CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania — Because Pittsburgh is known as the “City of Bridges,” a granite bridge was incorporated into the landscaping design of the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temple grounds. The bridge connects the new house of the Lord to a nearby meetinghouse and provides a picturesque location for photographs.
Standing at the crest of the bridge under blue skies with the new temple in the background the day before the dedication, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said the structure holds deeper meaning.
“We are standing on a bridge here, right next to the temple, which is a wonderful symbol. This is a place where earth is connected to heaven and the other way around. It is a flow of information and of wonderful inspiration and revelation,” Elder Uchtdorf said. “The house of the Lord is here to make covenants which connect us to heaven. These bridges, from one side to the other, from earth to heaven, are real.”
Elder Uchtdorf dedicated the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temple — the Church’s 196th operating house of the Lord and the second in Pennsylvania — in two sessions on Sunday, Sept. 15, four years after it was announced in 2020. This is in Cranberry Township, a suburban area north of Pittsburgh.
“This temple will be a blessing to you,” Elder Uchtdorf said. “It will enrich your lives, inspire you to create in your homes and families a spirit of hope and peace and endow you with blessings from on high.”
After arriving, Elder and Sister Uchtdorf paused to greet several individuals and families gathered near the entrance of the temple, including young men and young women placing shoe coverings. He waved to those standing in line.
“Welcome to the temple,” the Apostle said with a smile.
Elder Uchtdorf was accompanied by his wife, Sister Harriet Uchtdorf; Elder Mathias Held, a General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the North America Northeast Area presidency, and his wife, Sister Irene Held; and Elder Craig C. Christensen, a General Authority Seventy and assistant executive director of the Church’s Temple Department, and his wife, Sister Debbie Christensen.
Church is strong in Pittsburgh
Elder Uchtdorf reflected on the nearly 200-year history since the first Latter-day Saints were there.
Elder Uchtdorf said the first century was “pretty rough,” but after the first Sunday School and Relief Society meetings took place in 1915, the Church began to grow. Thanks to the faith and service of many dedicated members, today there are three stakes — Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh North and Pittsburgh West — and now a temple.
“These members have worked for this from the very beginning,” the Apostle said. “The Church began not far from here, and it is now stronger than ever in this area.”
Elder Uchtdorf highlighted notable pioneers like the late Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history and the longest-serving from Utah, whose family helped strengthen the Church in western Pennsylvania.
“He was one of those examples. Wherever he went, he bore witness of the gospel. And you have so many more examples,” he said.
Elder Uchtdorf spoke of Pittsburgh’s resilience in overcoming economic challenges and reinventing itself through education and health care, drawing a parallel to the forward-moving nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“It shows that the people here are ready to move forward into new and greater things, and the gospel of Jesus Christ is that way, where you have greater and wonderful things in the future,” he said.
Attending the dedication
Alex and Ronda Yothers, members of the Greensburg Ward of the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Stake, and their five children were among those who attended the dedication Sunday.
The family is thrilled to have a temple within an hour’s drive, instead of the four-hour drive to Washington, D.C. Alex Yothers, who serves in his ward elders quorum presidency, hasn’t been able to attend the temple frequently since he received his endowment more than a decade ago.
“Now we can do the Lord’s work more often,” said Ronda Yothers, who serves as ward Young Women president. “We already have an appointment to come next month, and the kids are excited to do temple work. Now we can’t make excuses for being too busy for an eight-hour round trip.”
Moments later, the Yothers family happened to be standing nearby and met Elder and Sister Uchtdorf when the Uchtdorfs arrived. Family members felt a powerful spirit as they shook the Apostle’s hand.
“He is just as happy in person as he is when he gives his talks,” Ronda Yothers said.
Nearby, President Paul Custer, president of the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Stake, walked around greeting members waiting to enter the temple. His thoughts were on all the faithful Latter-day Saints who have lived in the area for so long and prayed for a temple for years and years. He also thought about the youth and the spiritual strength they will derive from growing up with a house of the Lord.
“We are so grateful to have the temple now,” he said.
‘It’s wonderful, ... almost unbelievable’
Less than a year ago, Curtis and Donna Nelson were called to serve as the temple open house co-coordinators.
Donna Nelson was 8 years old when missionaries knocked on her parents’ door. Several months later, despite some opposition from family members, they joined the Church in 1959. They were one of several families who attended a small branch at that time. She remembers her parents were constantly involved in raising funds to help build chapels in those early years. Her parents — Vincent and Sylvia Furin, ages 96 and 93 — are still alive and thrilled to see a temple come to Pittsburgh.
“It’s wonderful, and to me, almost unbelievable,” said Sylvia Furin, who has prepared hundreds of family names for temple work. “There is a lot of temple work to be done.”
Until 1974, the Salt Lake Temple had been the closest house of the Lord for Church members in Pennsylvania. Using a camper built by her father and a canvas cover sewn by her mother, the young family journeyed across the country to be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple in 1962.
“I can still see the big smiles on my parents’ faces as we were kneeling at the altar to be sealed as a family,” Donna Nelson said. “For me to be asked to be a coordinator for this I felt like I’m kind of proxy for my parents, who put all this hard work in laying the foundation for everything that is happening here.”
