Elder Gilbert dedicates Cody Wyoming Temple, his first since becoming an Apostle

In what was once the last Western frontier, Elder Gilbert invites Church members to seek the Lord’s spiritual frontiers

26 Oct 2026, 10:12 a.m. MDT

Elder Clark G. Gilbert of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, right, greets Church members before the Cody Wyoming Temple dedication on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Kaitlyn Bancroft is a reporter for Church News.

CODY, Wyoming — The Big Horn Basin was, in many ways, the last Western frontier in the United States.

More than 100 families entered the basin in northwestern Wyoming in February 1900, according to information from the Historic Cody Mural and Museum website. It was the final major colonization effort of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

By that time, Latter-day Saint pioneers had already settled Utah and other areas of the Intermountain West, noted Elder Clark G. Gilbert of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Additional pioneers had moved into California, Oregon and other fertile areas.

But the Big Horn Basin — where the small town of Cody, Wyoming, is located — was isolated and acrid, Elder Gilbert said. Winters were cold and water scarce. Early investments in the railroad and in irrigation canals were demanding. Building a community under such conditions required vision, commitment and a willingness to sacrifice.

Church members enter the Cody Wyoming Temple for its dedication on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Today’s Latter-day Saints aren’t called to settle physical, wilderness frontiers. But they do face personal, spiritual frontiers, Elder Gilbert said — frontiers like becoming converted, returning to Church, fulfilling callings or relinquishing anything that diminishes the Spirit’s voice.

“Elder Kim B. Clark used to say that if you want to know the Savior, go to the frontier because that is where He does His work,” Elder Gilbert said of the former BYU–Idaho president and emeritus General Authority Seventy. “Why does the Lord do His work at the frontier? Because that’s where the greatest growth and development happens. It’s also where He is most needed.”

Elder Gilbert dedicated the Cody Wyoming Temple on Sunday, Oct. 25, in a single 10 a.m. session broadcast to congregations throughout the temple district and rebroadcast at 2 p.m. It is the Church’s 227th dedicated temple, the third in Wyoming and the first temple dedicated by Elder Gilbert since he became an Apostle in February 2026. It follows the Star Valley Wyoming Temple, dedicated in 2016, and the Casper Wyoming Temple, dedicated in 2024.

Elder Gilbert was accompanied by his wife, Sister Christine Gilbert; Elder Jeremiah J. Morgan, a General Authority Seventy and an assistant executive director of the Church’s Temple Department, and his wife, Sister Rebecca Morgan; Elder I. Raymond Egbo, also a General Authority Seventy and an assistant executive director of the Church’s Temple Department, and his wife, Sister Comfort Egbo; and Elder James G.O. Fantone, a General Authority Seventy and a member of the United States Central Area presidency, and his wife, Sister Cynthia Fantone.

From left: Elder James G.O. Fantone, a General Authority Seventy and a member of the United States Central Area presidency, and his wife, Sister Cynthia Fantone; Sister Christine Gilbert and her husband, Elder Clark G. Gilbert of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; Elder I. Raymond Egbo, a General Authority Seventy and an assistant executive director of the Church’s temple department, and his wife, Sister Comfort Egbo; and Sister Rebecca Morgan and her husband, Elder Jeremiah J. Morgan, a General Authority Seventy and an assistant executive director of the Church’s temple department, pose for photos at the Cody Wyoming Temple on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. — From left: Elder James G.O. Fantone, a General Authority Seventy and a member of the United States Central Area presidency, and his wife, Sister Cynthia Fantone; Sister Christine Gilbert and her husband, Elder Clark G. Gilbert of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; Elder I. Raymond Egbo, a General Authority Seventy and an assistant executive director of the Church’s Temple Department, and his wife, Sister Comfort Egbo; and Sister Rebecca Morgan and her husband, Elder Jeremiah J. Morgan, a General Authority Seventy and an assistant executive director of the Church’s Temple Department, pose for photos at the Cody Wyoming Temple on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Cody Wyoming Temple | Church News Almanac

A call to the Lord’s frontiers

Elder Gilbert suggested four characteristics of the Lord’s frontiers:

“The Lord will show us our own spiritual frontiers if we ask Him.”
“The Lord’s frontiers take us to places we have never been.”
“The Lord’s frontiers take us to places that He wants us to go.”
“The Lord doesn’t leave us alone at the frontier.”

