Air costs money to ship.

Latter-day Saints around the world can now receive printed copies of the Book of Mormon, manuals, sacred garments, and other Church materials shipped to them more quickly.

Bishop Gérald Caussé, of the Presiding Bishopric of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, dedicated a new state of the art Global Distribution Services Center in Salt Lake City on June 8. This place is much more than a distribution center.

Thanks to you, its influence will spread throughout the entire world and will bless generations of members. About 200 Church employees gathered at the distribution center for the dedication. We are excited to dedicate a really brand new facility, one which will provide and distribute Church materials and temple clothing to Church members living around the world. The new facility is a massive 339,000 square feet in size and is located in an industrial area near the Bishops Central Storehouse on the city's west side. Everywhere we have a member,

we need to get them essential materials so they can make and keep covenants. And so this facility ships about 75% of the world’s volume to our members throughout the world. An estimated 40 million items will be shipped from the new facility every year to help meet the spiritual needs of the faith’s

17 million members. Unlike for-profit entities where, you know,

they go to a market because it makes sense, because it makes economic sense,

we don’t have that luxury. We have members throughout the world in large countries and large cities, on small islands, in villages that it’s our responsibility— I would say our pleasure and our blessing, actually— to serve them and ensure that they get what they need to make and keep covenants. Managers say the new facility is more efficient. Up to 6,000 custom made boxes are shipped out daily. So if you go online and you make an order,

typically you'll receive that order within 3 to 5 days. In the previous facility, it may have taken 7 to 10 days. We are, I believe, state of the art in terms of the technology that we use here. And that makes me very happy to think that members of the Church will benefit from this technology.