Over a three-day period from Friday to Sunday, President Thomas S. Monson presided over 12 sessions to dedicate the Draper Utah Temple. In addition to offering the dedicatory prayer in each of the sessions, the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints addressed several of the sessions.

He was joined in the dedicatory events by his counselors in the First Presidency, President Henry B. Eyring and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, and members of the Church's Quorums of the Twelve and Seventy, the Presiding Bishopric, several leaders of auxiliary general presidencies, and the temple presidency and their wives.

Some 16,000 Latter-day Saints attended dedicatory sessions in the temple... Thousands of others attended a live broadcast to LDS stake centers throughout Utah Sunday afternoon. Also, proceedings of the 11:30 a.m. session on Sunday were carried to the temple district's 25 stake centers.

Throughout the days of dedication, President Monson took time to greet many members, especially children over the age of 8 who attended. From time to time, he sang to some of the children.

"I like for the children to know that they are welcome in God's house," he said in an interview after Saturday's concluding session and referring to the work that youth from the age of 12 may perform in temples. "The Savior said, 'Suffer the little children to come unto me.' He is mindful of them."

While Friday's first day of dedicatory events brought warm and pleasant weather, the southeastern corner of the Salt Lake Valley saw brisk winds on Saturday and winds and light snow flurries on Sunday.

E-MAIL: gerry@desnews.com