Dedication of the Burley Idaho Temple
For several years, Susan Young and others would show up once a week at the Twin Falls Idaho Temple at 3:30 a.m. to open the gates for youth standing outside waiting to do baptisms for the dead in the early morning hours. “The whole baptistry was filled with youth sitting in white,” said Young, who was the Twin Falls temple matron from 2016 to 2019. “There was no talking; it was so reverent you could hear a pin drop.”
Young said many of those young men and young women came from Burley, Idaho, and other small towns in the area that would later be in the Burley Idaho Temple district. “I’m not surprised we got a temple; there are some very, very valiant people.”
The Burley Idaho Temple was dedicated Jan. 11, 2026, by Church President Dallin H. Oaks. This was the first temple he dedicated as Church President and the first temple dedication in 2026. Accompanying President Oaks at the dedication was his wife, Sister Kristen Oaks, as well as three General Authority Seventies: Elder Steven R. Bangerter, executive director of the Temple Department, with his wife, Sister Susan Bangerter; Elder José A. Teixeira, president of the United States Central Area, with his wife, Sister Filomena Teixeira; and Elder K. Brett Nattress, with his wife, Sister Shawna Nattress.
Before President Russell M. Nelson’s death, said President Oaks, the former President of the Church had given his counselors the opportunity to choose a temple to dedicate. “I looked over a long list and immediately asked that I be assigned to dedicate this Burley Idaho Temple,” he said. As a boy, President Oaks lived in Twin Falls for about five years. It was there that his father was on the high council for over four years before he died and where President Oaks attended the 1st and 2nd grades. “So, I chose Burley to revisit my roots in this part of southern Idaho,” he said.
President Oaks said temples are essential to Heavenly Father’s plan for His children. “In these houses of the Lord, we are taught the most important things we can learn and do in mortality,” he said. “The work of temples is centered on our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.” To the youth of the Church, President Oaks said he wants them to be optimistic. “We are optimistic because we trust the Lord and know that He loves us and He sent us here to succeed, not fail,” President Oaks said. “And that is the message the temple gives us.”
Sister Oaks said she feels a change in her life as she worships in the temple. “I have felt how precious time is and that you have choices on how to use it,” she said. “I go there for comfort, instruction, revelation. And it makes me a better wife, a better mother.”
Burley is often cold and windy during November, but the public open house began with a sunny, unseasonably warm day on Monday, Nov. 3. And that continued throughout the month, especially on the three Saturdays during the open house when most people could attend. Dee and Bonnie Jones, who served as coordinators of the Burley temple open house and dedication committee, saw other logistical challenges resolved as they prepared. “I think it just confirms that abiding testimony that we already have of the Savior and that this is His work and the temple is His holy house,” Dee Jones said.
The temple stands amid farms plowed by families who settled in Idaho’s Magic Valley. Leroy Funk and his siblings donated the land they grew up on and farmed for decades. He credits the efforts of early Latter-day Saints in the area for laying the groundwork. “It is here because of the faithful ones who came before,” Funk said. “The Lord’s in charge, and He puts people where they need to be.”
Located along the historic Oregon Trail, the Burley area has a long history of Latter-day Saint pioneers and settlers. In 1879, William C. Martindale led a company from Tooele County, Utah, to the Goose Creek Valley. They found one Latter-day Saint family who had already claimed the land and built cabins along with other non-Latter-day Saint families. The first branch of 14 people met in May 1880 in a log cabin.
Olivia Hobson, then 17, from the Burley West Stake, said the temple means everything to her. “Because it gives us the opportunity to do the Lord’s work, which is so important to Him, but also for us here on earth,” she shared outside the temple after the dedication. “I’m so grateful to have a temple here.”
Dedicatory prayer excerpt: “Please bless all who worthily serve in Thy holy temples that they may participate with joy and understanding, that Thy work will go forward in power to fulfill Thy purposes for all Thy children. We pray that Thy Spirit will always be present in these holy spaces to enlighten and guide and bless all who are here and all that is said and done here.”
Read the dedicatory prayer of the Burley Idaho Temple here.
Timeline of the Burley Idaho Temple
President Russell M. Nelson announced a temple for Burley, Idaho, on April 4, 2021. The year after, a groundbreaking ceremony was held on June 4, 2022, with Elder Brent H. Nielson presiding.
After a public open house from Nov. 6 to Nov. 22, 2025, the Burley Idaho Temple was dedicated Jan. 11, 2026, by Church President Dallin H. Oaks.
Architecture and Design of the Burley Idaho Temple
The Burley temple is a two-story structure of approximately 45,300 square feet, measuring 172 feet to the top of the spire. Its steel frame is clad in Bianco Sardo granite, fabricated in Millcreek, Utah. The 10.12-acre site, approximately half a mile southwest of the Snake River, is surrounded by a black Ameristar Montage Plus Majestic fence.
Design motifs draw from the local landscapes, including the sugar beet and potato fields that Idaho’s Magic Valley is known for. Art-glass patterns inside the temple highlight the blossoms and leaves of the potato plant. The color palette ties to the local farmland and open skies, with hues of blue, gold, amber, cream, orange, peach and green. The doors’ hardware features a potato blossom design with a rubbed bronze finish.
Soft gold broadloom carpets appear in general areas of the temple, with creamy white carpet in the celestial and sealing rooms. Flooring is primarily composed of Botticino Classico marble, accented with Jerusalem Gold, Verde Guatemala and yellow-gold stones from Italy. In the brides’ room, celestial room and sealing rooms, crystal chandeliers and fixtures hang with antique brass finishes.
Interior Photos of the Burley Idaho Temple
