CODY, Wyoming — Late-summer warmth lingered abnormally long as Elder Steven R. Bangerter, a General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the Church’s North America Central Area presidency, presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for the Cody Wyoming Temple on Friday, Sept. 27.
Elder Bangerter was accompanied by his wife, Sister Susan Bangerter. Elder Kevin R. Duncan, a General Authority Seventy and executive director of the Church’s Temple Department, attended with his wife, Sister Nancy Duncan. Elder Duncan conducted the groundbreaking service.
Elder Bangerter offered the site’s dedicatory prayer after sharing his testimony of temples and the blessings that come through Heavenly Father because of the covenants made in the house of the Lord. In the prayer, he asked for blessings on the temple as it is built and on the people in the area whose lives can be blessed by a temple.
“We ask that they may feel a spirit of peace wash over them, granting them comfort and assurance that the presence of the temple will bring added joy, prosperity, beauty and unity to their lives and their community,” he said in the prayer.
Wyoming is the least-populated state in the United States, but more than 10% of the state’s population are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Surprise blessing of a temple in Cody
When President Russell M. Nelson announced the Cody Wyoming Temple on Oct. 3, 2021, toward the conclusion of October 2021 general conference, members of the Church were both excited and a little surprised. Located in the northwestern part of Wyoming, this is the third house of the Lord in that state and was one of 13 temples announced at the conference. Other temples in the state are the Casper Wyoming Temple — which is scheduled to be dedicated in November — and the Star Valley Wyoming Temple, dedicated in 2016.
The nearest temple to Cody is across the state line to the north in Billings, Montana. That temple is about 100 miles away. Its dedication came as a relief to those who used to travel five to eight hours according to President Andrew Jacobsen, president of the Cody Wyoming Stake. President Jacobsen grew up in Cody and remembers the long drives once per year to Idaho Falls, Idaho.
“As youth, once a year in the summer is all we could do,” President Jacobsen recalled. “With a temple in Billings, we go much more frequently.”
He is excited for the youth and young adults in his stake to have even more opportunities to serve in and learn from the temple when it is dedicated in Cody.
“This is amazing to have a temple close by where we can go and make covenants and do work for our ancestors,” he said. “What a privilege.”
The land where the temple will be constructed was owned by the Nielson family since the mid-20th century. Glenn Nielson was grateful for the blessings he had received when he was able to start earning money to support his family in Cody, and he promised Heavenly Father that he would consecrate some of his initial earnings to helping support the Saints as they worshipped. He contributed money needed to build the first chapel in the city — which is now a visitors’ center. And now his descendants will reap further blessings by being able to worship and make temple covenants in a temple built on part of the land his family has continued to own for nearly a century.
Nielson’s daughter-in-law, Yvonne Nielson, was among the Church members and others from the community who attended the groundbreaking. She said she feels like this is a continued example of her father-in-law’s consecration. She recounted how her in-laws were struggling to make ends meet when they moved to Cody from Canada during the Great Depression.
“We couldn’t be more pleased, and I’m sure Grandpa Nielson is, too,” she said as she looked out over the plateau where the temple will be built. “It will be beautiful and peaceful and wonderful for the whole town.”
The 9,950-square-foot, single-story house of the Lord will be on the northwest side of Skyline Drive at Cody Canal on one of the ledges that overlooks the valley below.
