MANTI, Utah — President Russell M. Nelson rededicated the Manti Utah Temple on Sunday, April 21, as “a house of peace, a house of comfort, and a house of personal revelation.”
President Nelson’s participation in the rededication of the temple — originally dedicated nearly 136 years ago in May 1888 — was a surprise to members in Sanpete County.
“We build temples to honor the Lord,” said President Nelson, whose eight great-grandparents called Sanpete County home. “They are built for worship and not for show. We make sacred covenants of eternal significance inside these sacred walls.”
President Nelson was joined by his wife, Sister Wendy W. Nelson; Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Melanie Rasband; Elder Kevin R. Duncan, General Authority Seventy and executive director of the Temple Department, and his wife, Sister Nancy R. Duncan; and Elder Kevin W. Pearson, General Authority Seventy and president of the Church’s Utah Area, and his wife, Sister June L. Pearson.
During the rededication, leaders honored the pioneers in the area, including those who sacrificed and supported the efforts to build the temple. They also looked forward, inviting members to attend the temple as often as possible.
Some 2,200 people gathered in the temple for the rededication, held at 5 p.m. and broadcast in a single session throughout the 23 stakes in the central Utah temple district. Members had regular Church meetings earlier in the day, marked by blue skies and spring flowers.
President Nelson said the Church is building many additional temples so that great temple blessings will be more accessible to faithful families around the world.
“I invite you to make temple worship a regular part of your life, as often as your personal circumstances allow. Doing so will change your lives. Regular worship in the temple will inoculate you against the persuasive poisons of the adversary. Temple worship will strengthen you to meet the challenges of everyday life. I promise you that.”
Sister Nelson said that as magnificent as the renewed Manti temple is, this temple is “so much more than a building, so much more than a structure or an edifice. This Manti temple is the Lord’s invitation to experience God and all that He has in store for His faithful children — on both sides of the veil.”
Elder Rasband said of the Saints who built and supported the building of the temple: “The Manti temple stands as their crowning achievement in paying honor to Almighty God.
“Today’s rededication of this masterful temple, the house of the Lord, continues that legacy.”
After the rededication, Elder Rasband said that one of the things he’ll always remember was seeing the looks on people’s faces when the Prophet of God came in. “They did not even know he was coming.”
Roots in Sanpete County
The Sanpete Valley is precious to both President and Sister Nelson.
President Nelson’s mother and father were born in the valley. His four grandparents and all eight of his great-grandparents also knew this valley as their home.
Sister Nelson’s great-great grandfather worked on the circular staircases in the Manti temple. He and his wife, both pioneers from Scotland, raised their 11 children in Manti.
Elder Rasband has four ancestors with ties to the Sanpete Valley. His middle initial A was given to him as a reminder of his Danish Anderson ancestry. His great-great grandparents Jens and Ane Catherine Anderson and their 16-year-old son, Andrew, were baptized in Denmark; a year later, they sailed to the United States.
“He desired the blessings of the holy temple with the promise of an eternal family,” Elder Rasband said of Jens Anderson.
During the Atlantic voyage, Jens Anderson died during a measles outbreak on the ship. Catherine and Andrew continued to Utah and settled in Ephraim, Utah, in 1862. Andrew Anderson later worked on the temple.
“As it should be, and in tribute to giving his life for the ‘cause of Christ,’ Jens’ temple work was completed in pioneer temples. That is why they came. To make covenants in the temple with God,” Elder Rasband said.
This rededication is also a new beginning “for greater service, for greater love and attention to the things of God. … May each of us resolve to worship in the temple often and stand as disciples of Jesus Christ doing our part in His work on earth.”
Elder Rasband quoted the original dedicatory prayer of the Manti Utah Temple, read by then-Elder Lorenzo Snow: “Grant that [the temple] may stand and endure as a monument of the obedience and love of Thy people, and to the honor of Thy holy name for ages yet to come in holiness to the Lord.”
