The Cedar City Utah, Temple for Ann and Jane

Cedar City Temple President Daniel M. Jones said, “On August 8, 2015 as we listened to the groundbreaking choir sing, we had an enveloping feeling of our ancestors’ presence.”

I have been so grateful to sit on the Cedar City Temple Public Affairs Committee.  As such my main responsibility was to write the Cedar City Temple newsletter. 

As I have written the newsletter, I have been able to hear and share the stories of so many who have been a part of this great work.  But above all, I have felt the presence of the founding pioneers of Cedar City and their rejoicing in the building of this temple. When the groundbreaking took place for this temple on August 8, 2015, the veil became thin.  The priesthood power became evident.   Boyd K. Packer said, "The sealing power of the priesthood is the only power that can reach on both sides of the veil." 

After a little digging, I found that I had two ancestors of my own ancestors who were here during the early days of settlement- Jane Nelson Morgan Patterson(maternal line) and Ann Pearsall Jackson (paternal line).

 In 1853 Jane and her husband Andrew headed south to Cedar city where Andrew worked in the mines.  They lived in a dugout all winter.  Finally, they completed their first proper home, a log cabin where Jane gave birth to their daughter, Catherine.  
Tragedy once again found Jane when two sons Andrew (1855) and Alexander (1856) died of starvation in Cedar City.

  Ann Pearsall Jackson(paternal line) worked as a maid in the Henry Lunt's home  (my husband's great great grandfather) in 1874.  She received her patriarchal blessing in Cedar City and was sealed by proxy to her husband William on June 2nd 1880 (William died in 1858) in the St. George Temple.

 I then think of my own grandparents, Max and Ruth Weaver  coming to cedar city in 1957.  My Grandfather Max came to teach art at CSU.  They stayed until 1961.  My dad and his brother Kurt graduated from high school here.  They all came to love the red rocks of Southern Utah.  Two of the sons, Kimball (my dad) and Edwynn returned to raise their families here.  I wish Grandma and Grandpa could be here to see the temple.  I wondered if they ever imagined a temple would one day rise up on the hill!

Lest we Forget...

While the Cedar City Temple is indeed reminiscent of pioneer temples and structures, it did not require the martyrdom of its prophet (Nauvoo temple),  it was not built as hostiles sought the demise of the saints nor during extreme poverty (Kirtland temple), it did not require a canon with which to pound volcanic rock into the earth to secure its foundation(St. George temple) nor did it require two years of dynamite blasting to prepare the footings and the foundation and then another 9 years for completion, (Manti temple).  But it did require generations of faith- the first Mormons entered the valley in 1850.  The temple will be dedicated on December 10, 2017.  This event has been 167 years in the making.

I will cherish December 10, 2017 the day of the Temple Dedication and the days proceeding it.  I express gratitude for so many who will be on this side of the veil and now on the other who sacrificed so Cedar City Could have its own temple.  The heavens will rejoice and I with them.   God lives, loves, and is always aware of us if we but ask.

Now we go to work- to work in the temple!

End note:

Lunt along with W.H. Dame survey and laid out what was called Cedar Fort.  This plat was recorded in 1852.  The plat included a designated temple square.  The square was to be surrounded by commercial, educational, and residential structures. the initial site of the temple is not far from the temple site today. 

“What is a temple?” is the universal question. And we answer: Each temple is dedicated as “a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.” (D&C 88:119.)