"As we were leaving the temple, he came up to me and took hold of my hand and said, 'I have felt the power of the Spirit predominantly now twice in my life: Once was in the Garden Tomb in the Holy Land, and the other was today in this beautiful temple,' " Elder Ballard said.

"That says a lot for people — who really want to know and come with an open mind — and the feelings they get when they walk through the house of the Lord."

Wednesday, the media walked into the 60,000-square-foot building made of exterior granite quarried from northern China and along hallways and rooms replete with light limestone from Morocco, darker limestone from Egypt and woods from Indiana and Kentucky as well as the German Alps.

They climbed the dual grand staircase and gazed at hand-painted murals in the instruction rooms and the many chandeliers, highlighted by the 15-foot, star-designed chandelier in the celestial room that features 19,447 individual crystals.

Kirk Johnson, the Denver-based bureau chief for the New York Times, accepted the church's invitation to make his first such temple tour but was unsure if he would file a story, since his publication has covered other new temples, including the Manhattan New York Temple.

"Still, I figured it was worthwhile to come," said Johnson, who said he was drawn to the church's temple construction endeavors and intrigued by the closeness in proximity and construction time of the Oquirrh Mountain and Draper temples.

"Some of the rooms were astonishing," said Johnson, noting the design of taking patrons through the various rooms for their temple worship experience and the effects of the lighting, tones and aesthetics made for "a very profound processional."

KSL-TV reporter Carole Mikita, who has covered a dozen-plus temple tours and dedications across the globe, admitted to being touched each time by "what these sacred buildings mean to the church members, some of whom have waited generations to have them."

Saying "there are wonderful stories to be told in every temple district throughout the world," Mikita added the same is true for temple stories in Utah — "some of them from your own neighbors."

E-MAIL: taylor@desnews.com