Nearly three years after its groundbreaking, construction work on the Heber Valley Utah Temple is now underway. The building of this first house of the Lord in Wasatch County, Utah, had originally been postponed.
Sam Penrod, spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, made the following statement on Aug. 26:
“Wasatch County issued a building permit to the Church nearly two years ago for the Heber Valley temple. While the permit allowed the Church to begin building the temple, construction was voluntarily postponed by the Church during the judicial review of a lawsuit filed against the county. On July 23, a district court judge ruled against the plaintiffs and dismissed the case. Construction work is now underway on the Church’s property to grade the site and install necessary infrastructure to support the future temple.”
The Heber Valley temple is one of 32 operating, under construction or announced houses of the Lord in Utah. It joins three other temples in the state currently under construction, in Lindon (since April 2022), Smithfield (June 2022) and Ephraim (August 2022).
About the Heber Valley temple
The Heber Valley Utah Temple was announced by President Russell M. Nelson on Oct. 3, 2021, during general conference. In the same conference, he announced the reconstruction of the Provo Utah Temple — later renamed the Provo Utah Rock Canyon Temple — currently underway.
Ground was broken for the Heber Valley temple on Oct. 8, 2022, with President Nelson presiding over the ceremony and offering the prayer to dedicate the site for construction.
President Nelson shared a history of the settling of Heber City and the growth of the Church in the valley, including missionary work of Heber C. Kimball in the 1840s and the first ward created in Heber in 1860.
“More will come,” President Nelson said of Latter-day Saints in the city. “This valley will continue to be a fruitful seedbed for devoted and dedicated members of the Church.”
In his prayer on the site, President Nelson expressed thanks to Heavenly Father for the work done by those early pioneers.
“We are deeply grateful for our ancestors. They have laid a foundation of faith that undergirds our spiritual strength. May we learn who they are, find their qualifying information and bless their lives with sacred rites offered vicariously in this holy house.”
