Elder Clark G. Gilbert of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the Cody Wyoming Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Sunday, October 25, 2026.

The Temple is located in the Big Horn Basin, which many consider to have been the last Western frontier in the United States. The land was isolated and acrid, Elder Gilbert said, and winters were cold and water was scarce. Building a community under such conditions required vision, commitment and a willingness to sacrifice.

Today’s Latter-day Saints aren’t called to settle physical, wilderness frontiers. But they do face personal, spiritual frontiers, Elder Gilbert said — frontiers like becoming converted, returning to Church, fulfilling callings or relinquishing anything that diminishes the Spirit’s voice.

“May we mark this temple dedication as an invitation to go to the spiritual frontiers in our own lives,” Elder Gilbert said. “As we do, I promise that we will become who the Lord needs us to become. …

“I add my witness that He lives and He is beckoning us to the frontier.”

The Lord’s Frontiers

“Elder Kim B. Clark used to say that if you want to know the Savior, go to the frontier because that is where He does His work,” Elder Gilbert said of the former BYU-Idaho president and emeritus General Authority Seventy. “Why does the Lord do His work at the frontier? Because that’s where the greatest growth and development happens. It’s also where He is most needed.”

Elder Gilbert suggested four characteristics of the Lord’s frontiers:

1. “The Lord will show us our own spiritual frontiers if we ask Him.”
2. “The Lord’s frontiers take us to places we have never been.”
3. “The Lord’s frontiers take us to places that He wants us to go.”
4. “The Lord doesn’t leave us alone at the frontier.”

Regarding the first characteristic, Elder Gilbert recounted the New Testament story of the rich young man who approached the Savior and asked, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” (Matthew 19:16).

When Jesus Christ replied that he should keep all the commandments, the young man said, “All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?” (Matthew 19:20). Asking that question to the Savior — “What lack I yet?” — will “take us to our spiritual frontiers,” Elder Gilbert said.

Regarding the second characteristic, Elder Gilbert said that, similar to how early Big Horn Basin pioneers had to clear sagebrush land and bring in irrigation water for their crops, “we have to make efforts to cultivate the spiritual frontiers in our lives. The Lord declared that He would have His people ‘redeem Zion, and establish her waste places’ (Doctrine and Covenants 101:75), even when the field looks difficult to cultivate. … He will help us reclaim the waste places in our lives.”

Regarding the third characteristic, Elder Gilbert said there was a time, early in his discipleship, in which he was called to sacrifice for the Lord, “but I wanted to choose the terms and conditions of the offering.” However, the Lord didn’t ask the ancient Israelites to give their wounded or struggling flocks; neither did He ask for sacrifices that were easy to offer at the altar.

“His call for an unblemished lamb was a symbol of the Savior, Jesus Christ,” Elder Gilbert said. “But I also believe it required His people to make the sacrifices that He had outlined, not the sacrifices that would be easier for His people to bring forth.”

Regarding the fourth circumstance, Elder Gilbert promised that the Lord doesn’t leave His people alone at the frontier. Sometimes His aid comes in unimagined ways, like the ram in the thicket (see Genesis 22) or Laban at Nephi’s feet (see 1 Nephi 4). Other times, His aid will simply come through the hastening, joy and light that attends those who work beside the Savior.

Wyoming is home to nearly 67,000 Latter-day Saints in more than 170 wards and branches.

The single 10 a.m. dedicatory session was broadcast to congregations throughout the temple district and rebroadcast at 2 p.m. It is the Church’s 227th dedicated temple, the third in Wyoming and the first temple dedicated by Elder Gilbert since he became an Apostle in February 2026. It follows the Star Valley Wyoming Temple, dedicated in 2016, and the Casper Wyoming Temple, dedicated in 2024.

Glenn and Erica Nielson donated the land on which the Cody temple now stands.

Erica Nielson said she’s looking forward to giving the hours she once spent on the road to the temple. “What a huge blessing. You can be in the house of the Lord more. You can be an ordinance worker.”

“It just changes everything for the people who are able to serve and worship there,” Glenn Nielson said.

Worland Wyoming Stake President Duane Whitlock said Saints in the Bighorn Basin already feel a connection to the Cody temple. “This is our time. We get to see this,” President Whitlock said. “We get to witness this miracle of having a temple right in our backyard.”

Elder Gilbert was accompanied by his wife, Christine; Elder Jeremiah J. Morgan, a General Authority Seventy and an assistant executive director of the Church’s Temple Department, and his wife, Rebecca; Elder I. Raymond Egbo, also a General Authority Seventy and an assistant executive director of the Church’s Temple Department, and his wife, Comfort; and Elder James G.O. Fantone, a General Authority Seventy and a member of the United States Central Area Presidency, and his wife, Cynthia.

Groundbreaking date announced for the Lehi Utah Temple

The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced the groundbreaking date for the Lehi Utah Temple.

The groundbreaking ceremony will be held on Saturday, December 5, 2026. Elder John A. McCune, a member of the Utah Area Presidency, will preside at the event.

Utah is home to approximately 2.2 million members of the Church, who meet in more than 5,000 congregations.

The Lehi Utah Temple was announced in April 2024.

Dedicated temples in Utah are the Bountiful, Brigham City, Cedar City, Deseret Peak, Draper, Ephraim, Jordan River, Layton, Lindon, Logan, Manti, Monticello, Mount Timpanogos, Ogden, Oquirrh Mountain, Orem, Payson, Provo City Center, Red Cliffs, Saratoga Springs, St. George, Syracuse, Taylorsville and Vernal Utah Temples.

In addition to the Lehi Utah Temple, seven other temples in Utah have been announced or are under construction or renovation.

Latter-day Saints consider each temple a house of the Lord and the most sacred place of worship on earth. Temples differ from the Church’s meetinghouses (chapels). All are welcome to attend Sunday worship services and other weekday activities at local meetinghouses. The primary purpose of temples is for faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ to participate in sacred ceremonies such as marriages, which allow families to be united forever, and proxy baptisms on behalf of deceased ancestors who did not have the opportunity to be baptized while living.