LDS faithful flock to Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication

It

was just another Sunday at the Hukill house. Mom was styling little

Annie's hair in between mascara applications, 14-year-old Whitney was

frantically searching for her brown high heels, and Josh, 12, and Doug,

16, were curled up in the living room sneaking in some extra zzz's

before shower time.

But then, once

everyone was neat and tidy in dresses and ties, something odd happened.

The Hukills, devout members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day

Saints, didn't go to church.

\"It's

kind of weird,\" said Whitney Hukill, a ninth-grader at Kennedy Junior

High in West Valley City, Utah. \"Every Sunday for my whole life — unless I'm

sick — I've gone to church.\"

Statewide,

Sunday, Aug. 23, nearly 2 million perfectly healthy Latter-day Saints, like the

Hukills, skipped out on worship services. For the first time in the

state's history, LDS President Thomas S. Monson cancelled church.

The

prophet wanted to free up members' schedules so they could attend the

dedication ceremony for the newly completed Oquirrh Mountain Temple,

said Robert Homer, coordinator for the temple's open house and

dedication. The building, which Latter-day Saints consider the house of

God, is the 13th to be dedicated in Utah and the 130th in the world.

__IMAGE1__\"I

think President Monson just wanted to do something nice for the