Regarding the first characteristic, Elder Gilbert recounted the New Testament story of the rich young man who approached the Savior and asked, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” (Matthew 19:16).

When Jesus Christ replied that he should keep all the commandments, the young man said, “All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?” (Matthew 19:20). Asking that question to the Savior — “What lack I yet?” — will “take us to our spiritual frontiers,” Elder Gilbert said.

Regarding the second characteristic, Elder Gilbert said a frontier is, by definition, a place that can be reached only by stretching past traditional boundaries. Just like the early Big Horn Basin pioneers had to clear sagebrush land and bring in irrigation water for their crops, “we have to make efforts to cultivate the spiritual frontiers in our lives. The Lord declared that He would have His people ‘redeem Zion, and establish her waste places’ (Doctrine and Covenants 101:75), even when the field looks difficult to cultivate. … He will help us reclaim the waste places in our lives.”

Elder Clark G. Gilbert of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles greets members before the Cody Wyoming Temple dedication on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Regarding the third characteristic, Elder Gilbert said there was a time, early in his discipleship, in which he was called to sacrifice for the Lord, “but I wanted to choose the terms and conditions of the offering.” However, the Lord didn’t ask the ancient Israelites to give their wounded or struggling flocks; neither did He ask for sacrifices that were easy to offer at the altar.

“His call for an unblemished lamb was a symbol of the Savior, Jesus Christ,” Elder Gilbert said. “But I also believe it required His people to make the sacrifices that He had outlined, not the sacrifices that would be easier for His people to bring forth.”

Regarding the fourth circumstance, Elder Gilbert promised that the Lord doesn’t leave His people alone at the frontier. Sometimes His aid comes in unimagined ways, like the ram in the thicket (see Genesis 22) or Laban at Nephi’s feet (see 1 Nephi 4). Other times, His aid will simply come through the hastening, joy and light that attends those who work beside the Savior.

“May we mark this temple dedication as an invitation to go to the spiritual frontiers in our own lives,” Elder Gilbert said. “As we do, I promise that we will become who the Lord needs us to become. …

“I add my witness that He lives and He is beckoning us to the frontier.”

‘This is our time’

Glenn and Erica Nielson stand outside together in front of trees and a fence. — Glenn and Erica Nielson, a Latter-day Saint couple in Cody, Wyoming, donated the land that the Cody Wyoming Temple now stands on. | Provided by Glenn and Erica Nielson

Prior to the new temple’s dedication, the closest house of the Lord was the Billings Montana Temple, an approximately two-hour drive from Cody. Glenn and Erica Nielson — who donated the land that the Cody temple now stands on — recounted how the trip, though relatively short, still took some planning, particularly with their six kids in tow. The Nielsons typically made a day of it: one parent waiting with the children while the other completed an ordinance, then switching off.

With the Cody temple’s dedication, Erica Nielson said she’s looking forward to giving the hours she once spent on the road to the temple. “What a huge blessing. You can be in the house of the Lord more. You can be an ordinance worker.”

It’s an exciting prospect for Latter-day Saints in Cody, especially for those whose roots run deep in the small Wyoming town. Glenn Nielson was born and raised in Cody, and it’s where he and Erica Nielson have spent most of their almost 20-year marriage.

Now, their longtime home is an even greater place for their family — for the youth coming of age in an increasingly complicated world.

“It just changes everything for the people who are able to serve and worship there,” Glenn Nielson said, adding that local youth, in particular, will benefit from receiving increased spiritual power through the temple.

‘The Lord’s hand was in preserving that property’: The story of the Cody Wyoming Temple site

Christian Davidson, second from right, and his wife, Esther Davidson, third from right, stand with family members outside the Cody Wyoming Temple in 2026. The Davidsons served as temple open house and dedication committee coordinators for the Cody temple. | Provided by Christian and Esther Davidson

Christian and Esther Davidson, who belong to the Burlington 1st Ward of the Cody Wyoming Stake, served as temple open house and dedication committee coordinators for the Cody temple. Christian Davidson said the Latter-day Saints in northwest Wyoming have hoped for their own temple from the time they settled the Bighorn Basin.

