The gasps, sobs and silent cheers that greeted the announcement that the LDS Church would rebuild its temple in Nauvoo, Ill., have turned to excitement, awe and anticipation as Latter-day Saints worldwide get ready to celebrate and residents in the tiny Mississippi River town look daily at the embodiment of President Gordon B. Hinckley's vision.

Three years ago, on April 4, 1999, church members listening to the final session of General Conference drew a collective breath as President Hinckley, leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, made the announcement. Whether watching locally in their living rooms, glued to the conference's satellite transmission in LDS chapels, or tuning in via the Internet, few Latter-day Saints will ever forget the surprise — and the subsequent joy — the announcement caused.

Now, as church leaders convene the 172nd Annual General Conference on Temple Square this weekend, the finishing touches are being applied in Nauvoo, where the temple looks out once again over the Mississippi River in seeming anticipation of the coming throngs.

Hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected to flock to the building's six-week open house beginning May 6, tens of thousands of them from Utah alone. The church is expecting visitors from every state and several foreign countries to make their way to the place that many of their ancestors once called home. Elder Donald L. Staheli, president of the church's North America Central area that includes Nauvoo, told the Deseret News on Friday that more than 300,000 free tickets have been distributed, snapped up long before the event actually begins.

Though the numbers seem massive, Elder Staheli said the church has actually restricted the number of tickets out of concern that Nauvoo not be literally overrun with visitors, and that if too many were crowded into the building, the spirit of the tour would be lost.

"We agreed early on that the maximum capacity would be 600 (visitors) per hour, and we've held it to that number," he said, "We want those who go through to have an extraordinary experience. And at the same time, we're extremely conscious of the community."

While the area is used to thousands of LDS visitors at church-owned sites there, including restored homes, businesses and a visitor's center that have taken shape west of the temple during the past 40 years, the influx has never been so large as the one now anticipated.

Today, Latter-day Saints comprise only about 10 percent of the town's 1,000-plus population, even though it was founded by early church pioneers whose mid-19th century determination to build their "Zion" out of what was originally a bug-infested swamp resulted in what became at one point the largest city in Illinois.

Modern Nauvoo is now a small town with a big tourist attraction, and LDS leaders are acutely aware of the impact the temple will have. Elder Staheli said he has particularly appreciated Nauvoo Mayor Tom Wilson and members of the town council, "who have been very supportive and understanding throughout the building process."

Wilson, who prevailed in the most recent mayor's race against an LDS challenger, said Friday that "all the sod is down and the lights are up" on the temple, so the building itself is ready. But he was candid in saying he doesn't know exactly what to expect when between 8,000 and 10,000 people visit Nauvoo daily during May and June.

"It's the huge crowds, the traffic jams, that's kind of what we're concerned about right now. . . . We don't know yet about restrooms and that whole ball of wax. I imagine after a week we'll know" whether the facilities the town and the church have are adequate."

Construction of the temple was not without its challenges for the church and the city, Wilson said. "We've had some problems, some things that just popped up. But we worked together and got them all solved."

Elder Staheli believes such cooperation will help bury the historic animosity that existed in the area in the 19th century regarding Latter-day Saints, and usher in a new era of mutual respect between LDS visitors and their resident hosts.

While the church's visitor's center and the historic buildings have long lured Latter-day Saints to Nauvoo in the past, it's safe to say the focal point for the foreseeable future will be the temple.

Its predecessor, built by the pioneer forefathers of many church leaders and members alike, became the center of public life in the 1840s, hand-crafted by both commoners and artisans as the ultimate symbol of their faith. Left behind by Latter-day Saints driven from Nauvoo after the martyrdom of church founder Joseph Smith, it was ultimately destroyed by fire and a tornado.

Today, like the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes of its former glory, the handiwork of its pioneer builders has been re-created in exacting detail. Dark hardwood floors and furnishings, loom-woven carpets, period-replica furnishings, light fixtures, woodwork and stonework have come together in a way that Elder Staheli is convinced would please the early craftsmen.

For tens of thousands of church members who trace their ancestry back to Nauvoo, the reconstruction has some deep personal meaning. The open house is expected to preface a spiritual crescendo for the dedication, scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, June 27 — the approximate time that Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were martyred by a mob in nearby Carthage in 1844.

That spiritual renewal is already happening, Elder Staheli said. "This will have the greatest impact on the spirituality of the Saints in the surrounding areas of anything that's happened virtually in the history of the church."

He believes even those with no spiritual attachment to the building will definitely "feel something" when they go through it.

Mayor Wilson toured the building recently with builder Ron Prince. His reaction?

"It's just beautiful."