The Grand Rapids Michigan Temple has entered its construction phase, following the Saturday, Dec. 7, groundbreaking services held for the second time in the Great Lakes state.
Elder Mathias Held, a General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the North America Northeast Area presidency, presided at the invitation-only event.
“We can witness before our eyes how the work is rolling forward, how the Lord is hastening His work at this very special time,” he said in remarks at the groundbreaking.
In a prayer dedicating the site and the construction process, Elder Held asked that the future temple and grounds be a beacon of holiness, inspiring Latter-day Saints to prepare for worship in the house of the Lord:
“We petition Thee, Father,” he prayed, “to hallow and protect this temple site, which will come to be a place of great spiritual strength and power.”
Plans call for a single-story building of approximately 20,000 square feet to be built on a 10.5-acre site at 2400 Forest Hill Ave. SE in Grand Rapids. The site location was released on Nov. 7, 2022, with an initial exterior rendering following a year later on Nov. 6, 2023.
A new exterior rendering, showing a redesigned tower over the temple’s entrance, was released along with the First Presidency’s Nov. 11, 2024, announcement of the groundbreaking ceremony.
The temple was one of 18 announced by Church President Russell M. Nelson in October 2022 general conference.
Details of the groundbreaking service was first published Monday, Dec. 9, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
More than 46,000 Latter-day Saints comprising nearly 100 congregations reside in Michigan. The first Latter-day Saints in the area were baptized only a year after the Church’s 1830 organization.
The Detroit Michigan Temple, the first in the state, was dedicated in October 1999; it stands about 140 miles southeast of the Grand Rapids temple site.
Every effort is made to construct temples in an expeditious manner. At times, various reasons may delay a temple’s completion and dedication.
At the groundbreaking event, Eden McIntyre of the Holland Michigan Stake spoke about being encouraged — after returning home from her full-time missionary service — to attend the temple regularly. That required traveling more than two hours each way to and from the Detroit Michigan Temple.
“In no place here in mortality will we ever be closer to our Savior than in the temple,” she said. “I have experienced this for myself.”
David C. Wadsworth, the patriarch of the Grand Rapids Michigan Stake, also spoke about how his temple worship draws him closer to Jesus Christ and His gospel.
“There are magnificent architectural wonders in the world, designed to draw our thoughts to heaven,” he said. “But in the temple, I feel His presence as nowhere else.”
