BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Groundbreakings Set for Temples in Utah, Idaho, and California; Exterior Rendering Released for Ephraim Utah Temple

An initial brief version of this post was published at 9:15 AM, and additions were subsequently published at 4:45 PM.

Hello again, everyone! In two announcements this morning, groundbreakings were set for 3 more US temples, and an exterior rendering was released for the Ephraim Utah Temple. There is a lot of information to get to, so let's jump right in.  First, with the release of the Ephraim Utah Temple rendering (which follows the October 2021 site announcement, which in turn was preceded by the unexpected May 1 announcement of that temple), we know that the rezoning application has been approved.

While I am not sure what else may need approval before the Church can get a groundbreaking set for that temple, hopefully a groundbreaking for it would occur in August or September, if all goes well. The design of the temple appears to be identical in appearance to other temples of a similar size (39,000 square feet). It will be interesting to see what happens on the timing for the Ephraim Temple.

In the interim, the 3 temples for which groundbreakings have been scheduled are the Burley Idaho, Smithfield Utah, and Yorba Linda California Temples. Here are the details: The Burley Idaho Temple groundbreaking will be conducted on June 4, under the direction of Elder Brent H. Nielson of the Presidency of the Seventy, who may have direct supervision of the North America Central Area, and who was born in that city. 

I love the fact that the Church calls upon those with personal connections to areas getting a temple to presie at the groundbreakings for the temples in those areas. The announcement of the groundbreaking for Burley was preceded by the release of its' site location on June 23 of last year, followed by the release of the exterior rendering on September 17.  

As an additional note, since the last scheduled groundbreaking was Elko Nevada on May 7, the fact that the Burley groundbreaking will occur 4 weeks after that may point to the Church trying to get other temple groundbreakings done between May 7 and June 4. Among the most likely candidates could be the Belo Horizonte Brazil, Ephraim Utah, Willamette Valley Oregon, Cali Colombia, Torreon Mexico, and Greater Guatemala City Guatemala Temples. 

Any of those 6 could have groundbreakings in the 4 intervening weeks (May 14, 21, and 28, and June 11). I'm adding June 11 because today's announcement does not list any groundbreakings on that date. The other two temples, Smithfield Utah and Yorba Linda California, are both set to have their groundbreakings on Saturday June 11.   

Utah's newest temple groundbreaking will be under the direction of Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and a Cache Valley native, who will be accompanied by his apostolic colleague and another Cache Valley son, Elder Gary E. Stevenson.  This temple's groundbreaking follows its' June 10 site announcement. 

An exterior rendering for the Smithfield Utah Temple was released on November 24, at the same time the Church released the new rendering for the reconstructed Provo Utah Temple. Meanwhile, the Yorba Linda California Temple groundbreaking will also occur on June 18, with Elder Mark A. Bragg, the president of the North America West Area who was born in nearby Los Angeles, presiding thereat.

The announcement follows the July 15 site announcement and the September 17 release of the exterior rendering. This means that, for the first time ever, the Church has 9 temple groundbreakings set to take place between March and June of this year. This brings the total number of temples set to have a groundbreaking thus far to 9. 

The Church's ninth groundbreaking in 2021 was held on September 18 for the Phnom Pehn Camobida Temple, so with the ninth groundbreaking in 2022 taking place a full 3 months earlier than last year, I don't think it's out of the question that the Church could hold 20 or more groundbreakings this year. With that in mind, I wanted to provide an updated look at groundbreakings in 2021 vs. this year.

August-December seems to be the most likely time we will see quite a few groundbreakings for temples in the southern hemisphere, and may also be the window within which ground is broken for the Tarawa Kiribati, Port Vila Vanuatu, and Port Moresby Papua New Guinea Temples. Hopefully action can be taken on other temples in Asia, Africa, and Europe. 

And given that last year marked the clearing of the queue of the remaining temples originally announced by President Monson, and the Church has already cleared the queue of all temples originally announced in October 2019, hopefully at least 4 of the 5 remaining which were announced between April 2018 and April 2019 might get cleared from the queue as well soon.

The status and timing of the Russia temple might depend on how the current increasingly dangerous and volatile situation with the attack on Ukraine. I continue to keep my eyes open for all such developments and Church news updates and will bring you all word thereof as those updates are released.

In the meantime, that does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below. 

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