BURLEY, ID — For several years, Susan Young and others showed up at the Twin Falls Idaho Temple once a week at 3:30 a.m. to open the gates for the young men standing outside waiting to perform baptisms for the dead in the early morning hours.
These young people were waiting for temple workers to put on their temple clothes and head to the baptismal font.
“The whole baptistery was filled with young people sitting in white clothes,” said Young, who was the owner of Twin Falls Temple from 2016 to 2019. “There was no conversation, and it was so reverent that you could hear a pin drop.”
Young said many of these young men and women are from Burley, Idaho, and other small towns in what will become the new Burley-Idaho Temple District. Young and her husband Paul Young both live in Burley.
“I’m not surprised that the temple was built. There are some very, very brave people,” Susan Young said.
The Burley-Idaho Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was dedicated on Sunday, January 11, becoming the church’s 212th temple in operation. For people living in the area, the travel time to the temple will be reduced from 45 minutes to about five minutes.
The Church announced that President Dallin H. Oaks will dedicate the temple. This will be the first temple he will dedicate as president of the Church, and the first temple will be dedicated in 2026.
Elder Stephen R. Bangerter, a General Authority Seventy and executive director of the temple division, spoke at the beginning of the open house, praising members of the Church in the area who have prayed for the temple.
“They have been on their knees praying that there would be a temple of God in their midst,” he said. “And now this temple will be filled with the youth of Zion.”
The temple is located on a farm that was farmed by a family that settled in the Magic Valley of Idaho. Leroy Funk and his brothers donated the land they grew up on and farmed for decades. He believes the efforts of early Latter-day Saints in the area laid the foundation.
“This place is here because of the faithful people who came before us,” Funk said. “The Lord is in charge and puts people where they need to be.”
Design motifs throughout the temple are drawn from local landscapes, including the sugar beet and potato fields that the Magic Valley is known for. Art glass patterns inside the temple highlight the potato flowers and leaves. The color palette is shades of blue, gold, amber, cream, orange, peach and green, linking local farmland with the wide open sky.
Located along the historic Oregon Trail, the Burley area has a long history of Latter-day Saint pioneers and settlers.
In 1879, William C. Martindale led a company from Tooele County, Utah, to the Goose Creek Valley. They found a Latter-day Saint family who had already claimed land and built a cabin with other non-Latter-day Saint families. The first chapter of 14 members met in a log cabin in May 1880.
The open house brought about many miracles.
Although Burley is often cold and windy throughout November, the public opening began on a sunny and unseasonably warm day on Monday 3 November. And that continued throughout the month, especially on the three Saturdays during the public viewing period when most people could attend.
Dee and Bonnie Jones, coordinators of the Barley Temple’s open house and dedication committee, joked that they were offering sunscreen to those standing outside because it was so warm.
Other logistical challenges were also resolved along with the Joneses’ preparations. Bonnie Jones said it was beautiful to sit and watch everything come together.
“Because it is God’s work and God’s house,” she said.
Dee Jones said, “It was very clear throughout the process that we were led by the Holy Spirit.”
The Joneses said they saw friends from church visiting the temple and feeling the Spirit of the Lord there.
“I think this confirms the lasting testimony we already have of the Savior and that this is His work and that the temple is His holy home,” Dee Jones said.
The tours included 143 tours in Spanish, nine tours in American Sign Language, and one tactile tour for people with disabilities.
Stephanie Smith Sultan from Meridian, Idaho, said during the tour that the heavenly room “felt like heaven.”
“I loved how the hosts emphasized the love of our Heavenly Father,” she said.
Elder Bangerter said the temple’s beauty “represents our love for God and our dedication to Him and our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
temples in idaho
On April 4, 2021, then-Church President Russell M. Nelson announced that the House of the Lord would be established in Burley, Idaho. It was one of 20 locations he identified during April 2021 general conference, including temples in five neighboring states.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held on June 4, 2022, marking the beginning of the construction phase of the Temple of Bali. The event was presided over by Elder Brent H. Nielson, a native of Burley, then a member of the Presidency of the Seventy and later made an honorary member in 2024.
“Soon the temple will be your home, and I hope that as you feel and understand that, this will be a wonderful place for you to find solace, peace, joy and happiness,” he said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Barley Temple is one of 11 Houses of the Lord in Idaho in various stages of operation, construction, and planning.
Six of the temples operate in Idaho Falls (dedicated in 1945), Boise (1984), Rexburg (2008), Twin Falls (2008), Meridian (2017), and Pocatello (2021).
Two houses of the Lord are under construction in Idaho: the Montpelier Idaho Temple starting June 2023 and the Teton River Idaho Temple starting June 2024. The latter will be Rexburg’s second temple.
Two temples are in the planning stage. The Codahoe Idaho Temple will be announced in October 2024 and the Caldwell Idaho Temple will be announced in April 2025.
In 1855, early church pioneers first settled at Fort Lemhi in Idaho (then part of Oregon Territory). Fourteen years later, Idaho’s first Bear Lake Stake was organized in 1869. Presidents of the Church Harold B. Lee, Ezra Taft Benson, and Howard W. Hunter were born in Idaho.
Currently, there are approximately 500,000 Latter-day Saints living in approximately 1,300 congregations in Idaho.
Burley Idaho Temple
Address: 40 S. 150 East, Burley, Idaho 83318
Announcement: April 4, 2021, President Russell M. Nelson
Groundbreaking ceremony: June 4, 2022, presided over by Elder Brent H. Nielson of the Presidency of the Seventy
Open to the public: November 6 to November 22, 2025, except Sundays.
Dedication date: January 11, 2026, President Dallin H. Oaks
Site area: 10.12 acres
Building size: 45,300 square feet
Building height: 172 feet (including spire)
