LDS Church holds ceremonial temple groundbreaking
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MONTPELIER — Over 100 people gathered on Saturday for a ceremonial groundbreaking at the site where a temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints will stand someday. It will be Idaho’s ninth temple.
With a light breeze and sporadic cloud cover to go with mid-60s temperatures, Elder Ryan K. Olsen of the Quorum of the Seventy, the church’s selected presiding official, noted perfect elements for such an event.
“Heaven is certainly smiling down upon us this day,” he said.
According to the church, the 27,000-square foot temple will serve the communities between existing temples in Pocatello, Logan, Utah and Star Valley, Wyoming.
One of the speakers at Saturday’s event, Lucy Long, of the church’s Paris, Idaho stake, said she believes this temple is an answer to the prayers of the community, following many recent struggles and hardships.
She said that she recently found salvation from difficult times inside nearby temples.
“I promise you that this temple will bless your lives in ways you might not even see,” she said.
Another speaker, Nolan Phillips of the Montpelier, Idaho stake, said having a temple come to the community is a “blessing.” He asked those in attendance and others watching a live stream from the church pay tribute to that blessing by keeping the temple “full and busy.”
Before asking selected dignitaries to take their shovel for the ceremonial turning of soil, Olsen extended the “warm wishes and love” from church president Russell M. Nelson.
Olsen spoke of the “sacred deposit” the groundbreaking meant, in the church, God and Montpelier community.
“Our need to be in the temple has never been greater,” he said, “and here, the Lord has brought it to us.”
Olsen offered a prayer prior to the dedication, speaking of the gratitude and humility his words represented.
But first, Olsen told a story he’d recently heard, of a 92-year-old member of the church and local community who was told by his mother when he was a child, that there would one day be a temple in Montpelier. Olsen told another story of a child in attendance who, before the temple was announced in 2022, told her family she knew a temple would soon come to their hometown.
Olsen followed the stories by asking the children in attendance to stand.
“To our amazing youth,” he said directly to them, “this is your temple.”
The Montpelier temple will be constructed near the corner of Washington and Fifth Streets in Montpelier. An expected completion date has not yet been announced.