President Nelson now joins other leaders who have dedicated or rededicated the Manti Utah Temple. President Brigham Young dedicated the hill of the temple in 1877, the very year of his death. During the apostolic interregnum that followed the death of President John Taylor, President Wilford Woodruff dedicated the temple in a private service on May 17, 1888. This was followed by a public dedication a few days later on May 21-23 under the direction of Elder Lorenzo Snow. And on June 14, 1985, President Gordon B. Hinckley, then a counselor in the First Presidency, rededicated the temple after closure for a renovation.
“In this temple, from Brigham Young locating it right here, to Wilford Woodruff to Gordon B. Hinckley and now Russell M. Nelson — that is the hands that this temple has been cradled in,” Elder Rasband said. “That just brings so much emotion to me.”
Manti Utah Temple open house
More than 230,000 people, assisted by 12,000 volunteers, walked through the 20-day open house — forming lines that stretched around and in front of the temple, often with a waiting time of more than an hour or two.
Many open-house visitors had a tie to the temple and to the Sanpete Valley. Some were married in the temple or had participated in the Manti Mormon Miracle Pageant, which was presented for 50 years on the temple grounds, said Scott and Janice Hintze, who served as the open house and rededication coordinators.
As visitors walked through the historic temple — which includes restored murals in three instruction rooms, multiple sealing rooms and an assembly room stretching across the top floor — many took time to quietly share experiences with family.
“It was really beautiful that way,” said Janice Hintze, who was born and raised in Manti — seven generations of her family have attended church in the area. She is also a descendant of C.C.A. Christensen, who painted the murals in the creation room. It was “so rewarding because we got to hear all those stories.”
Scott Hintze said that many times people would walk into a room and pause as they looked around. They instructed the ushers to invite people to sit and enjoy, allowing the walkway to be open. At times, the rooms would be full of people.
“The temple itself stands for the devotion of the people of this valley from day one. … They gave everything they had to the glory of God to make this a beautiful place to worship. And you just see that devotion, that sacrifice, in every molding and every adornment in the temple,” said Janice Hintze.
The Hintzes live within sight of the temple and both will be ordinances workers when it reopens on Tuesday morning.
“It’s a beacon,” she said. “It’s a beacon for all in this valley.”
Legacy of the Manti Utah Temple
Before the arrival of Latter-day Saints settlers, the Sanpitch (now Sanpete) Valley was inhabited by Ute, Paiute and other Numic-speaking peoples. At the invitation of Ute Chief Wakara, President Brigham Young sent 224 men, women and children to settle the area in 1849. By 1870, the settler population had increased to 6,700, with the majority being Danish and other Scandinavian Latter-day Saints.
Original plans to construct the house of the Lord in Manti were announced on June 25, 1875, by Brigham Young. It was designed by architect William Folsom, who was the architect of the St. George Tabernacle and assistant to Church architect Truman O. Angell.
After the 1877 groundbreaking, it took 11 years to construct the temple. The oolite stone quarry was next to the temple.
The Manti Utah Temple was dedicated after the St. George and Logan temples, the fifth in the latter days and the third oldest still in operation. The first two were the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples. The Church recently purchased the Kirtland Temple from Community of Christ, and the original Nauvoo Temple was left behind by the Saints who were forced to migrate to the Salt Lake Valley; it was later destroyed by fire and a tornado.
Temples in Utah were later built and dedicated — in order — in St. George, Logan, Manti and Salt Lake before the end of the 19th century.
“Like the other early pioneer temples, the [Manti temple] was largely built out of the poverty of the local Saints,” Elder Rasband said. He noted how it was nice to step back in time and appreciate it.
“They are just unique, these early pioneer temples. We have got to love them, preserve them, honor them and use them,” Elder Rasband said.
The Manti temple has seen additions and renovations over the years with the annex, dressing rooms and mechanical upgrades and more in 1924, 1935, 1949, 1956, 1958 and 1964.
