The Elder Michael A. DunnSecond Counselor in the North America Southwest Area Presidency, presided at the groundbreaking for the Austin Texas Temple.
Elder Dunn welcomed local leaders of other faiths who attended the groundbreaking. “You honor us by your presence,” he told them. “We want you to know that we believe this is the House of the Lord and that it is not just ours, it is also yours.”
Glen Hancock, a member of a local Latter-day Saint congregation, echoed those words. “We hope the feeling in this community is that this temple belongs to everyone,” he said. “After all, we are all children of the same God.”
In the dedicatory prayer offered at the end of his remarks, Elder Dunn said: “Help us as a people to continue to stand firm on holy ground, drawing closer to heaven, even as heaven draws closer to us in the form of this magnificent Austin Texas Temple.”
Allie LaFeber, a young speaker from the Round Rock Stake, said her older brother died of cancer before she was born. She grew up hearing stories about him, holding in her heart the hope that one day she would meet him.
“Because of the Savior’s Atonement and the eternal perspective temples give us, I know we can live together as families with our Heavenly Father,” LaFeber said.
He Austin Texas Templethat the President Nelson announced in April 2022, will be built on a 10.6-acre (4.3-hectare) site adjacent to an existing meetinghouse located at 1801 E. Park Street, Cedar Park, Texas. Plans call for a single-story temple of approximately 30,000 square feet (2,800 square meters).
In addition to the Austin Texas Temple, the Lone Star State has eight other Houses of the Lord in operation, under construction, or announced. These are the Austin Texas Temple,Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Houston Texas South, Lubbock, McKinney, McAllen y Saint Anthony.
Located in the central part of the southern United States, Texas first welcomed missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ in 1843. In 1898, about three hundred members of the Church settled on land purchased by the Church in northeast Texas, which later became the Kelsey Colony.
The Church in Texas has grown rapidly in recent decades, with more than 132,000 Latter-day Saints in 1985, rising to just over 210,000 in 2000. Texas More than 385,000 members of the Church currently reside in approximately 750 congregations.
Latter-day Saints worship in temples for a variety of reasons: to make sacred promises to God, to learn more about God’s plan for His children and the central role of Jesus Christ in that plan, and to unite families for eternity.
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