Saratoga Springs Utah Temple
On 5 September 2019, an official rendering of the Saratoga Springs Utah Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was released with the announcement of the groundbreaking ceremony. The groundbreaking will take place on Saturday, 19 October 2019. Attendance at the ceremony is by invitation only, with the public living in the general area invited to view the proceedings live from local meetinghouses. Elder Craig C. Christensen, General Authority Seventy and president of the Utah Area of the Church, will preside over the event.
The Saratoga Springs Utah Temple was announced by then-Church President Thomas S. Monson on 2 April 2017, during the Sunday morning session of general conference.
The new Utah temple will be located in the new Beacon Pointe subdivision, west of Redwood Road and north of Meadow Side Drive.Plans call for a three-story temple of approximately 87,000 square feet. An adjacent 21,000-square-foot meetinghouse will also be built. The temple site is 22.7 acres in total and sits near the western shores of Utah Lake.
There are currently seventeen temples in operation in Utah. President Russell M. Nelson has announced temples to be constructed in Layton (April 2018 general conference), Washington County (October 2018 general conference), and Tooele Valley (April 2019 general conference). The St. George Utah Temple will close on 4 November 2019, and the Salt Lake Temple will close soon after, on 28 December 2019, each for extensive renovations.
The Saratoga Springs Utah Temple will be the eighteenth temple built in Utah and the fifth built in Utah County, following the Provo Utah Temple (1972), the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple (1996), the Payson Utah Temple (2015), and the Provo City Center Temple (2016).
Saratoga Springs is a recently established Utah community, incorporated in 1997, located on the west side of Utah Lake in northern Utah County. Church membership in Saratoga Springs and the bordering communities of Lehi and Eagle Mountain has grown rapidly over the past twenty years. There are currently seven stakes in Saratoga Springs, fourteen stakes in Lehi, and eight in Eagle Mountain. The stakes that will belong to the temple district have not been determined.
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Groundbreaking Ceremony for Saratoga Springs Utah Temple
Elder Craig C. Christensen, Utah area president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, presided at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Saratoga Springs Utah Temple in northern Utah County, about 40 minutes south of downtown Salt Lake City on Saturday, 19 October 2019. Members of the Area Presidency were also in attendance.
Latter-day Saint and community leaders, along with local clergy, attended the traditional ceremony. Guests were invited to turn over a spade of dirt using ceremonial shovels. The event marks the beginning of construction of the three-story, approximately 87,000-square-foot temple. The public living in the general area was invited to watch the proceedings, which were broadcast to local meetinghouses.
Elder Christensen expressed the love of President Russell M. Nelson and the senior leaders of Church when he said,"We are gathered here under their direction." He also said he walked the temple site about a month ago,and after he had "absorbed the prominence of this particular setting, [he] started to picture in [his] mind’s eye the construction of the temple over the coming months." Then something more important occurred. He said, "I started to think about what will take place within the walls of the temple once it is completed and dedicated, the sacred ordinances and covenants that will be administered here. I realized, in a more profound way, how this particular temple will bless many individuals and families, including your children, your marriages, your families, and, especially, many of your ancestors." He continued, "This is the place where your children and families will be protected from the evils that are ever present in the world today, and to make sacred covenants with the Lord."
Saratoga Springs resident Jennifer Raventos said her family is excited to have the temple literally in their backyard. She said, "We’ve been excited ever since President Monson announced the temple two and a half years ago. The temple, to me, is a place that represents everything that is important; it represents our testimony of Jesus Christ and the strength of the family. It represents all that we believe in."
Elder Walter F. González, a counselor in the Utah Area Presidency, commented that the temple is a reminder especially for those living near the temple. He said, "Just by watching and seeing from their windows, the temple will remind them of the invitation that we just received from President Nelson on making an appointment with the Lord and being faithful."
The temple, announced in April 2017 by then-Church President Thomas S. Monson, is located at 897 South Ensign Drive, in the new Beacon Pointe subdivision, west of Redwood Road and north of Meadow Side Drive. An adjacent 21,000-square-foot meetinghouse will also be built. Utah currently has 17 operating temples. In addition to the one in Saratoga Springs, temples have also been announced in the following locations: Layton, Orem, Taylorsville, Tooele Valley, and Washington County.
