Press release, photos, and video courtesy of the Church Newsroom. The visit their website, CLICK HERE.
The Burley Idaho Temple, a 45,300-square-foot structure, was first announced at the April 2021 general conference. Ground was broken on June 4, 2022. Idaho’s other dedicated temples are in Boise, Idaho Falls, Meridian, Pocatello, Rexburg and Twin Falls. Other temples announced or under construction in the state are the Caldwell, Coeur d’Alene, Montpelier and Teton River Idaho Temples. Idaho is home to nearly 500,000 Latter-day Saints in around 1,300 congregations.
President Oaks was joined at the dedicatory service in Burley by his wife, Kristen, and several Church leaders: Elder Steven R. Bangerter, Executive Director of the Temple Department, and his wife, Susan; Elder José A. Teixeira, United States Central Area President, and his wife, Filomena; and Elder K. Brett Nattress, General Authority Seventy, and his wife, Shawna. In remarks given before offering the prayer, President Oaks shared personal reflections about this temple. He said he chose to dedicate the Burley Temple because “it [is] close to my heart.” As a child, he lived in nearby Twin Falls, Idaho, for about five years.
The 93-year-old prophet also noted that the Church is “in a glorious season of temple building.” He reminded Saints in Burley that the purpose of the Church’s now 212 operating temples — plus 150 more in design or under construction — is to point people to Jesus Christ.
“The work of temples is centered on our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. All that is learned and done here relates to Him,” said President Oaks. “Here in His house, we make sacred covenants with and in the name of Jesus Christ, which among other meanings signify His authority and His work. All who worship here receive the blessings of His power and participate in His saving work. These blessings and this saving work, which we call ‘temple work,’ are supremely important for all of God’s children, those still living in mortality and those in the spirit world.”
He echoed teachings from the late President Russell M. Nelson that the house of the Lord is “at the center of strengthening our faith and spiritual fortitude because the Savior and His doctrine are the very heart of the temple.”
President Oaks noted that Latter-day Saints around the world will need such spiritual strength in the coming days.
“As we experience Satan’s deadly onslaught on morality and the integrity of families, and as we read the prophecies and feel the signs of the times, we cannot doubt that the future holds great sacrifices and challenges for Latter-day Saints individually and for the divinely prescribed work of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” he said. “The scriptures speak of perilous times, when men’s hearts will fail them. They also speak of worthy disciples escaping these things, of their standing in holy places and not being moved.”
In these holy temples, Latter-day Saints make covenants with God. This, the prophet explained, is “the way the Lord reminds us to stay worthy of His blessings and to translate the knowledge we receive in the temple into service to our fellowmen.”
“Surely,” President Oaks said, “the times ahead will call for us to remember our temple covenants and to rely on the blessings promised in these houses of the Lord here in Burley and throughout the world.”
“This is His house. This is His work. We are His servants,” the prophet concluded.
