There is a place that Janice Zacharias knows where she can go and will always find inner peace.
It’s a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints temple.
For years, it has meant a 54-mile one-way trip to Oakland for the Manteca resident.
Starting next month, it will only take 15 miles thanks to the 230th LDS temple worldwide opening in Modesto at 4310 Dale Road near Kaiser Hospital.
“You really do feel the world lift off your shoulders,” Zacharias said, particularly of time she spends sitting quietly in the Celestial Room.
The 12th LDS temple in California and the fourth in the Central Valley — the others are in Fresno, Sacramento, and Yuba City — will be open to the general public to tour from Friday, Oct. 16, through Saturday, Oct. 31. The open house excludes Sundays.
Open house hours are Mondays thru Fridays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. as well as Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
It will be the only opportunity for non-members to tour the temple.
The temple will be dedicated on Nov. 22 by Elder Quentin L. Cook.
The area the temple was built to serve are LDS stakes in the Northern San Joaquin Valley as well as Tuolumne and Calaveras counties.
Among those are the 3,633 members of the Manteca Stake that covers Manteca, Tracy, Ripon, Mountain House, and Lathrop.
“The temple is a beautiful place where we can feel the peace and love of our Savior, Jesus Christ,” noted Charleen Carroll who is a member of the Manteca Stake.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints roots run deep in the non-indigenous history of Manteca, Ripon, and Lathrop.
Roughly 16 miles to the northwest of the new temple is where a group of Mormons in 1846 established the first settlement in the area now known as South San Joaquin County.
The New Hope settlement lasted less than a year.
It was formed by Sam Brannan and 20 men who believed the agricultural outpost in the wilderness of California’s Central Valley would serve as the center stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The New Hope settlement near the Stanislaus River in the area where Caswell State Park and Manteca Road (Main Street within the city limits of Manteca) are today was abandoned in 1847, the same year LDS President Brigham Young decided the church would settle near the Great Salt Lake in Utah after being forced to leave Illinois.
Some 180 years later, an LDS temple has been completed 16 miles to the southeast of New Hope in Modesto.
This week, some 40 people across the United States that are descendants of those that were aboard the Brooklyn that sailed to Yerba Buena (now San Francisco) will be touring the Modesto temple. The 20 men who founded New Hope were among the 238 people aboard the Brooklyn.
About the temple
The 31,252 square-foot temple rises to 115 feet at the top of the spire.
It sits on 17.63 acres with landscaping that reflects the agricultural character of the Central Valley.
The interior design celebrates the natural beauty and agricultural heritage of the Northern San Joaquin Valley. Almond blossom and strawberry motifs appear throughout the temple in decorative elements, art glass and millwork.
Blue, green and gold tones were selected to represent the abundance of crops, animals and water that sustain the region.
There are two original art works — among many that don the walls such as the depiction of Jesus Christ that is the main focus of the entry — that reflect local scenes.
One is of almond blossoms and the other is of a lake high in the Eastern Sierra.
The temple is literally a house of the Lord — a holy place set apart from the rest of the world.
In the temple, LDS literature notes “you learn more about the plan of salvation and how to follow Christ’s perfect example. God’s greatest blessings are available in His temples.”
The open house tours will take you through rooms — the baptistry as well as the sealing room — where guides will, explain their purpose.
Information on the LDS website notes, “For members of the Church, a temple is the most sacred place of worship on the earth. It is unique from all other places of worship. It is designated as the only place where families can be united forever and where the most sacred gospel ordinances are performed.”
“It is also a place where you can feel closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, a place of peace and revelation, a place where family relationships are strengthened, and a place to seek direction concerning life’s challenges.”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was formally organized in a small log cabin in upstate New York in 1830. It took 117 years — until 1947 — for the Church to grow from the initial six members to one million.
Today, there are more than 17.8 million Mormons worldwide, including 725,648 in California.
California is the second largest state for LDS membership outside of Utah.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
