Payson Utah Temple
On 25th January 2010, President Thomas S. Monson, prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also called the LDS or Mormon Church), announced that a Mormon temple is planned for the city of Payson, Utah. The new temple will help relieve the pressure of use on the nearby Provo Utah Temple.
The city of Payson is south of the Provo-Orem area, Springville and Spanish Fork, along the I-15 freeway. The proposed temple site is on the south-west of Payson, near the I-15 highway, and when the building is completed, the temple district will encompass an area serving almost 80,000 members of the Mormon Church.
There are currently 14 other temples in operation and announced throughout the state of Utah.
In early fall of 2011, the LDS Church released a rendering of the future Payson Temple:
The groundbreaking for the Payson Utah Temple took place on Saturday, October 8, 2011. About 6,000 people braved rain and cold to witness the event. Prayers to lift the rain for the event were answered, but the unseasonable cold remained. Elder Dallin H. 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. [1]
When the temple is completed, it will be about 96,000 square feet in size, and will serve approximately 78,000 church members in 22 stakes, including nine in Spanish Fork and six in Payson. Said Elder Oaks, "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."
Elder William R. Walker of the Quorum of the Seventy addressed the congregation during the ceremony. Elder Walker is the executive director of the Church's Temple Department. Other speakers on the program were Elder Walker's wife, Vicki V. Walker, and Elder Steven E. Snow of the Presidency of the Seventy.
