Bentonville Arkansas Temple Groundbreaking

[Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] brothers and sisters and friends welcome to the groundbreaking ceremony for the bentonville arkansas temple presiding at this groundbreaking is elder david abe bednar a member of the quorum of the twelve apostles of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints my name is david harris i serve as an area 70. elder bednar has asked me to conduct this meeting also participating in today's ceremony is sister susan bednar wife of elder bednar and elder james b martino a general authority 70 and president of the north america southeast area i am joined today on the stand by my wife lisa and also by brother sean cedarholm and sister heidi cedarholm co-chairs of the temple groundbreaking committee we express appreciation to brother and sister cedar home and to their committee members who have worked diligently in preparation for today's groundbreaking attendance at this groundbreaking is limited because of covid19 concerns a video of the groundbreaking will soon be available on the church's website brother carlos montoya a counselor in the stake presidency of the springdale arkansas stake will offer the invocation our dear heavenly father we are gathered here for the groundbreaking of the construction of one of your holy houses we pray that your spirit is present i will bless your children who will participate in this beautiful ceremony the construction of the beautiful temple is a great blessing for all two sons and daughters in this area which we are humbly grateful for we are grateful for the restoration of the gospel as well for the publication of the book of mormon in all available languages and for the holy scriptures we are grateful for the faith patience vision and perseverance of the early members of the church in this area we're grateful for the growth of the church in norway's arkansas we're grateful for the generations that persevere and for the future generation of the church in this area thandi for giving us the opportunity to link the hearts of the children to their parents and of the parents to the children's we attended for the holy priesthood and for the sacred authority we attended for the prophet who guide us and direct the church we pray that your spirit will be poured out i might reach your children who seek the truth and they can feel and see the light that comes from your buildings and from the members that who always seek to be alive for the war father we ask thee to bless their leaders and their families in this area as well as the members of the church we pray for the for the protection that you always give to your missionaries all around the world we as the please strengthen our faith and makes us worthy of the blessings that your holy house will bring in this entire area strain the members in their respective stakes and help them to be successful with their families ministering callings under jobs we pray fathers that you give comfort to all those who have been affected and suffering from the consequences of the kobe 19 we as the for physical and spiritual blessings that we might feel your love and be stranded every time that we enter to your holy house we pray that your spirit can guide and inspire the leaders who will participate in this great event father we love you we love your son jesus christ we love your gospel please bless us and we ask for those all of those things with a broken heart and a country spirit in the name of our savior and redeemer jesus christ amen elder bednar has asked me to share some thoughts with you at this time after my remarks elder martino president of the north america southeast area will address us followed by sister bednar elder bednar will be the concluding speaker and will also offer the groundbreaking dedicatory prayer the benediction will then be offered by sister gina levitt a young woman from the monette ward monette missouri stake after the benediction we will go outside for the groundbreaking part russell m nelson president of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints announced during the october 2019 general conference of the church that a temple would be built in bentonville arkansas the bentonville temple will be the church's first temple in arkansas members of the church in northwest arkansas southwest missouri southeastern kansas and the surrounding areas have hoped for and prayed for many years for the time in which a temple would be built locally temples differ from our typical church buildings such as the one that we are meeting in this morning temples are special buildings reserved for the most sacred worship of our heavenly father and his son jesus christ in fact the purpose of all that we do in the church points us to our savior jesus christ building a temple here in bentonville is of great importance to the members of the church who live in this area why well there are many reasons first because of the ordinances that we receive in the temple the lord has made the ordinances and blessings of the temple available to help guide us and fortify us to meet life's challenges heavenly guidance for our lives is something that we need now more than ever members of the church go to the temples to make covenants or promises with the lord and to receive knowledge and other blessings because of his love for all people the lord has prepared a way for those who are living to provide temple ordinances by proxy for those who died before they were able to receive their ordinances consequently the blessings of the temple are offered to both the living and to those who have already passed on the temple is also of great importance because it will serve as a place of shelter and a spiritual refuge from the storms of life a temple here will also provide opportunities for many who because of the distance to other temples or physical limitations were unable to travel as often as they would have liked to perform temple service in the past the bentonville temple will require hundreds of volunteers to assist those who come to the temple to receive their ordinances temple workers these unsung members of the church who quietly perform their service in the temples will often say that not only have their own lives been blessed but the lives of their children and the lives of their children's children have also been blessed as a result of their service in the temple thus blessings are amplified when there is a temple close enough for people to go often and last an important part of the work performed in temples are the sealing ordinances when families are sealed or united together in the temple their relationships continue on beyond this life into eternity now a few comments concerning the construction of the temple the rendering of the bentonville temple has been prepared it will be a beautiful building constructed of the highest quality building materials it has been estimated that the construction of this temple will take about two years to complete to both the youth and to the adults i encourage you to do more than simply watch the progress of the construction but also to prepare spiritually