Today, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints broke ground for the Teton River Idaho Temple in Rexburg. Elder Ricardo P. Giménez presided at the ceremony and gave the dedicatory prayer.
In his talk, Elder Giménez said it's important to remember the purpose of the groundbreaking is because of Jesus Christ.
"The House of the Lord, it's a holy place, and we have an opportunity to be inside," Elder Giménez said. "But our lives go beyond that. The things that we need to do and the invitation to 'stand in holy places and be not moved,' includes everything that we do in life with the focus on the Savior."
In his dedicatory prayer, Elder Giménez expressed gratitude for the Savior, for the temple, for scriptures and for continuing revelation. He asked God to bless and protect the ground and those who will work to build the temple.
"Bless each of these men and women with spiritual gifts and additional capacity for the task before them," he said. "We pray that all who labor on this project will feel the importance of this sacred edifice. And we pray that thou wilt frustrate the efforts of any who might approach this site with unholy intentions."
In an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio, Elder Giménez said it's important for people in the area to prepare to worship in the temple and not just serve in or attend the temple.
"I think that's a key preparation," Elder Giménez said. "Changing our mindset, why are we in the temple? What are we doing there?"
The ceremony included multiple speakers including Trixie Smith, a youth speaker from the Terreton Idaho Stake, Rebekah Russell, a BYU-Idaho student from the Rexburg Idaho Young Single Adult 1st Stake and Brent Kinghorn from the Sugar City Idaho Stake.
Kinghorn also served in the first Rexburg Idaho Temple presidency. He noted that the new temple's name is appropriate because it sits "on an island" between two forks of the Teton River. He said it's 1 1/2 miles to each fork. He wondered if the Teton Dam flood, which happened on June 5, 1976, helped clean the area and prepare it for a future temple, "and that the work here, that will be accomplished, can do so because of the cleanliness and beauty of this place."
Smith said the purpose of her talk was to help encourage people to attend the temple more often.
"We should have a strong desire to enter the temple often because it is in that building we have the opportunity to receive personal revelation and feel closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ," Smith said.
Russell is in her final semester at BYU-Idaho and spoke about a "determination bent on permanency," a phrase she found while reading about the founding of Rexburg in the 1800s.
"I repeat, the House of the Lord is where things are made permanent," she said. "This is where husband and wife are joined together. This is where families can be together forever. This is where we link ourselves and our loved ones to God in an unbroken chain permanently tied to Him where we can one day return to our heavenly home, permanently."
Russell told BYU-Idaho Radio she was a little nervous about speaking at the groundbreaking until she realized something important.
"This is awesome. I love all these people and we all have a common goal. I don't really need to be nervous it's just a place where the Spirit can be and I can help facilitate that," Russell said.
Several local and state government officials were in attendance including Idaho Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke, State Sen. Doug Ricks, State Reps. Britt Raybould and Jon Weber, Sugar City Mayor Steve Adams and Rexburg Mayor Jerry Merrill, among others.
Mayor Merrill is excited to have a second temple in Rexburg, one of only a couple of cities in the world to have two temples of the Church of Jesus Christ within the city limits. He says the city has helped prepare for the new temple to come to Rexburg and is planning for more development on that side of town, including more roads in the future.
"We anticipate that there will be a lot of development out here on this end of the city," Mayor Merrill said.
The mayor is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and looks forward to the positive influence the temple will have on the people of Rexburg and those in the surrounding area.
"Just to be able to have the influence of the temple here and the good things that it brings to a community, it's really exciting," he said.
Church President Russell M. Nelson originally announced the temple in Oct. 2021. The temple is expected to be about 100,000 square feet. It will sit about 3.4 miles away from the Rexburg Idaho Temple on the same road, 2nd East.
Idaho is home to eight other temples of the Church including the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple, the Boise Idaho Temple, The Rexburg Idaho Temple, the Twin Falls Idaho Temple, the Meridian Idaho Temple, the Pocatello Idaho Temple, the Burley Idaho Temple, which is under construction, and the Montpelier Idaho Temple, which is also under construction.
The Gem State has more than 470,000 members of the Church.
