Ephraim Utah Temple dedicated

EPHRAIM—“This is sacred ground,” Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, told members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gathered for the dedication of the Ephraim Utah Temple last Sunday.

He said that in the temple “we come to understand and draw upon the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ, we participate in the gathering of God’s children, and we, most importantly, center our worship on our Father in Heaven and his beloved son Jesus Christ.”

Rasband presided at the dedication and also offered the dedicatory prayer. However, the prayer was not released.

“In the temple, we become more Christlike, more kind, forgiving, repentant, patient and holy. The community of Ephraim and those in this temple district will never be the same because of this holy house of God,” Rasband said.

The apostle said his own great-great-grandparents settled in Ephraim in 1850 after leaving a prosperous farm in Denmark for “the promise of temple ordinances.” His great-grandfather later helped build the Manti temple, 7 miles south of Ephraim.

“Because of their faith in the Savior and his words, ‘I go to prepare a place for you … that where I am, there ye may be also (John 14:2–3),’ their lives were forever blessed,” Elder Rasband said.

The apostle said Christ was speaking of the eternities, “but that promise also has meaning right now, for he has prepared this place, this temple, for us today.”

The dedication, which began at 10 a.m. was rebroadcast to chapels throughout the temple district Sunday at 2 p.m.

In an interview before the dedication, Rasband said the temple will give Snow College students opportunities to participate in the gathering of Israel as they serve in the temple.

“We gather Israel on both sides of the veil. We gather them on the other side through the work we do in the temple. And we gather them on this side of the veil by missionary work. And that’s what role they are going to have, let alone getting married, having children, having families,” he said.

Blessings will pour down from heaven from the making and keeping of sanctifying ordinances and covenants in the temple, Elder Rasband said.

The apostle said the city’s name, Ephraim, harkens back to Ephraim, the son of Joseph in the Old Testament, and to the tribe of Ephraim. People of that lineage have the primary responsibility and privilege of gathering the scattered descendants of Israel in the latter days.

“This divine reunion requires temple ordinances and covenants worthy of the Ephraim ancestry,” Elder Rasband said.

The late church President Russell M. Nelson, whose mother was born in Ephraim, announced the Ephraim temple on May 1, 2021. He later presided over the groundbreaking on Aug. 27, 2022.

Utah has 32 temples operating, under construction, announced or undergoing renovation.