Ground broken for new Latter-day Saint temple in Idaho
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COEUR D’ALENE — Construction is officially underway on a new temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in northern Idaho.
Church leaders and members gathered Saturday for a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the future Coeur d’Alene Idaho Temple.
Elder Hutch U. Fale of the Church’s United States West Area Presidency presided over the ceremony and offered the dedicatory prayer before participants ceremonially turned the soil.
“God cares how we treat His children,” Fale said. “Each and every meetinghouse, and especially each and every house of the Lord, is a reminder that we are all His children.”
In his prayer, Fale asked for blessings on Coeur d’Alene and surrounding communities as construction begins.
“Please bless this community, even the surrounding areas, that all may see and witness that Thy Son and His holy house are a symbol and source of peace, the true peace that is only available through Him,” he prayed.
Several Latter-day Saints from northern Idaho also spoke during the ceremony, including 17-year-old Edyn Beesley of Post Falls, who joined the Church at age 16 and recalled visiting a temple for the first time shortly after her baptism.
“I told my dad after visiting that it felt like coming home,” Beesley said in a news release. “I felt the closest I’d felt with the Lord.”
Other speakers from Hayden Lake, Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry discussed their experiences worshipping in temples and the importance of making and keeping covenants.
The Coeur d’Alene temple was announced in October 2024. It is one of 11 Latter-day Saint temples announced, under construction or operating in Idaho. Other temple locations include Boise, Burley, Caldwell, Idaho Falls, Meridian, Montpelier, Pocatello, Rexburg, Teton River and Twin Falls.
More than 480,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints live in Idaho and worship in approximately 1,300 congregations.