Following a Saturday, June 6, groundbreaking ceremony, the Springfield Missouri Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — the third house of the Lord in the state — has entered its construction phase.
Elder Aroldo B. Cavalcante, a General Authority Seventy and second counselor in the Church’s United States Southeast Area presidency, presided at the temple groundbreaking in Springfield, Missouri. He was accompanied by his wife, Sister Christiana Cavalcante.
Elder Cavalcante, who spoke and offered a prayer dedicating the site and the construction process, referred to the future house of the Lord as a “lighthouse” for Latter-day Saints and the communities within the temple district.
In his dedicatory prayer, he pleaded: “We pray that this place, beginning today, may become sacred ground and a lighthouse to members and to the community it serves, bringing peace, joy, hope and courage to all — one by one — who desire to worship and come unto Thy Son, Jesus Christ.”
The groundbreaking services were one of two such ceremonies held on June 6, with ground broken for the Missoula Montana Temple as well. The events were first reported on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Once built and dedicated, the Springfield temple will join Missouri’s two operating houses of the Lord: the St. Louis Missouri Temple, dedicated in 1997, and the Kansas City Missouri Temple, dedicated in 2012.
Deanna Hinnen, a member of the Branson Missouri Stake, recalled when as a young girl living in Missouri, the closest temple to her and her family was in Salt Lake City. She spoke of her joy for the growth of the Church and the chance to have a temple even closer to her home.
“No sacrifice is too great, and no price too heavy in order to receive the blessings of the temple,” she said. “I’m grateful for temples everywhere.”
Taianna Yandall, a youth in the Monett Missouri Stake, is a busy high school student, with studies and participating on several sports teams. However, she said, making time to worship in the temple brings “blessings upon blessings” to her life.
“I receive personal revelation, peace in my struggles, relief from my pains, strength in my weakness, forgiveness for offenses and calming from my anxieties,” she said, also speaking during the groundbreaking services. “In the temple, the noise of the world feels quiet, and I am able to feel my Savior’s peace.”
About the Springfield temple and the Church in Missouri
On April 2, 2023, then-Church President Russell M. Nelson announced a house of the Lord for Springfield. It was one of 15 temple locations he identified in the April 2023 general conference.
Plans for the Springfield temple call for a single-story edifice of approximately 29,000 square feet. It will be built on a portion of a 38-acre site located at 2720 E. Farm Road No. 188, Springfield, in southwest Missouri.
In the 1830s, Independence, Missouri, and its surrounding counties were an important gathering place for Latter-day Saints in the early days of the Church.
By June 1833, Jackson County, Missouri, had 1,200 members in 10 branches. The second stake of the restored Church was organized in Clay County, Missouri, on July 3, 1834, although it was later relocated to Far West in 1836 and discontinued in 1839.
Today, Missouri is home to more than 84,000 Latter-day Saints in around 180 wards and branches.
—Church News reporter Joel Randall contributed to this report.
