Groundbreaking ceremonies were held for the Missoula Montana Temple on Saturday, June 6, one of two groundbreaking ceremonies held for the new House of the Lord of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The service in Missoula, Montana, took place just one hour after ground was broken for the Springfield Missouri Temple. Both ceremonies were first reported on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Elder Jose A. Teixeira, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Church’s United States General Area, presided over the event in Missoula, accompanied by his wife, Sister Filomena Teixeira. He spoke about the temple site and the construction of the sacred building and offered the dedicatory prayer.
“May this temple that is being built here be a beacon of light and truth for the youth of your Church,” Elder Teixeira prayed. “May they come to know the Savior more deeply within these sacred walls.”
The Missoula Temple, currently under construction, will be the third House of the Lord in the state, following the Billings Montana Temple, which was dedicated in 1999, and the Helena Montana Temple, which was dedicated in 2023.
Missoula Montana Stake youth Isabel Duncan, who spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony, recalled both the excitement of hearing then-Church President Russell M. Nelson announce the House of the Lord in Missoula in 2022 and the experience of attending the 2023 Helena Temple open house.
“The temple has pictures of Christ that remind us of him and why we choose to live the gospel,” she said. “He is the perfect example of kindness, charity, service, obedience, grace, and compassion.”
Craig Bell, also of the Missoula Stake, spoke about the purpose of temples throughout ancient and modern history.
“They are places where God’s people sought to draw closer to God, participate in sacred ceremonies, and deepen their commitment to obey God,” he said.
About the Missoula Temple and Church in Montana
On April 3, 2022, President Nelson announced this house of the Lord in Missoula. It was one of 17 temple locations he identified in general conference for Montpelier, including a temple in neighboring Idaho.
As previously announced, the master home in Missoula will be a one-story building measuring approximately 19,000 square feet. This sacred building will be constructed on a 5.08-acre site at the intersection of Old Bitterroot Road and Lower Miller Creek Road in Missoula, western Montana. An auxiliary building is also planned to be constructed on the site.
The Church’s first branch in Montana was established in Lima in the southwestern part of the state in 1895, and the Montana Mission was organized the following year. The first stake was established in June 1953 in Butte.
By the end of the 1920s, the church in Montana had grown to 10 branches and 1,181 members. Membership increased to 5,210 in 1940 and 6,416 in 1950.
Currently, there are more than 52,000 Latter-day Saints living in 140 wards and branches in Montana.
—Church News reporter Joel Randall contributed to this report.