In 1982, the ordinance rooms were refurbished, an elevator was added to the east of the celestial room, a separate baptistry entrance was added, and the rooms surrounding the font were converted into sealing rooms. The temple was rededicated by President Hinckley after the renovation in 1985.
David Mackey, who grew up in Manti and still lives there, had recently returned from a mission and participated in the rededication. “That was one of the great experiences of my life,” he said.
Mackey has researched the pioneers in the area and can share many experiences of those working on the temple. He is quick to note that while he does have ancestors who helped build the temple — Henry Parsons, who was a contractor and carpenter, on his father’s side, and another man on his mother’s side who was a stonecutter — there were many people who helped build the temple and many others who helped support the construction.
“An important legacy has been passed on,” Mackey said of the rededication. The temple is “an example of faith and of sacrifice of these individuals. They knew how to set aside self-interest and their own bucket lists and agendas to work in harmony with other like-minded individuals to accomplish something that people doubted they could accomplish.”
He added: “The Sanpete Valley would be a very different place without the Manti temple.”
President Nelson announced the renovation and renewal of pioneer-era temples during the April 2019 general conference. President Nelson announced the closure of the Manti temple in May 2021, with the announcement of the Ephraim Utah Temple, which is being built less than 8 miles away from the Manti Utah Temple. The house of the Lord on Temple Hill closed for renovation in October 2021. Work began on the Ephraim Utah Temple on Aug. 27, 2022, with President Nelson presiding at the groundbreaking.
The renovation included waterproofing the east wall; restoring and cleaning the murals; adding projectors and screens in the instruction rooms for the audiovisual presentation of the endowment ceremony; adding a new entrance and a new bride and groom exit; relocating the loading dock; adding a new marriage waiting room; upgrading mechanical and plumbing systems; adding new laundry equipment; installing additional lockers in dressing areas; and refreshing carpet, paint and furniture in selected areas of the temple.
Doug Dyreng, who previously served as the Manti Utah Temple president, said his great-great grandfather Jens Hansen was asked to come to Temple Hill with his team of oxen on the first day of construction to help clear the land.
Dyreng was married in the Manti Utah Temple in 1985, and his mother was a director of the Manti Mormon Miracle Pageant.
“It’s a monument to their willingness to serve the Lord and their understanding of the importance of temples,” Dyreng said. He’s looking forward to it reopening. “The spiritual influence makes a difference in our lives.”
Kent Barton, who is a Manti native and the city manager, said that all 16 of his great-great grandparents settled in Sanpete County, and five of his great-great grandfathers worked in some capacity at the temple, including those who were stone carvers and cutters, stone finishers and plasterers.
“It just really amazes me, especially knowing a lot about this community as I do and where my own ancestors’ humble circumstances that they lived in, and to see that they were able to sacrifice and what they were able to do in building that magnificent building while they were living in extremely humble circumstances,” Barton said.
He also attended the 1985 rededication and was also married in the Manti Utah Temple.
He’s seen how the people in the community came together each year to help with the pageant and that spirit of serving still continues.
“That spirit of reaching out and serving remains in our community, whether it’s old timers that live here or new people that are coming in to join us,” Barton said.
— Church News executive editor Sarah Jane Weaver contributed to this article.
Manti Utah Temple
Location: 200 E. 510 North, Manti
Announced: June 25, 1875
Privately dedicated: May 17, 1888, by President Wilford Woodruff
Publicly dedicated: May 21, 1888, by Elder Lorenzo Snow
Rededication after renovations: June 14, 1985, by President Gordon B. Hinckley, and April 21, 2024, by President Russell M. Nelson
Building size: 74,792 square feet
Property size: 27 acres
Building height: The east tower, the highest point on the temple, is 179 feet high
Temple district: 23 stakes in central Utah
More photos from the Manti Utah Temple rededication
