REXBURG, Idaho — With Rexburg to become Idaho’s first city with two temples, the Gem State isn’t losing its luster anytime soon.

Hundreds gathered for the groundbreaking of the Teton River Idaho Temple on Saturday, June 1, with clear skies and warm weather to contrast hail and rain in recent weeks. “The Lord is smiling down,” said one attendee.

Elder Ricardo P. Giménez, a General Authority Seventy and second counselor in the North America Central Area presidency, presided over the ceremony, joined by his wife, Sister Catherine Giménez.

Others in attendance included Elder Alvin F. Meredith III, a General Authority Seventy and president of nearby BYU–Idaho, and his wife, Sister Jennifer Meredith; Idaho Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke and his wife, Sarah Bedke; Rexburg Mayor Jerry Merrill and his wife, Marianne Merrill; and Sugar City Mayor Steven Adams and his wife, Michelle Adams.

In a prayer to dedicate the site for temple construction, Elder Giménez said: “Help us, O Father, to secure our foundation upon Jesus Christ, to be able to stand strong and secure because our spiritual foundation is solid and immovable. Because of this, we ask Thee, Father, for Thy help in our efforts to build ourselves and be prepared to partake of the eternal blessings available in Thy holy houses.”

Guidance back to a heavenly home

Noting the beauty of the groundbreaking event’s sunny climate, Elder Giménez shared that “we can see the hand of the Lord in the things that are important to Him.” He testified to those in attendance that the reason they were all there was because of the Savior, Jesus Christ.

“He’s behind everything in our lives,” said Elder Giménez. “He is the reason why we can receive strength, guidance, forgiveness, is because of His infinite love and His infinite sacrifice for us.”

In the temple, Saints can learn about the plan of salvation and make covenants that can strengthen them in their journey back to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Elder Giménez said, “Heavenly Father wants all of us to return home and to have joy and comfort in our lives. He will never, ever leave us alone. That’s why He has created the plan for us — so we can return home.”

The house of the Lord, he said, is a tool Saints have in these latter days to be guided in their mortal journey and receive strength to move forward.

“And yes, sometimes it’s going to be challenging,” he said, “but we trust, we love, and we keep moving forward. And one day, we will look back, and we will connect the dots, and we will understand — and every promise will be fulfilled.”

‘The cleanliness and beauty of this place’

Trixie Smith, a young woman from the Terreton Idaho Stake, shared with those at the groundbreaking that when she attends the temple to do baptisms for the dead, she seeks wisdom and guidance for hard decisions.

“I don’t always receive an answer,” she said, “but I never leave the temple feeling worse about the situation.” She continued, “You will never leave the temple and think, ‘Wow, I wish I didn’t do that today.’”

Although Rexburg will soon have two temples within 5 miles of each other, she said, “I can almost guarantee you that they will constantly be busy with faithful members of the Church coming to serve and participate in the gathering of Israel.”

Rebekah Russell of the Rexburg Idaho YSA 1st Stake shared that in 1855, Brigham Young sent a party of early Latter-day Saint pioneers to Idaho’s Upper Snake River Valley to see if it could be settled.

They returned and recounted the region’s harsh winters that seemed to take up most of the year. Yet Brigham Young told them: “That’s all right, perfectly all right. When we need that country it will be all right and we will settle it.”

Russell said, “And so pioneers continued to establish the city of Rexburg, bent on following the direction of a Prophet of God and bent on permanency.”

She invited listeners to draw closer to the Lord and make the temple a permanent addition to their lives, especially through frequent attendance and keeping temple covenants.

“I know that it is worth every ounce of our effort to be in the house of the Lord, even if it requires you to endure a bitter winter.”

Brent Kinghorn, patriarch of the Sugar City Idaho Stake, has called Sugar City home for over 80 years of his life. “To one who never thought there would be a temple in Rexburg, I’m overwhelmed to think we’re going to get one even closer to where we live.”

The collapse of the Teton Dam in 1976, he pointed out, sent a mighty wave of water from the Teton River Canyon and engulfed the region, including the temple site.

“I wonder … if perhaps that flood cleansed this location for a future temple,” said Kinghorn, “and that the work here that will be accomplished can do so because of the cleanliness and beauty of this place.”

How attendees were taught by the Spirit

Kassandra Mackley of the Rexburg Idaho YSA 4th Stake has been to the temple site several times before the groundbreaking, but she said it feels different now that the grounds have been dedicated.

“Knowing in just a few short years what this place is going to be is so beautiful,” she told the Church News. “Where are all of us going to be in a few years? If we can turn this place into a beautiful temple, what can the Savior do with us?”

Randy Lords, superintendent of the Madison School District in Rexburg, said he is excited that students will have more opportunities to serve in the house of the Lord.

“It’s fun to go to our schools and see students who have come from the temple before school to start their day,” he said. “So I think that we’re seeing a great push by the rising generation to be in the temple, to make covenants and to serve their ancestors.”

President Greg Venema, president of the Rexburg Idaho YSA 11th Stake, felt peace and comfort at the groundbreaking as he recognized the individual strength a temple will bring.

