The Indianapolis Indiana temple will host a public open house Monday through Saturday from July 17 to Aug. 8. During the open house tour, the public will learn about the importance of the temple. Mormon and junior Aubrie Browne said the open house is a great opportunity for the public to go inside and tour the temple.

“Even if you’re not Mormon and you don’t really care about Mormonism and you don’t really care to learn about the church, it’s just a cool opportunity. I mean, this doesn’t happen very often, and it’s not like there is going to be another temple built in Indiana any time soon,” Browne said. “So, for a lot of people, this is their only opportunity to ever go inside. I mean, even if you are not all that religious, just the architecture of it is beautiful. The furnishings are beautiful, and the landscape is going to be beautiful.”

The construction of the temple started in September of 2012. The Shiel Sexton Company is the general contractor of the temple. According to Roger Prewitt, project executive of the Shiel Sexton Company and Mormon, about four years ago the Latter Day Saints (LDS) church group announced news about building a temple in Indianapolis.

“I’ve built things my whole life and live here,” Prewitt said. “So I got a hold of some folks that I know in Utah and made arrangements to have an interview as a company, and they talked to us and made the decision to build it.”

This is the first Mormon temple in Indiana, Prewitt said. The next closest temple is in Louisville, KY.

“When I first moved here in 1982, we had to go to Washington, D.C., which was the closest temple, so, a 10-hour drive to go to the temple. Then a few years later, they built one in Chicago, and so it is on the north side of Chicago, IL, which is only about a three-and-a-half hour drive on a good traffic day,” Prewitt said. “But in the meanwhile, they built one in Louisville, KY, and so now our temple district is Louisville, KY. Once this is complete, then all of central Indiana will be in this temple district.”

Browne also said she is excited to have a temple close by because before her youth group and her family had to drive all the way to Louisville to visit a temple. She said she will have more opportunities to take part in services.

Prewitt said the temple is a special place where certain services are performed. Mormons have church services in the meeting houses located next to temples.

“The temple is a special building where baptisms are performed, where marriages are performed, where families are sealed together for what the Mormons believe is for time in all eternity,” Prewitt said.

Not all Mormons are even allowed inside the temple Browne said, and, in order to be allowed into the temple, a person must have a “recommend,” a small card he or she has received from a local Mormon leader.

“That’s kind of what our saying  (is) about how there are different kind of ordinances. You need something called a ‘recommend,’ so even not all members can go in it. You have to get a specific ‘recommend.’ That just says that you are a worthy member of the church, because the things that happen in there are special,” Browne said.