{"id":289019,"date":"2026-04-28T01:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/289019\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T01:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:48:09","slug":"yorba-linda-temple-to-be-opened-to-public-prior-to-dedication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/289019\/","title":{"rendered":"Yorba Linda Temple to be opened to public prior to dedication"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

YORBA LINDA\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Five years after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first announced plans to build the Yorba Linda California Temple, church leaders are inviting the public to tour the new house of worship ahead of its formal dedication.<\/p>\n

The Yorba Linda California Temple, located at 17130 Bastanchury Road, becomes the second temple built in Orange County \u2014 joining Newport Beach \u2014 ninth in the state, and 219th in operation overall.<\/p>\n

Russell M. Nelson, then president of the church, announced plans to build the temple in April 2021, and ground was broken on the project in June 2022. The 70-foot tall, 30,872-square-foot temple sits on 5.46 acres of land that the church has owned since the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\"Elder <\/p>\n

Elder Mathias Held prepares to give a tour of the new Yorba Linda California Temple on Monday.<\/p>\n

(James Carbone)<\/p>\n

An open house will be held from Thursday, April 30 through Saturday, May 23, excluding Sundays. Tours will provide an opportunity for the public to view the interior of the temple and learn about the practices that take place within it. The temple will be formally dedicated on Sunday, June 7.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of the temple is to bring us closer to Jesus Christ and to show us what God has planned for all of his children,\u201d Elder Mathias Held said. \u201cWe\u2019re so very grateful that we have temples where we can go as regularly as we can, and if we want, to remind us who we are, where we come from, where we\u2019re going, and especially what role Jesus Christ has. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the temple is dedicated, basically, the members that have qualified themselves, have prepared themselves, will be able to enter the temple, but nobody else, and so there\u2019s kind of a mystery of what happens in the temple, right? But it\u2019s not really something that is secret. It is sacred.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Guests <\/p>\n

Guests listen to speakers at the Yorba Linda California Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.<\/p>\n

(James Carbone)<\/p>\n

Elder Takashi Wada noted the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has approximately 1,100 congregations across the state, totaling about 729,000 members. He added communities served by the temple would include Anaheim, Brea, Chino, Corona, Hacienda Heights, Orange, Santa Ana, Whittier and Yorba Linda, among others.<\/p>\n

A temple differs from a meetinghouse, where weekly worship may occur. While temples may have unique features in appearance, the ceremonies performed inside are the same, Held said while leading a media tour on Monday.<\/p>\n

Those on the tour got a glimpse of the artwork on the walls, much of which featured Jesus Christ or natural beauty. A multitude of rooms fulfilled various purposes, from a pool supported by sculptured oxen for baptisms to a sealing room where families could bind themselves together for eternity.<\/p>\n

\"Elder <\/p>\n

Elder Mathias Held, left, Elder Takashi Wada, and Elder Raymond Egbo were guest speakers at Yorba Linda California Temple.<\/p>\n

(James Carbone)<\/p>\n

The tour also showcased the white clothing that all who enter the temple are asked to change into \u2014 a symbol of both purity and equality, as well as the changing rooms, the instruction room where one might further their understanding of life\u2019s purpose and make sacred promises, and the celestial room where they could find peace, quiet, and an opportunity for reflection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ourselves are a little bit amazed that we have a temple in our midst,\u201d said Domine Solesbee, a Yorba Linda resident and president of the local women\u2019s relief society of the Church. \u201cThis is very rare. It doesn\u2019t happen all the time. It\u2019s not frequent, like a church building, and so we have gone from awe to amazement back to awe, as we walk through the hallways of the temple.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s beautiful, and we\u2019re grateful to share that with you, and we look forward to the public coming and maybe thinking a little differently about us than they do now. We all might have different thoughts about each other, and other faiths, and what they do and what they don\u2019t do, and so we\u2019re grateful to open our doors to the community, so they can come and see, and feel, when they come to the temple.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Domine <\/p>\n

Domine Solesbee speaks before a tour of Yorba Linda California Temple on Monday.<\/p>\n

(James Carbone)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"YORBA LINDA\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Five years after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first announced plans to build the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20675,7,9,8,7323,14549,11402,123594,611,6162,6201,123591,225,776,18652,123593,99627,123592],"class_list":["post-289019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-april","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-church","tag-dedication","tag-jesus-christ","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-orange-county","tag-public","tag-room","tag-second-temple","tag-state","tag-sunday","tag-tour","tag-various-purpose","tag-worship","tag-yorba-linda-temple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}