Today's Favorite Verse: Numbers 10:33-34

Today's Favorite Verse: Numbers 10:33-34

"And they departed from the mount of the Lord three days' journey: and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them in the three days' journey, to search out a resting place for them.

And the cloud of the Lord was upon them by day, when they went out of the camp."

This made me think about the preliminary research that goes into finding a place to build a temple. How there are those with the assignment to scout out properties for the prophet to look at. There is inspiration that comes from finding prospective temple sites. Here is just one recent example.

"Only a few people knew that President Russell M. Nelson was visiting potential temple sites last November in Utah’s Tooele Valley.

Three months earlier, he and his counselors in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had announced that they had withdrawn plans to build the Tooele Valley Utah Temple and an accompanying housing development around it in Erda.

The First Presidency had determined that a temple in the valley still was needed, so a member of the Presiding Bishopric was dispatched to look at possible sites.

“He went back with recommendations and then shortly after that, President Nelson came out personally, because he wanted to be sure,” said Richard Droubay, chair of the temple committee.

Church presidents have a long history of identifying temple sites in their roles as prophets, dating back to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.

One of the Tooele Valley sites under consideration was owned by Perry Homes Utah, which was in the midst of rolling out a major suburban housing development on the west edge of Tooele City.

“President Nelson came to this site, along with some other sites, but then he came back to this site and said, ‘This is where we build the temple,’” Droubay said. “And that means a lot, obviously. To have his presence in the valley means a lot, but to have his stamp on this piece of property is amazing.”

(Tad Walch, "More on the Deseret Peak Utah Temple", Deseret News, 27 May 2021)

Day 2286