."

During the media tour, Elder Ballard also praised modern technology and how computers are preventing duplication in temple work.

The Draper Temple also includes a bounty of natural light coming in through windows. He said architects and church leaders have tried to maximize that. A recent group of VIP visitors to the temple "were overwhelmed by the beauty and the light" inside, he said.

Indeed, as the late morning sun hit the windows of the temple's largest sealing room, it was almost bright enough to need sunglasses.

Russell Mumford, project manager for Okland Construction, who built the Draper Temple, said he is very pleased with the finished product. He said the complexity of design for any LDS temple, as well as the frequent winds on the hillside area, were perhaps the greatest challenges for the builders.

On average during construction, a fleet of 150 craftsmen a day were on the temple site.

Visitors to the temple's open house will first meet at the adjacent Draper South Mountain Stake Center, where they will have an opportunity to see a new 10-minute video production on church temples. They will then walk through a long canvas-covered canopy segment directly into the temple's foyer.

However, Elder Walker said the church is only relying on plastic carpet runners and some extra carpet overlays on the floor of the temple to help hinder carpet wear and tear. Visitors will not wear any special outside coverings over their shoes. That's because it wasn't cost effective to do that for the high number of expected visitors.

• Open house organizers request that advance reservations be made online at www.lds.org/reservations (maximum of 10 guests per reservation) or by calling 1-800-537-6181 (toll free) or 801-240-7932 (local). Reservations for larger groups can also be accommodated by calling these numbers.

• On the Net: newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/