Public to Tour New Temple in Memphis, Tennessee Open House Scheduled April 8-15; Dedicatory Services, April 23 Public tours of the newly completed Memphis Tennessee Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been announced. The First Presidency of the Church has announced that tours will begin Saturday, April 8, 2000 and run through Saturday, April 15, 2000. No tours will be offered on Sunday, April 9. Latter-day Saint temples are considered "houses of the Lord" where the teachings of Jesus Christ are reaffirmed through marriage, baptism, and other sacred ordinances focusing on the eternal potential of family relationships. Following the public open house, the temple will be formally dedicated Sunday, April 23, 2000, making it the 80th Church temple worldwide. Four separate sessions will be held to accommodate as many as possible of the Latter-day Saints in the temple district. A public cornerstone ceremony will be at 9:00 A.M. on Sunday, April 23, 2000, prior to the first dedicatory session. The temple district includes the Arkansas Little Rock and Alabama Birmingham Missions and the Little Rock, Little Rock North Arkansas, Memphis, Memphis North Tennessee, and Tupelo Mississippi stakes of the Church. Previously, Church members from this area traveled to the St. Louis Missouri Temple. The temple will serve more than 15,900 Latter-day Saints. President Gordon B. Hinckley, world leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has expressed his desire to make the blessings of the temple more accessible to Latter-day Saints, many of whom must now travel long distances. By year's end, 100 temples will be operating. Currently, nearly 11 million people belong to the worldwide Church in 162 countries and territories. Church members first arrived in Tennessee in 1834.