Provo • Not only will the LDS Church save the fire-gutted Provo Tabernacle, but it will exalt it as well.

Church President Thomas S. Monson announced Saturday that the Salt Lake City-based faith will fully restore the exterior of the 128-year-old building and convert it into Utah’s 16th Mormon temple — raising it from the ashes as the legendary Phoenix did.

Monson said the tabernacle-turned-temple will relieve strain on Provo’s existing hillside LDS temple, which he described as one of the busiest in the worldwide church. When the Provo project is completed, that city will join South Jordan as the only cities in the world to sport two LDS temples.

Saturday’s announcement was greeted with an audible gasp from many in the Conference Center’s 21,000-person audience in downtown Salt Lake City and with joy on the streets of Provo, where people flocked to the site.

"It is a historical thing," said Denny Brown, who came as soon as the news broke. "I can tell my grandchildren I was No. 1 to see my new temple."

Others quickly followed, streaming into the heart of Provo to take pictures and soak in the experience.

Orem resident Kay Davenport came down with Inori Uryu, a missionary assigned to Provo, to get a picture of the Japanese missionary in front of the tabernacle, its brick walls swaddled in heavy steel girders since the devastating Dec. 17 fire.

"We’re so happy," Davenport exclaimed. "We are going to have two temples in the city."

Provo’s twin temples will give Utah County four such edifices — with a temple groundbreaking set for Oct. 8 in Payson. There also is an LDS temple in American Fork.

Salt Lake County has four Mormon temples as well. Church leaders previously announced plans to build a fifth, but that location has yet to be named.

The new Provo temple will mark the second time the church has transformed a tabernacle into a temple. It did so with the Uintah Tabernacle in Vernal.

In recent weeks, the church has been buying property south of the Provo Tabernacle to provide "options" for its plans.

Angela Decker, a Brigham Young University student from West Jordan, said she "squealed" at Saturday’s news.

"I’m from Utah, so I never squeal at the announcement of a new temple," Decker said, "but this is the second city with two temples."

Preservationists in Provo have been urging the LDS Church to restore the tabernacle ever since last year’s fire.

One of them was L. Douglas Smoot, who spearheaded the restoration of Academy Square, which then became Provo’s showcase city library.