Announced: Dec. 12, 2003.
Location: 750 South 2nd East, Rexburg, Idaho.
Site: 10 acres.
Exterior finish: Precast concrete with a quartz rock finish, 700 art-glass windowpanes.
Temple design: Classic modern.
Architects: Architectural Nexus; Bob Petroff.
Project manager: Vern Martindale.
Contractor: Jacobsen Construction Co.
Rooms: Baptistry, celestial room, four ordinance rooms and five sealing rooms.
Total floor area: 57,504 square feet.
Dimensions: 85-feet wide by 190-feet long by 169 feet high.
District: Stakes in eastern Idaho, including BYU-Idaho stakes.
Groundbreaking: July 30, 2005, by Elder John H. Groberg, of the Presidency of the Seventy.
Dedication: Feb. 10, 2008, by President Thomas S. Monson; four sessions.
Dedicatory prayer
Done by President Thomas S. Monson
Gracious Father, on this historic day we come unto Thee with thankful hearts and a profound feeling of reverence. We are met to dedicate this sacred temple. It is our offering, freely given, and with great appreciation for the opportunity to have this beautiful house in our midst.
In the authority of the holy priesthood, and in the name of Thy Beloved Son, we consecrate and dedicate unto Thee and unto Him this the Reno Nevada Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Wilt Thou accept it as Thy house, and wilt Thou cause that Thy Holy Spirit may dwell here and that its presence may be felt by all who come here.
We dedicate every feature of this sacred structure including the grounds on which it stands. Their beauty speaks of Thy handiwork in the creation of the earth. We dedicate the structure from the footings to the figure of Moroni. We dedicate all of the interior facilities, including the beautiful baptistry, the endowment rooms, the Celestial Room, and the sealing rooms with their sacred alters. We dedicate the offices and all other facilities of this the House of the Lord.
May Thy watch care be over it. May it stand against the storms of nature. May no unholy hand defile it in any way. We pray that the divine presence of this house in this community may be felt by all who pass by, that it may be looked upon with respect and appreciation.
Bless all who enter the portals of this structure that they may be worthy to come here as Thy Saints. May they do so with reverence and with a desire to promote Thy work in behalf of Thy children of all generations. May the youth who come to be baptized in behalf of those who have passed beyond the veil of death feel of Thy Holy Spirit and never forget the importance of the sacred work which they perform. May it have a beneficent effect upon their lives.
May all who come to be endowed develop a more certain knowledge of Thine eternal purposes in the creation of the earth and in the importance of Thy sons and daughters in Thy grand design. Bless all who serve as proxies in behalf of the dead, that they may be touched by a spirit of unselfishness and of love for those who have gone beyond.
We pray for those who are sealed in this Thy house. May they ever hold sacred the obligations of marriage performed under the authority of the everlasting priesthood.
Dear Father, bless all who have made possible this beautiful structure. May they gain satisfaction from the knowledge that they have had a part in creating this sacred edifice. May they recognize that it is no longer simply a building, but rather a house consecrated unto Thee and Thy Beloved Son, a place of holiness, a sanctuary of faith.
We pray for the nations of the earth that there may be peace among them. We pray for this nation of which we are a part that it may remain a bastion of freedom and that the great purposes of the founding fathers may be realized in blessings upon the heads of its citizens.
Bless Thy work and bless all who serve Thy cause wherever it may be established. Open the homes of the people to Thy servants and open the doors of the nations to the on-rolling of Thy work.
Now dear Father, our thoughts reach up to Thee. Our hearts are softened and are inclined to Thy Beloved Son who has, through the infinite Atonement, brought unto us unmeasured blessings for which we can never fully repay Him. We love Him and wish to do His will. We love Thee and desire to walk in the paths Thou hast laid out for us.
Accept of our thanks, accept of our love, accept of our labors in this sacred temple we humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world, amen.
New temple is ‘crown blessing’
Thousands touring new sacred edifice in southeastern Idaho
By Julie Dockstader Heaps
Church News staff writer
REXBURG, IDAHO
After more than 10,000 people toured the new Rexburg Idaho Temple on the first day of the public open house Saturday, Dec. 29, the Church decided to expand the tour groups to include more people.
“After a very successful first day when we served more than 10,000, we’ve learned we can accommodate more guests,” said Merv Brown, director of public affairs for the temple open house and dedication. “As a result, we will be placing more tickets online for each day remaining of the public open house.”
Hundreds had already toured what will be the Church’s 125th temple during the VIP open house Dec. 26-28. Greeting those visitors was Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve. (Please see Dec. 29, 2007, Church News.) In interviews, Elder Bednar and BYU-Idaho President Kim B. Clark, an Area Seventy, spoke of the influence they surmise the new temple will have upon the some 13,000 students at adjacent BYU-Idaho, especially international students.
