The construction of the Salt Lake Temple did more than build an edifice — it constructed bonds among pioneers engaged in the Lord’s work.
“Perhaps one of the purposes of the 40-year construction period was to give them time to come together as a people,” said Shaun Stahle, “to blend their skills, their experiences, their personalities, their work ethic, to come together as one.”
Stahle — a retired journalist and now service missionary for the Liahona magazine — presented a March 7 class at RootsTech 2026 titled “Every Stone a Sermon: Contemplating the Incomprehensible Future of the Salt Lake Temple.”
Noting the family history conference’s 2026 theme of “Together,” Stahle spoke on how the Salt Lake Temple has brought and will bring people together in the past, present and future.
Past, present and future of the Salt Lake Temple
In 2024, then-Bishop Gérald Caussé — then presiding bishop and now of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles — said “the Salt Lake Temple is a living building with a past and a future.”
Stahle added that “the building touches our pioneer past, it works with our modern day, and it has a future in the Millennium.”
He also drew this connection across time to a spiritual context. “It has to do with our premortal life before this world, it has to do with answers and purposes and powers for this life, and it prepares us for an exalted future.”
Now, he said, it stands “sentinel over a growing, international Church.”
‘We should always see the divine’ in this temple
“The spirit of this building will invite us to ruminate about holy things,” said Stahle.
He quoted Elder J. Golden Kimball, who as a General Authority Seventy said in April 1915 general conference: “When I think about that building, every stone in it is a sermon to me. It tells of suffering, it tells of sacrifice, it preaches — every rock in it preaches a discourse.”
Quoting President Boyd K. Packer’s parable from April 2000, Stahle acknowledged that the temple is an architectural beauty, but the “pearl” inside is greater than the “box” that holds it. Because of ordinances performed and covenants made in the house of the Lord, the temple is “magnificent.”
“This is a place that will ‘please the eye’ and ‘gladden the heart,’” said Stahle, quoting Doctrine and Covenants 59:18. “And I suggest that, like Brigham Young, we should look on this ground, and we should always see the divine.”
The Salt Lake Temple’s power of togetherness
Two decades ago, Stahle saw the Salt Lake Temple’s power to bring people together when he reported on the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
“The temple became kind of a watering hole,” he said. “Everybody came to the temple.”
In that setting, Stahle met people from cultures all over the world, speaking various languages, all amazed by the colossal pioneer-era temple.
“From early morning to late at night when I was there, never — not for a second — did I not see at least one news crew filming at the temple.”
Certainly it was a picturesque backdrop for their news coverage, said Stahle, “but I think there was something that kind of drew them to that setting.”
He added: “During that 40-year construction period, when these huge blocks of granite littered the ground and passersby could hear the chinking of chisel and hammer, did any worker have the slightest inkling what international airtime this building would receive?”
The pioneers recognized they weren’t simply constructing another building, said Stahle. “They knew they were creating a temple of God.”
‘The incomprehensible future of the Salt Lake Temple’
As Stahle has witnessed Salt Lake Temple renovations outside his office window in recent years, he’s found the work breathtaking. “To me, it’s a testament to a Prophet’s bold faith and heaven’s big thinking.”
He said that as the historic house of the Lord moves into the future, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a responsibility to invite everyone to the open house.
The Salt Lake Temple’s open house — to be held from April to October 2027 — will be “the spiritual gala of the century,” said Stahle.
He quoted the late Church President Russell M. Nelson, who in 2019 said: “We promise you that you will love the results. They will emphasize and highlight the life, ministry and mission of Jesus Christ in His desire to bless every nation, kindred, tongue and people.”
Everyone is invited to the open house, said Stahle, so “our assignment is to make sure that everyone is invited, that everyone is welcome.”
He added, “Everyone should have an opportunity to be there.”
