Reviews

As Latter-day Saints, we are unique in our desire to flood the earth with temples. In this uniqueness, we have encountered a lot of opposition, and each and every temple has its own story of trials, tragedies, and miracles surrounding its building and operation. The St. George Temple is no different, and this is the story told by Blaine Yorgason in his new nonfiction book, “All That Was Promised.”

After the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the leadership of the Church fell to Brigham Young, who was at the time the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Brother Brigham led the migration of the Saints to the west where they settled in Utah, and before long, he asked various members to spread out and expand the reach of the Church. Some of those Saints were sent to St. George, and Brigham Young lived there for a time as well.

The Saints had left behind both the Kirtland Temple and the Nauvoo Temple, and this was a terrible loss. They needed that constant source of strength and power as they faced starting over in a new land with few resources.

Before Joseph Smith was martyred, he saw to it that the Twelve had their endowments and the other sacred keys bestowed through temple work, and then he asked Brigham Young to organize the information and prepare it for the Saints. In addition, he charged Brigham to make sure that the Saints had every opportunity for temple work.

The Salt Lake Temple site was chosen right after the Saints arrived in the valley, but it would take years to complete. The odds were very likely that Brigham would die before it was finished, and he could not pass along the sacred authority to another leader anywhere but in a temple. So he was inspired to build another temple, this one in St. George, one that would not take as long to complete and would be fully operational before the temple in Salt Lake was finished. In this way, the Saints would not have to travel to the Endowment House in Salt Lake City to receive the temple blessings they craved, and Brigham Young could have comfort in knowing that the keys were passed along before his death.

The first portion of this volume discusses the settlement of the St. George area and the difficulties experienced by the Saints who were called to establish it. It was a solid five years before they were able to get a toehold in-their crops routinely failed and they faced any number of other challenges before things smoothed out. Brigham Young told them it was a splendid area to raise Saints, meaning that their challenges would refine them.

It was in the year 1871 that Brother Brigham announced his idea for a St. George temple, and the Saints cheered. It wasn’t long after that the plans were made official, including a description of the temple itself. There had been some concerns with unfriendly Indians in the area and it seemed the opposition did not want this temple built, for nearly as soon as the plans were made, the Indian situation became worse. The book tells of the intrepid pioneers’ determination to overcome this trial, and also includes the dedicatory prayer that was offered over the temple site at the groundbreaking ceremony in the fall of 1871.

It was soon discovered that the site for the temple was a bog, and it became a challenge to prepare a foundation that would hold the weight of the structure. During the first year and a half of temple construction, it became a challenge to keep the workers fed, but then they built a small bakery on the temple grounds and that eased some of the burden. Sadly, the food shortage was wide-spread and it took help from many others to alleviate the problem. Readers of history and those who enjoy the study of construction will appreciate reading up on how the building was actually constructed and the measures the Saints undertook to keep the project moving forward.

After the dedication, President Young finally had the opportunity to do what Joseph Smith had asked-he worked on and refined the endowment ceremony until he felt it was right, and it was that ceremony that was used until the turn of the century. It was in the St. George Temple that the temple workers organized their system of record keeping so they would know which work had been performed and which hadn’t. These things had to be figured out as they went along, by inspiration-temple work had never been done so extensively before, especially in regards to doing proxy work for the dead.

The St. George Temple is a beautiful landmark and a beacon to many, but perhaps it is the most famous for an event that happened there to Wilford Woodruff, who served as the temple’s first president. He recorded that the spirits of the dead waited upon him for two days and two nights, wanting to speak to him about their own redemption. They were the Founding Fathers of the nation and other eminent individuals who had done much to prepare the way for religious freedom in America, and they now desired their temple work done as well. President Woodruff was more than happy to see to it on their behalf.

The book contains photographs, which I always enjoy because they help me connect to what I’m reading. We see pictures of the quarry where the stones were procured for the building, and we see the trail where the pines were brought from the mountains. There are some pictures of the actual temple workers as well.

The last chapter of the book diverges a bit from history and instead presents to the reader compelling reasons why temple work is still performed and invites us all to learn more about it and partake of those blessings. I found this a touching way to end the book-we’ve just read the history of the building and the things that have taken place there, and now we can see how it all ties in and becomes relevant to us in our day.

If you are a student of history, a lover of temple work, or a believer in miracles, this is a book you will want to add to your “to-read” list.

***

“All That Was Promised: The St. George Temple and the Unfolding of the Restoration” by Blaine M. Yorgason with Richard A. Schmutz and Douglas D. Alder, published by Deseret Book, hardback $34.99 or $19.24 on Kindle