One of the biggest blessings of serving on the temple committee, he added, was bearing witness to the Lord working in people’s lives. “All of that is not just coincidence.”

Cody Wyoming Stake President Andrew Jacobsen remembered childhood trips to the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple, which was then the closest temple to Cody — a five-hour drive in the summer and 10 in the winter. When the Billings temple was dedicated, Cody residents were grateful that a house of the Lord was much more accessible to them.

So to now have a temple at home is an even more extraordinary blessing, President Jacobsen said. It’s also a sacred responsibility — the three stakes in the Cody temple area will “all have to step up to keep it running,” he said, and it will be “quite a privilege” to do so.

Worland Wyoming Stake President Duane Whitlock said Saints in the Bighorn Basin already feel deeply connected to the Cody temple.

“This is our time. We get to see this,” President Whitlock said. “We get to witness this miracle of having a temple right in our backyard.”

A day of joy and learning

Kambrie Simmons, second from right, laughs with her kids — from left, Holden, Stella and Hunter — after the Cody Wyoming Temple dedication on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. — Kambrie Simmons, second from right, laughs with her children — from left, Holden, Stella and Hunter — after the Cody Wyoming Temple dedication on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Following the dedication, Church members gathered outside the temple to enjoy the company of friends and neighbors, and to greet Elder and Sister Gilbert as they left the building. Many were bundled up against the cold, sunny weather.

Candace Whitlock, President Whitlock’s wife, said it’s exciting to have a third temple in Wyoming. She particularly cherished the experience of sitting in the celestial room with an Apostle and participating in the Hosanna Shout with her children.

“The Spirit just testified of the importance of coming to the temple and serving,” she said.

Lovell 2nd Ward Bishop Lance Anderson of the Lovell Wyoming Stake said it means “everything” to have a temple in Cody.

He’ll remember how it felt to sit beside his wife during the dedication, he said, as the Spirit taught him about “what can come, and the growth that needs to happen in our lives” through the temple.

Latter-day Saint Mike Bell was born in Cody and spent his early childhood years there. On Sunday, he returned for the Cody temple dedication with his son, Matthew Bell, and Matthew’s girlfriend, Nicole Johnson.

Seeing a temple in the town of his birth, Mike Bell said, was incredible and even a little overwhelming.

“More than anything, it shows to me just how much the Church is growing,” he said.

A Latter-day Saint legacy in Cody

Church history in Wyoming dates back to the 19th century, when Latter-day Saints entered the state as early as 1846 in their pioneer travels, Church News previously reported. The Oregon, California and Mormon trails crossed through the middle of Wyoming, so most Latter-day Saint companies traveled through the state in their westward migration.

By the end of 1847, more than 2,000 pioneer members had crossed Wyoming into Utah. Wyoming’s first stake was organized in Star Valley in August 1892.

Cody itself has particularly rich Latter-day Saint roots. William F. Cody — better known as “Buffalo Bill” — first entered the basin in northwestern Wyoming circa 1874, according to information from the Historic Cody Mural and Museum website. By 1895, the town of Cody, Wyoming, was founded and named after Buffalo Bill Cody.

But by the late 1890s, the town was struggling, Church News previously reported. Cody needed a large number of settlers, and it needed to divert water from the Shoshone River.

So Buffalo Bill Cody turned to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“We have only to look at what the [Latter-day Saints] have done in the Great Salt Lake Valley, which at the time of its settlement was the most desolate of deserts; they have made it blossom as the rose, and today there is no more prosperous and wealthy state on the continent, taking into consideration all the circumstances, than Utah,” Cody wrote to a land speculator in 1898.

Cody met with Abraham Woodruff, a son of Wilford Woodruff, and other Latter-day Saints in February 1900 and generously offered them tens of thousands of acres for free. The Saints accepted the offer, and 100 families moved to Wyoming, where they began building irrigation canals and infrastructure. They also helped build railroads in the area.

Today, northwest Wyoming has three stakes. Collectively, the state is home to nearly 67,000 Latter-day Saints in more than 170 wards and branches.