“This is the way the Lord is blessing us in this difficult time to be able to have temples close to remind us of the permanence of our covenants, to help us to get through whatever is coming.”

President Venema’s wife, Sister Bonnie Venema, felt the Spirit’s powerful witness that this was sacred ground preserved for a purpose.

“I love the idea of being still,” she said. “Attending the temple allows us probably one of the fewest places to just be still, and I think people can reverence this site by coming here and being still.”

History of the Teton River Idaho Temple

Church President Russell M. Nelson announced a temple for Rexburg North, Idaho, on Oct. 3, 2021. Rexburg had a population of approximately 39,500, making it the smallest city in the world to have a second temple announced.

The Teton River temple will be the sixth house of the Lord to be built in the same city as another operating temple. It will also be built on the same street as the Rexburg Idaho Temple.

Located on a 16.6-acre site northwest of Second East and 2000 North in Rexburg, Idaho, the Teton River temple will have approximately 100,000 square feet.

This will be the ninth temple built in Idaho, which is currently home to more than 470,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A jury in Idaho on Saturday unanimously agreed that convicted killer Chad Daybell deserves the death penalty for the gruesome murders of his wife and his girlfriend’s two youngest children — ending a grim case that began in 2019 with a search for two missing children.

The 55-year-old Daybell, wearing a dress shirt and tie, sat with his hands in his lap at the defense table. He showed no emotion when learning he would face the death penalty for the murders of Tammy Daybell; 16-year-old Tylee Ryan; and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow.

The mother of the children is Lori Vallow Daybell, whom Chad Daybell married shortly after his wife’s death. Vallow Daybell was convicted last year in the three murders and is now awaiting trial in Arizona, charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow. Charles Vallow was JJ’s father.

The case began in 2019, when a family member called police. Investigators soon realized both children were missing, and a multistate search ensued. Nearly a year later, their remains were found buried on Chad Daybell’s property. Tylee’s DNA was later found on a pickaxe and shovel in a shed on the property, and JJ’s body was wrapped in trash bags and duct tape, prosecutors have said.

During a nearly two-month-long trial, prosecutors said Chad Daybell, a self-published author who wrote doomsday-laced fiction, promoted unusual spiritual beliefs including apocalyptic prophecies and tales of possession by evil spirits in order to justify the killings.

Daybell’s defense attorney, John Prior, argued during the trial that there wasn’t enough evidence to tie Daybell to the killings, and suggested Vallow Daybell’s older brother, Alex Cox, was the culprit. Cox died in late 2019 and was never charged, and Vallow Daybell was convicted last year and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

During the sentencing hearing, Prior asked the jurors to judge Daybell on his life before he met Vallow Daybell, describing her as a bomb that blew him off the trajectory of an otherwise wholesome life. But Daybell also declined to offer any mitigating evidence during the sentencing hearing. Mitigating evidence is often used to encourage jurors to have sympathy for a defendant in an effort to show that a life sentence would be more appropriate than capital punishment.

Family members of the victims gave emotional statements to the jurors. JJ Vallow’s grandmother, Kay Woodcock, tearfully described how the 7-year-old would show empathy and compassion to others through soft touches and by frequently asking if those around him were OK. She also said Tylee was a doting big sister, and that it warmed her heart to see them together.

“I can’t express just how much I wish for more time to create memories,” Woodcock said, beginning to weep.

Vallow Daybell’s oldest child, Colby Ryan, described what it was like to lose his entire family. His father died years earlier.

“My three kids will never know the kindness of Tylee’s heart or JJ’s silly and goofy personality … The only way I could describe the impact of their lives being lost is like a nuclear bomb dropping,” he said. “It’s not an overstatement to say that I lost everything.”

To impose the death penalty, the jurors had to unanimously find that Daybell met at least one of the “aggravating circumstances” that state law says qualifies someone for capital punishment. They also had to agree that those aggravating factors weren’t outweighed by any mitigating factors that might have lessened his culpability or justified a lesser sentence.

Idaho law allows for execution by lethal injection or firing squad, though firing squad executions have never been used in the state.

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission will host two public workshops Tuesday to share information on an application from a northern Idaho water utility to increase the rates and charges for water service.

CDS Stoneridge Utilities, based in Blanchard, is seeking approval from the commission to increase rates. 

The North Idaho utility serves approximately 384 residential and commercial customers in the area. The utility said it has invested more than $900,000 in its system since 2018. To recover the investment, the utility is asking the commission for approval to increase rates for customers by an average of 261%.

Date: June 4
Times: 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m, and 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Blanchard Community Center, 684 Rusho Lane

Commission staff will be present to give an overview of the water utility’s application and to answer any questions from the public. 

For those unable to attend either workshop, a video presentation of it will be posted to the commission’s homepage in the “News Updates” section.

The commission is accepting written comments on the utility’s application until Aug. 7. Comments are required to be filed through the commission’s website or by e-mail using case number SWS-W-24-01. If computer access is not available, users can mail their comments to: 

Commission Secretary
Idaho Public Utilities Commission
P.O. Box 83720
Boise, ID 83720-0074

Additional information on CDS Stoneridge’s application is available on the Idaho Public Utilities Commission website here.