Ground broken on Payson LDS Temple

PAYSON — On a former wheatfield in southwest Payson, about a mile east of the I-15 exit at 800 South, some 6,000 Mormons braved morning showers and finger-numbing cold to witness the Saturday groundbreaking for the Payson Utah Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"I express gratitude to the Lord for answering our prayers to lift the rain; that's a reminder of his goodness," said Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Church's Quorum of the Twelve. "I observe that it's still pretty cold, and I guess that's a reminder that we're still in mortality and having to work through all the problems involved with that!"

Elder Oaks presided over and offered the dedicatory prayer at the service, witnessed via TV transmission by other Latter-day Saints gathered in meetinghouses elsewhere in the temple district, which stretches from Spanish Fork on the north to Nephi on the south.

When completed in two or three years, the 96,630-square-foot edifice will serve approximately 78,000 church members in 22 stakes, including nine in Spanish Fork and six in Payson. Ultimately, it will be one of four temples in Utah County; existing ones are in Provo and American Fork, and the Provo Tabernacle, seriously damaged in a fire last year, will be converted into that city's second temple, as announced at last weekend's LDS general conference. There are 135 temples worldwide, plus 13 under construction and 18 announced.

A native son of Provo and a former Brigham Young University president, Elder Oaks spoke fondly of his Utah County roots before delivering the prayer.

"I've always considered Payson one of the four cities in which I was raised," he said. "After the death of my father in 1940, I lived with my Harris grandparents on their farm adjoining the highway between Payson and Spring Lake."

He pointed out the location of the farm, less than a half-mile from the temple site.

It was at a basketball game at Payson High School in 1951 that he met his first wife, June Dixon of Spanish Fork, who is now deceased.

Saying a temple stands as a lighted beacon, symbolic of Christ's gospel, Elder Oaks remarked, "That symbol will be an especially prominent beacon in this location. Standing just adjacent to I-15, the major north-south artery in Utah, the Payson Temple will be a dominant and visible influence on the millions who pass here, by day and by night."

Conducting the service and addressing the congregation was Elder William R. Walker, a member of the Quorums of the Seventy and executive director of the church's Temple Department.