NAUVOO, Ill. Marla Holbrook says attending the first dedication service for the rebuilt temple brought her Nauvoo experience full circle.

"It's bittersweet for us," she said. "The beginning of the opening of the temple is the end of our stay here."

Holbrook arrived in Nauvoo two years and seven months ago from her home in Sandy, Utah. Now halfway packed, she and her husband leave July 2 for another assignment, but they will carry special memories of their time in Nauvoo.

"For us, it's a completion of a circle," Holbrook said. "(We're living) on the same property my husband's great-great-grandfather owned. We feel, with the dedication, it's finishing a circle started in the 1840s."

Rebuilding the Nauvoo Temple likewise finished a circle for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members were driven out of the community after finishing the original temple in 1846.

"Contrary to all the predictions that were made when we were driven out of here, we have come back with strength, membership and capacity to do that which we think deserved to be done here," Church President Gordon B. Hinckley said during a Thursday press conference.

"Through the generosity of people, we are able to reconstruct the temple and build it according to the most exacting standards," he said. "Everything in this building all speaks of love, dedication, respect and honor."

So do the 13 dedication services, planned through Sunday and expected to draw 20,000 church members celebrating the new temple and reflecting on the past.

"It almost leaves you without words. It's such a combination of so many years of effort not just in the reconstruction project but in all the years of history that have gone before," said Sister Ann Orton, a church media specialist in Nauvoo who attended the first dedication service. "To have this building is an honor and a tribute to those here in the past."

The one hour, 45 minute service 90 minutes for the remaining sessions featured music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, remarks by Hinckley and other church authorities and a dedicatory prayer given by Hinckley. The prayer, touching on the legacy of the church and optimism for the future, will be read at each session.

The temple, once dedicated, becomes the 113th of the church, serving 13,000 members in five stakes. "Here is a people who believed in the immortality of the human soul," Hinckley said. "Everything that will occur in this temple henceforth will be concerned with the things of eternity."

People crowded the temple grounds Thursday for two public events featuring Hinckley placing a time capsule behind a dated coverstone outside the temple and the press conference.

"It's a wonderful feeling, a wonderful spirit. It's exciting to see President Hinckley here," said church member Janette Glass who moved with her family in December from Nevada to Nauvoo and will attend on of Saturday's services.

"I love living here right now with the temple here," 13-year-old Page Glass said. "It brings the spirit into this town."

It also brought many members of at least one family to the dedication. "It's my parents' 50th anniversary. They wanted to celebrate here in Nauvoo, so everybody came out. There's 45 of us," said Jim Ferrel, who lives north of Salt Lake City.

"It's a historic event. It's very, very special," said Rod Franklin, a church member from Keokuk, Iowa. "My family moved up to Fort Madison when I was in junior high in 1969. Thee wasn't much here in Nauvoo at that time."

Church members then dreamed of a new chapel for weekly services, but not a rebuilt temple. "I never thought I'd see this rebuilt in my lifetime," Franklin said.

But as early as the 1930s, church leaders hoped to rebuild on the site where the first temple ordinances, or blessings, were administered under the direction of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.

"This is Joseph's temple. He began it in 1841," Hinckley said.

"My father was mission president here in 1939, the 100th anniversary of the coming of our people to Nauvoo. He had a grave interest in seeing the temple restored here," he said. "His dream was never realized. It's been an interesting, wonderful thing for me to have had some hand now at this time constructing this beautiful temple. It is a magnificent building."

No expense was spared in rebuilding the temple, which was done on a fast-track schedule. "This church is in a hurry to get its work done. We've got a big job to do. We don't have forever to do it," Hinckley said.

"I absolutely marvel when I see the status of the church today, its breadth encompassing the world. We now have members in 160 nations, a great international family 11 million strong," he said. "The future looks extremely promising. I have great confidence the Lord overseeing the work will see to its growth."