“Those international students who avail themselves of the blessings of the temple will build a foundation, spiritually, that will be steadfast and immovable,” said Elder Bednar. “To the degree that they receive the instruction in the temple, worthily enter into the covenants and then remember and honor them, that will be a foundation that will not fail.”
For students returning home to areas where no temple is nearby, “they can teach their children and their friends and neighbors about the great blessings of the temple and point their children to the temple,” President Clark said.
The temple in Rexburg, he added, will be the “great crowning blessing” of their time at BYU-Idaho.
New temple President Val Rigby Christensen, a former member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy, said the enthusiasm he has seen for the new temple since coming to this southeastern Idaho town has pleased him, considering there is a temple in Idaho Falls, some 25 miles away. “You’d think the saints here had never had a temple,” he said, smiling.
Indeed, enthusiasm for the Church’s newest temple has spread throughout this area settled by Mormon pioneers in the early 1880s. Dee Bowen of the Lyman 1st Ward, Rexburg Idaho East Stake, calls himself a “retired and tired” Idaho farmer. But his excitement was evident as he led his bride of one year and three months through the new edifice. He married his wife, Ila, after the death of his first wife. Now the 82-year-olds are newlyweds.
Ila Bowen is a native of Oklahoma who lost her first husband a few years ago and moved to Rexburg, Idaho, to help a son and his family. Not a member of the Church, she had never been inside a temple until now. “I think it is beautiful, peaceful,” she said, following their tour.
Ten-year-old Colton Stolworthy of the Ammon 13th Ward, Ammon Idaho Foothills Stake, called the temple “pretty awesome.”
When asked what he thought about during his tour, he replied simply, “Jesus Christ.”
To receive free tickets to the temple open house, go to www.lds.org/reservations or call the Reservations Center at 1-800-537-6181. The open house goes through Jan. 26, excluding Sundays. A cultural celebration is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 2, and the dedication will be on Sunday, Feb. 3.
E-mail to: julied@desnews.com
‘Just thrilled’: Draper Utah Temple doors opening to eager visitors, 1 million expected
By R. Scott Lloyd
Church News staff writer
DRAPER, UTAH
Now in its second full week, the public open house for the new Draper Utah Temple is going “very nicely,” said Elder William R. Walker of the Seventy, executive director of the Temple Department.
Opening-day attendance on Thursday, Jan. 15, “was a little bit lighter than we’d expected, but then it picked up on Friday with 13,000 and 19,000 on Saturday,” Elder Walker said. “We’re expecting probably about 10,000-12,000 people a day going through from now on.”
If all who requested reservations online or by telephone actually come, more than a million people will have toured the temple by the time the open house concludes on March 14.
Elder Walker said on Jan. 20 that many reservations are still available for mornings, but all evening tours have been reserved. Advance reservations may be made online at www.lds.org/reservations (maximum of 10) or by calling 1-800-537-6181 or 801-240-7932.
The shuttle system is working well, whereby open house visitors come to satellite locations at neighboring meetinghouses where they board color-coded buses to be transported to the temple, which is located in the Corner Canyon area of Draper at 14065 Canyon Vista Lane. An awning for lines of people entering the temple precludes them from having to stand out in inclement weather.
“People are just thrilled with the temple,” Elder Walker said, citing reports he has heard. Many have expressed pleasure at the original art work in the temple, particularly the murals in the two “A” endowment rooms. Some have commented on the beauty of the celestial room with its high ceiling and elegant chandelier.
“We also get quite a few comments from people who are very delighted with the sego lily motif that goes throughout the temple,” he said. “Of course, even the young people have studied the sego lily in school as the state flower of Utah, so they are aware of it and pay attention to it.” Early Mormon settlers in the Salt Lake Valley subsisted on the sego lily root.
The Draper temple and the soon-to-be-completed Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple will be the third and fourth temples in the valley. Smaller than other temples along Utah’s Wasatch Front, the Draper Temple will have no laundry or clothing-rental facilities and no cafeteria. “That reduces the necessary size, cost and staffing for the temple,” Elder Walker said.
Notwithstanding its smaller size, it will have a full five-day-a-week schedule and is expected to be very busy, he said.
Ordinance sessions will be by reservation, Elder Walker said, noting that the endowment instruction rooms seat only 50 people per session. With two sets of rooms, that would be a maximum accommodation of 100 at a time.
“But the reservation system is designed not to make it more difficult to attend; it’s actually meant to be more efficient and effective for everybody involved,” he said, adding that it will prevent the inconvenience of going to the temple and having to wait for a later session than anticipated.
Moreover, at the comparably sized Rexburg Idaho Temple, the temple presidency soon found that the reservation system was unnecessary for the non-busy times, namely the mornings and middle of the day on weekdays, because those sessions were not full. That might be the case with the Draper temple.
“It would be kind of like a restaurant: If they’re busy, you need a reservation; if not you walk in,” Elder Walker said.
