President Russell M. Nelson announced plans to build two more Latter-day Saint temples in Utah — in Lehi and West Jordan — during an announcement Sunday of plans to build a total of 15 more temples around the world.
“The temple is the gateway to the greatest blessings God has for each of us,” he said in the final talk at Sunday’s 194th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A full list of the 30 Utah temples and their construction and operation status is provided below.
Lehi’s population is booming, and the Latter-day Saints are devoted to attending church meetings, going to the temple and paying tithing.
“Activity rates in this area are just incredible,” said Bryan Atwood, president of the Lehi East Stake. “It’s a very dense area of high activity and a lot of temple patrons here. I don’t have a lot of church-wide context, but visitors who come talk about the high percentage of current temple recommend holders or full tithe-paying, Melchizedek priesthood holders.”
Atwood’s congregations use the very busy Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple to the west in American Fork, where the baptistry is so busy that many youth who do proxy baptisms for those who have died now go to the Draper Utah Temple to the north to perform the ordinances before school in the morning.
“My first thought at the announcement was, ‘I’m so excited.’ The next one was, ‘let’s overwhelm that temple, too. Let’s get everybody there.’ There was a heavy slant toward temple attendance throughout conference and this just gives us another reason to emphasize that.”
Church leaders have said repeatedly that the reason there are so many temples in Utah is because church members in the state participate in family history and temple work at high rates.
“If everybody in this area would go to the temple as often as they could, they’d have to build more and more and more,” Atwood said.
Both Atwood and Tim Sloan, president of the Lehi Utah Cedar Hollow Stake, grew up in California, where they lived far from the nearest temple.
“So having a temple that’s five miles away in American Fork is like a dream come true,” Sloan said. “Having one in Lehi is like literally having one in our backyard.”
He said having a temple in Lehi will be an honor and blessing.
“There’s a sense of a pioneer heritage here in Lehi that goes back since its founding, and there is a deep, deep sense of faith in this community,” he said. “For Lehi to have its own temple is just an honor and a blessing to all of us.”
The West Jordan temple will give the church four temples on Salt Lake Valley’s westside. It will be sandwiched between temples already built in the cities directly north and south.
To the north, the Taylorsville Utah Temple’s construction is complete and a public open house will begin Saturday. The open house will run through Saturday, May 18, excluding Sundays.
South Jordan is home to the Jordan River Utah Temple and Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple.
Temples differ from meetinghouses where Latter-day Saints worship on Sundays. Temples are where worthy church members can be sealed together in marriage for eternity and make covenants, or commitments, to God.
For example, during the endowment ceremony, church members commit to 1) live the law of obedience, 2) obey the law of sacrifice, 3) obey the law of the gospel of Jesus Christ, 4) keep the law of chastity and 5) keep the law of consecration, according to the church’s General Handbook.
Each temple is considered a house of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“In his house, we are literally endowed with heavenly power,” Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said Sunday. “Our faith in Jesus Christ and our love for him is confirmed and fortified. We are spiritually assured of our true identity and the purposes of life. As we are faithful, we are blessed with protection from temptations and distractions. We feel our Savior’s love as he lifts us from our difficulties and our challenges, our sorrows and our heartaches. We are armed with the power of God.”
The church’s doctrine is that temple covenants are required for the highest kingdom in heaven.
“The ordinance of baptism and its associated covenants are the essential requirements for entrance into the celestial kingdom. The ordinances and associated covenants of the temple are the essential requirements for exaltation in the celestial kingdom, which is eternal life, the greatest of all the gifts of God,” President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency said Sunday.
Members also believe they can be saved together with their families, a largely unique Christian doctrine. They go to temples to perform baptism, sealings and endowment ordinances for ancestors as a free-will offering that can be accepted or rejected.
17 dedicated and operating temples in Utah
- Logan Utah Temple (1884, 1979)
- Ogden Utah Temple (1972, 2014)
- Provo Utah Temple (1972)
- Jordan River Utah Temple (1981, 2018)
- Bountiful Utah Temple (1995)
- Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple (1996)
- Vernal Utah Temple (1997)
- Monticello Utah Temple (1998, 2002)
- Draper Utah Temple (2009)
- Oquirrh Mountain Temple (2009)
- Brigham City Utah Temple (2012)
- Payson Utah Temple (2015)
- Provo City Center Temple (2016)
- Cedar City Utah Temple (2017)
- Saratoga Springs Utah Temple (2023)
- St. George Utah Temple (1877, 2023)
- Red Cliffs Utah Temple (2024)
- Orem Utah Temple (2024)
3 temples under renovation in Utah
- Salt Lake Temple (1893)
- Manti Utah Temple (1888; 1985; April 21, 2024)
- Provo Utah Temple (1972)
8 temples under construction in Utah
President Nelson announced all of these temples.
- Layton Utah Temple (announced April 1, 2018)
- Deseret Peak Utah Temple (announced April 7, 2019)
- Taylorsville Utah Temple (announced Oct. 5, 2019)
- Syracuse Utah Temple (announced April 5, 2020)
- Lindon Utah Temple (announced Oct. 4, 2020)
- Smithfield Utah Temple (announced April 4, 2021)
- Ephraim Utah Temple (announced May 1, 2021)
- Heber Valley Utah Temple (announced Oct. 3, 2021)
2 temples announced for Utah
These are the temples President Nelson announced on Sunday. These temple names are unofficial. They will be named later.
- Lehi Utah Temple (announced April 7, 2024)
- West Jordan Utah Temple (announced April 7, 2024)