NAUVOO, Ill. — As the Nauvoo Illinois Temple open house moved into its last week, organizers were coping with a final rush of visitors eager to tour the new edifice before it was to be closed to the public after Saturday, June 22, preparatory to the dedication that begins June 27.

Sister Ann Orton, a public affairs missionary, said 8,476 visitors toured the temple on June 17, of whom nearly 2,500 were non-ticketed and had to be worked into standby lines.

"They're here much earlier in the day," she said, "and the lines continue throughout the day. The best description [of the open house] is a well-oiled machine. Like the counting machines at Welfare Square, it just keeps going and going and going."

"Clearly," she added, "the volunteers are the enablers of the whole process. We depend on their generosity and availability."

She guessed that 30 to 35 percent of the visitors are not members of the Church, down from a few weeks ago when it ran as high as 70 percent.

In the June 18 interview, Sister Orton said organizers were projecting a total of 325,000 visitors, "but that's just a guess."

Townspeople and merchants have responded positively to the substantial influx of visitors during the open house period, which began May 1. Sister Orton said a veteran restaurant owner had expressed delight with the graciousness and friendliness of people both in the community and from out of town. She said he found them very patient, although they had to wait 45 minutes to an hour at times to get a meal. The man said his business was up 400 percent from last year.

Representative, perhaps, of the feelings and emotions experienced by visitors to the temple is this June 7 entry in the journal of Carol Rice of the Alpine 12th Ward, Alpine Utah Stake:

"Since that conference Sunday when President Gordon B. Hinckley announced that the Nauvoo Temple would be rebuilt, I've dreamed of somehow participating in the momentous occasions. Along with my dreams I planned and prayed. Again and again I prayed for the opportunity to feel of the sacrifice the Saints made. . . .

"In the late hours the night before leaving on our trip, I reflected on the fact that I just hadn't quite experienced the feelings I had hoped for. . . .

"Saturday afternoon [my husband] announced he couldn't find his wallet: no I.D. for getting on the plane, no driver's license for driving the motor home and rental car, no credit card. . . .

"The lost wallet seemed to set off a string of the 'unplanned': a flat tire on the van, arriving at the airport to find we had no shuttle to the hotel, finally arriving at the hotel to find our reservations had been lost. (What to do with a curb full of luggage and six over-tired, travel-weary kids?)

". . . I awoke Wednesday morning, June 5, before anyone else. I followed the prompting to take the opportunity to prepare my heart for the day ahead as we would be going through the temple this day. . . . I found a grove of trees near our campsite and enjoyed the solitude for my morning prayers.

"The day began and continued beautifully, perfectly. I couldn't have planned it so well. I had turned this day over to the Lord to find His plan was indeed the best. . . .

"The next day as I strolled down the 'Trail of Hope' [Parley Street ending at the Mississippi River landing] and read the passages from the saints' journals, I stopped in my tracks. I stood there on ground they labored over and loved and realized: Leaving here was never in their plans!

"They built, worked, struggled, sacrificed, dreamed and planned their Zion in Nauvoo. . . . Their plan was to stay; their plan was to build; their plan was interrupted. There, on the Trail of Hope, the beginning of their exodus to greatness, I stood still and looked at the white dome of the beautiful Nauvoo temple. It seemed unreal to look and see the temple in its place where, for so many generations it only existed in drawings and dusty photos of Old Nauvoo.

"But it is very real, and there, in that moment, I thanked my Heavenly Father for answering my prayers. I realized my experiences had brought me a poignant sampling of the sacrifice of those early saints. It's so hard to set aside our plans, to have faith in every footstep as our carefully planned days so often unravel. And yet, in their unraveling, if we seek the will and mind of our Heavenly Father we can see them spin into the beautiful, exquisitely perfect plan He has for each one of us."