BURLEY — The recently completed temple on the outskirts of the city is more than a beautiful building, church members say.
Even to youthful Sophia Silvaz, a sophomore at Burley High School, it means much more.
“It is a place where heaven feels close,” Silvaz said, “a place where you can find peace, love and guidance from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.”
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regard temples — almost 400 have either been completed or have been announced worldwide — as the most sacred places on earth. At an event for the media on Monday morning, members said anticipation of the Burley temple has been growing since it was announced in 2021.
Now that the granite-clad building has been completed, an open house will kick off Thursday and run through Sept. 22, excluding Sundays. About 100,000 people are expected to tour the temple during that time.
Jolene Graham, who lives down the street from the temple, has had a front-row seat to its construction.
“Sometimes it woke us up early in the morning,” Graham said of the construction.
She recounted that people would drive by the 10-acre site, and as they saw the steel frame gradually rise out from the ground and the exterior take shape, their focus seemed to change.
People began lingering around the site longer, staying in their cars or walking near the temple grounds, she said.
Church communication directors Dave and Heather Wilson remember when the temple’s steeple was delivered to the site and was hoisted on top of the two-story building.
“Social media must have gone wild that day,” Dave Wilson said, as people started showing up, clogging the street.
“It was a winter day in December and lots and lots of little children touched that steeple as it lay on the trailer — I touched that steeple as it lay on the trailer,” Heather Wilson said.
The Wilsons had to be patient to see inside the temple. They first saw the 35,000-square-foot building about a week ago.
A temple in Twin Falls opened in 2008, and Elder Steven R. Bangerter, the church’s general authority, said it will allow more people in the Mini-Cassia area to attend more conveniently.
“The temple, for us, lies at the heart of our efforts to draw nearer to Christ,” Bangerter said. People will now be able to enjoy the blessings from temple attendance more regularly, he said.
Temples are different from meeting houses, which dot southern Idaho. In temples, people meet for regular Sunday worship and other church activities throughout the week.
Once the temple is dedicated on Jan. 11, only members of the church in good standing will be allowed to enter. There, they will perform ordinances not just for themselves but also on behalf of the dead who didn’t have the opportunity to receive them.
But the open house allows the public to see inside and view its beauty, from the stained-glass windows with a potato flower motif in tribute to the community’s agricultural roots to the baptistry, where members of the church will be baptized in behalf of the dead, and the sealing rooms, where couples, the church teaches, can be married not just until death but for eternity.
Many of the colors seen in the temple are meant to echo the local farmland and open skies.
The artwork in the temple depicts scenes from Jesus Christ’s life, and outdoor scenes are prevalent in the temple’s interior.
Bangerter said it was built from high-quality materials, as is expected for a building with the words “In Holiness to the Lord, House of the Lord” inscribed above its entrance.
The granite on the exterior and floor came from Italy. The area rugs are crafted from New Zealand wool.
Bangerter hopes the temple will be well-used, with high school students coming early before school to perform baptisms on behalf of the dead and church members attending “endowment sessions,” where they promise to obey God’s commandments.
Bangerter said the teachings in such sessions answer three big questions: where we came from, what is the purpose of earth life, and what will happen after we die.
The celestial room of the temple is meant to be a peaceful place, symbolizing heaven in God’s presence.
“It’s a place we go to pray and to feel close to God,” Bangerter said.
He said ordinances for the dead are “an offering of service, an offering of love,” and people on the other side of the veil can accept or reject the temple work done on their behalf.
Eric Goodell reports for the Times-News.
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