The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
On an unseasonably cold day at the beginning of spring in Canada, President Jeffrey R. Holland rededicated the Toronto Ontario Temple in a single session Sunday morning, March 23. The rededication followed more than a year of renovations inside the house of the Lord and comes nearly 35 years after the building was originally dedicated in 1990.
President Holland, the acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, rededicated the house of the Lord in a single morning session that was broadcast to meetinghouses throughout the temple district.
“Today we are happy to break the lock on the Toronto Ontario Temple and its grounds, to have what we pray will be a continuous flow of faithful recommend holders,” President Holland said of the reopening of the house of the Lord in Brampton, just west of Toronto proper.
In preparation for the rededication in Toronto, President Holland’s heart was turned to two of his former associates, President Thomas S. Monson and President M. Russell Ballard. Both served in Canada and had a great love for the Saints and other friends in the country. President Monson served as mission president over Ontario and Quebec from 1959-1962. President Ballard served as president of the Canada Toronto Mission from 1974-1976.
“I love being here,” President Holland said. “And I could not help but remember and love and praise President Monson and President Ballard, who loved Toronto so much.”
Pointing to the historical significance of the Church in Canada, President Holland said the Restoration made advances in part because of how the Lord used the country as a type of training ground for early Latter-day Saints and Church leaders. Canada was home to the Church’s first mission outside the United States and was the only non-U.S. country visited by the Prophet Joseph Smith.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