Curtis Nelson, a native of Genola, Utah, and Donna Furin later married in the Washington D.C. Temple and became members of the Beaver Valley Ward in the 1970s. Since then the couple has witnessed the growth of the Church in Pittsburgh over several decades of service, and the temple has had a unifying effect on members across the region.
“The temple has been a unifier,” Donna Nelson said. “It has very much been a reunion as we experienced this open house.”
During the open house, the Nelsons said their faith was strengthened as they witnessed miracle after miracle: many visitors reported having powerful spiritual experiences, an electrician who worked on the temple fixed some lights he noticed during a tour were not working, people showed up at the time volunteers were needed, to name a few.
“We felt very blessed,” Curtis Nelson said.
Pioneers of Pittsburgh
Fred and Peggy Fike, ages 86 and 85, are longtime members of the Cranberry Ward in the Pittsburgh North Stake. They joined the Church in April 1967 and remember the days when members held Sunday meetings in a local union hall that required coming early to clean up after community social gatherings on Saturday nights.
They participated in fundraising efforts that led to construction of a meetinghouse for the Beaver Valley Ward in the early 1970s, where their son was among the first babies to be blessed. They also helped raise funds for construction of the Washington D.C. Temple.
Before that, the closest temples were in Utah. After members of Fred Fike’s family joined the Church, the family decided to caravan — four cars and three trailers — from Pennsylvania to the Manti Utah Temple to be sealed in summer 1968. The family was even featured in the Church News.
“It was a special trip, quite a journey, because we got lost sometimes, but boy, we loved it,” Peggy Fike said.
During construction of the Pittsburgh temple, Fred and Peggy Fike often drove to the site to park and to watch.
“Our hearts just pounded in our chest for joy, and a tear would trickle down every once in a while,” Peggy Fike said. “Oh, the excitement and joy the temple has brought into our hearts.”
Kathy Rasmussen, 73, has been a member of the Cranberry Ward for 35 years. She was born and raised in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, south of Pittsburgh, where her ancestors helped establish a branch after joining the Church in Scotland. Her uncle and father both served as the branch president. She has fond memories of Church meetings and activities often held in family members’ homes because the congregation included aunts, uncles, nieces and cousins.
“We were all family,” she said. “Everybody was related.”
While touring the temple during the open house, Rasmussen’s thoughts were full of gratitude for parents and their faithful Church service and example over many years.
“The temple is all about family,” she said.
A new friend
The Pittsburgh temple opened the door to a new interfaith friendship in the Pittsburgh area.
Bishop David Zubik of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh said he was excited to receive an invitation to tour the temple during the open house on Aug. 12. He was joined by some 15 seminarians who are preparing for ordination to the clergy in the Roman Catholic Church.
Before the open house tour, Bishop Zubik knew little about the Church. He remembers Latter-day Saint missionaries knocking on his family’s door when he was a boy growing up in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, more than 65 years ago. He also remembers seeing and being struck by the exteriors of the Washington D.C. and Tucson Arizona temples.
During the temple open house, the faith leader said the most impressive part was the Church’s “over-the-top hospitality.” He appreciated the opportunity to learn more about the purpose of temples and Latter-day Saint beliefs, as well as the chance to answer questions about the Catholic faith.
“Everything about the visit was informative,” he told the Church News. “I was very happy to be there, and I was very happy to have our seminarians with us, because I’m a firm believer that we especially need people of faith. We need to have a much deeper appreciation of each other’s different traditions and the differences that exist among us, but also that we can look for the common denominators that can help us to really work together.”
Place of peace
The temple has always been a place President Chris Hoke of the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania North Stake could go to find peace and spiritual strength.
Growing up, he often went to the Los Angeles California Temple to perform baptisms for the dead.
During his college years at BYU, he sought opportunities to serve in the Provo Utah Temple.
In 2004, when coaches informed President Hoke he would be making his first start on the defensive line for the Pittsburgh Steelers, he took advantage of a bye week on the schedule and drove more than three hours to the Columbus Ohio Temple.
“I remember being so overwhelmed with emotion that I couldn’t sleep for days,” he said. “But I went to the house of the Lord, and I felt so much peace. I felt the Savior say, ‘All is well, trust in Me,’ and it all worked out.”
These and other experiences have taught President Hoke that spending time in the temple can bring peace to the chaos of life, and he is grateful that more in the Pittsburgh area, especially Latter-day Saint youth, will be able to have more heavenly power in their lives.
“It’s really going to strengthen our youth,” he said. “It’s a beacon of hope, and it’s reflective of the Savior Jesus Christ. Every time they come here they are going to see this temple and think of Jesus Christ. It’s going to change them.”
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temple
196th temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Location: About 20 miles from the Ohio-Pennsylvania border at 2093 Powell Road, Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania
Announced: April 5, 2020, by President Russell M. Nelson
Groundbreaking: Aug. 21, 2021, presided over by Elder Randall K. Bennett, a General Authority Seventy and then president of the North America Northeast Area.
Public open house: Aug. 16-31, 2024
Dedicated: Sept. 15, 2024, by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles over two sessions
Property size: 5.8 acres
Building size: 32,240 square feet
Building height: 125 feet, including the spire
