On a spring morning this year, the sun rose on Utah’s Sanpete Valley — illuminating fields, historic homes and, of course, the renovated Manti Utah Temple.
President Russell M. Nelson, 99, traveled to Manti to rededicate the historic temple on April 21. The temple is one of 350 dedicated, announced or under construction in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
President Nelson has detailed the area’s rich history. The first Latter-day Saints entered Sanpete Valley in fall 1849. A year later, early settlers named the area after the Book of Mormon city of Manti.
A quarter-century later, on June 25, 1875, Brigham Young announced plans to construct a house of the Lord in Manti — an area that is personal to President Nelson.
President Nelson’s father was born in Manti. His mother was born just a few miles away in Ephraim, Utah — where three of his grandparents were also born. All eight of President Nelson’s great-grandparents lived in the Sanpete Valley, as did two of his great-great-grandparents; all were converts to the Church in their native countries of England, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
In addition to the renovation of the Manti temple, President Nelson announced a second temple for the Sanpete Valley, in Ephraim.
He announced the Ephraim Utah Temple in the weeks following the Church’s April 2021 general conference, after receiving “clear instruction from the Lord” about preserving the pioneer heritage of the Manti temple and building a second temple close by in Ephraim. “This impression did not come because of my ancestral roots in Ephraim,” he said after the announcement. “That instruction came to me from the Lord.”
Still, during the groundbreaking for the Ephraim temple, President Nelson spoke with gratitude for his ancestors and other early Church members who “laid a foundation of faith that undergirds the spiritual strength” of the new temple.
While rededicating the Manti temple, President Nelson again spoke of his ancestors — who looked to the temple, a powerful beacon for them and for us today.
“In every respect, the Manti Utah Temple is a house of God,” President Nelson said during the rededication. “All of its rooms are designed for sacred ordinances and solemn purposes. More importantly, the ordinances of salvation and exaltation are performed in this temple.”
He said the source of that eternal authority is recorded in Doctrine and Covenants section 110.
“On Easter Sunday, April 3, 1836, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared and accepted the Kirtland Temple as His holy house. Then, under His direction, other heavenly messengers came. Moses appeared and committed to Joseph Smith keys of the gathering of Israel. Elias appeared and committed keys for the dispensation of the gospel of Abraham. And Elijah appeared and conferred keys for the sealing authority that perpetuates our families for all eternity. If those keys had not been restored, the whole purpose of the earth would be ‘utterly wasted’ (Doctrine and Covenants 138:48). Those keys have been held by all succeeding Presidents of the Church.”
This is the reason, he explained, that the Church is engaged in the greatest era of temple building ever known. In just six years, President Nelson has announced 168 temples — or 48% of all the temples operating, under construction or planned in this dispensation.
During April 2024 general conference, President Nelson explained why he has been so focused on making temple blessings more accessible.
“My dear brothers and sisters, here is my promise,” he said. “Nothing will help you more to hold fast to the iron rod than worshipping in the temple as regularly as your circumstances permit. Nothing will protect you more as you encounter the world’s mists of darkness. Nothing will bolster your testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement or help you understand God’s magnificent plan more. Nothing will soothe your spirit more during times of pain. Nothing will open the heavens more. Nothing!
“The temple is the gateway to the greatest blessings God has in store for each of us, for the temple is the only place on earth where we may receive all of the blessings promised to Abraham (see Doctrine and Covenants 110:12; 132:29–30). That is why we are doing all within our power, under the direction of the Lord, to make the temple blessings more accessible to members of the Church.”
That understanding must have been clear to early Latter-day Saints who, while struggling to establish cities in the Sanpete Valley, fixed their focus on the temple.
As President Nelson concluded the prayer dedicating the site of the future Ephraim Utah Temple on Aug. 27, 2022, rain began to fall.
The rain continued as he and others turned the soil.
Jude Price, who has deep Sanpete Valley family roots and is President Nelson’s first cousin once removed, immediately claimed to know the source of the rain. As President Nelson left the groundbreaking ceremony, she yelled out to him, “These are the tears of joy of our ancestors.”
Moments later, the heavens opened, and the sprinkles of rain became a downpour.
In general conference, President Nelson said understanding the spiritual privileges made possible in the temple is also vital for each of us today.
“Time in the temple will help you to think celestial and to catch a vision of who you really are, who you can become and the kind of life you can have forever,” he said. “Regular temple worship will enhance the way you see yourself and how you fit into God’s magnificent plan. I promise you that.”
— Sarah Jane Weaver is executive editor of the Church News.
