In his final general conference address as Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson testified that regular worship in the house of the Lord increases one’s capacity for virtue and charity.
“Time in the temple increases our confidence before the Lord,” he said on April 6, 2025. “Increased time in the temple will help us prepare for the Second Coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
He added in his conference message an announcement of 15 new temples to be built, the last planned for Spanish Fork, Utah. It was the final temple that he announced before his death in September 2025.
Today, Monday, July 13, an exterior rendering for the Spanish Fork Utah Temple was released by the First Presidency, now with President Dallin H. Oaks as Prophet. It was published in a news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
As previously announced, the Spanish Fork temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is planned as a multistory building of approximately 80,000 square feet. The structure, to be built on an 8.7-acre site, will include an accompanying ancillary building. It will be constructed at the corner of 100 South and 2550 East in Spanish Fork, Utah.
About the Church in Utah
Exactly 148 years — to the day — before the Spanish Fork temple was announced, Utah’s first temple was dedicated in St. George. Temple growth in the century and a half since then has made Utah the U.S. state with the most houses of the Lord.
Of the state’s 32 temples in various stages, Utah has 25 dedicated temples: the Bountiful, Brigham City, Cedar City, Deseret Peak, Draper, Jordan River, Layton, Lindon, Logan, Manti, Monticello, Mount Timpanogos, Ogden, Oquirrh Mountain, Orem, Payson, Provo City Center, Provo Rock Canyon, Red Cliffs, Salt Lake, Saratoga Springs, St. George, Syracuse, Taylorsville and Vernal temples.
Of those dedicated temples, two are undergoing extensive renovations and reconstruction: the Salt Lake Temple, closed Dec. 29, 2019, and the Provo Utah Rock Canyon Temple, closed Feb. 24, 2024.
Soon to join the list of operating temples is the house of the Lord in Ephraim, which will be dedicated Oct. 11.
Two houses of the Lord are under construction in Utah: the Smithfield temple, since June 2022, and Heber Valley temple, since October 2022.
That leaves four temples in planning and design stages — in West Jordan (announced 2024), Lehi (2024), Price (2024) and Spanish Fork (2025).
The first wagons of Latter-day Saint pioneers arrived in the Utah Territory on July 24, 1847. Today, nearly 180 years later, around 2.2 million members of the Church of Jesus Christ live in Utah, meeting in nearly 5,400 wards and branches.