to participate in temple ordinances when the temple is completed if you will prepare to enter the temple i promise that you will become more connected to your ancestors and that you will be rewarded with increased inner peace regardless of what is going on in the world brothers and sisters i testify that heavenly father lives and he loves each one of us i witness that jesus christ is the savior and redeemer of the world i testify that the sealing authority available in the temple gives us comfort that family relationships will extend beyond the grave of these things i so testify of in the name of jesus christ amen brothers and sisters what a historic and wonderful day it is for all of us and particularly for those in and around bentonville it's interesting that my wife's maiden name is baron and her grandfather and two generations before him lived on a farm in a little community a little area called vaughan which is just north of the airport we don't know a whole lot about their lives there but we do know that there were many many relatives that lived in the bentonville area for years to our knowledge none of them have joined the church on this side of the veil but we are certain that they along with many many others are excited about this groundbreaking for a temple to be built where the work can be done for them and many many others groundbreaking is an interesting word according to sources groundbreaking was considered a representation of breaking the earth to make a sacred deposit that would endorse a firm foundation how appropriate a description truly this is a symbolic act to begin a foundation for a most sacred building as the ground is broken we too must prepare ourselves for a temple with a broken heart and a contrite spirit symbolically we may have to turn the soil of our lives over in other words we always need to learn to put the lord first to let god prevail the closer we come to god the more we desire to do what he desires the more nearly our prayers become thy will be done the nearer we approach god through mighty faith the more desirous we are to give him everything we possess everything we own and everything we are time talents and resources until we arrive at the point where we will give him the ultimate thing we have to give our will our thoughts and our desires you see god does not just want to build physical temples but he desires to make temples within us holy beings that will be able to receive the eternal happiness he wants us to have we read in the dedicatory prayer of the kirtland temple that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power and that thy name may be upon them and thy glory be round about them and thine angels have charge over them that they may bear exceedingly great and glorious tiding in truth unto the ends of the earth that they may know that this is thy work the two coordinating councils of bentonv of the northwest arkansas and southwest missouri have been assigned to temples in oklahoma city kansas city and st louis but soon there's going to be a temple right there in bentonville the temple will be close but with the same dedication of traveling for several hours to get to our signed temple we will need to plan to be into the into the bentonville temple regularly president russell m nelson has said each one of us needs the ongoing spiritual strengthening and tutoring that is possible only in the house of the lord this temple will allow us and countless members of our deceased family members to receive the necessary ordinances of exaltation ordinances with the power of godliness this temple will bless not only the church but the entire community and everything that's around it for truly this will be a house of the lord his house for us to learn of him i bear witness that this is the lord's work i bear witness that jesus is the christ and that the plan of salvation allows us to be bound to him through covenants and ordinances that the fullness of the atonement may be ours that we might return to our heavenly father and receive all that he has and i testify of this in the name of jesus christ amen brothers and sisters i'm so excited to be with you today i wish that we could be together in person but this is the next best thing to being there i've had so many thoughts and feelings go through my mind and heart as i've been thinking about this special day and i pray that the lord will give me composure to talk about things that are dear to my heart and that you will be able to feel the spirit of the lord as i speak today i have many fond memories of being in northwest arkansas in fact when we were there our wardens stake family was so important to us you all felt like family to us i know that our sons would love to be here with us today they grew up in northwest arkansas and what a wonderful and beautiful experience it is for me and elder bednar to be back here today with you i was thinking about an experience that we had in our fort smith arkansas stake when elder bednar served as the stake president there and he decided that we needed to be the scripture toadiness congregation in the whole world so he asked that we would bring our scriptures with us and every time he started a meeting no matter where it was and if it was a war to branch or the stake he would ask us to hold up our scriptures and signify to the lord that we were ready to learn well i know that we are ready to learn from him today i want to share just a couple of experiences that have come to mind as i've thought about this groundbreaking today it was in fayetteville on our ward where i first heard the song sung by primary children i love to see the temple and what an impact that that had on me i remember going home and saying to my husband i said i heard the most wonderful song and primary today that the children are singing and i said i don't know the words yet but as i learned them i was so excited to see what it will do to the minds and hearts of these young children as they sing about the temple and never in my whole life did i think that there would ever be a temple in northwest arkansas at that time in fact it's been 40 years and about four months since elder benner and i first moved to fayetteville he just finished his graduate degree at purdue university we got in our then rider truck a moving truck with some friends who are going to oklahoma they put their stuff in first we put our stuff in last they dropped us off and we split the difference of the truck because we were poor starving graduate students my husband and i had somehow miraculously been able to find a development where the builder had secured nine percent money at that time for first-time homeowners in arkansas the going rate for home loans at that time was about 14 and we were thrilled to be moving into this little tiny new starter home it was a great great experience and during that time the bishop of our ward called us in and talked to us about building assessments at that time we paid tithing but we also paid building assessments and he said a temple in dallas has just been announced and i invite you and your husband to participate in a building assessment for this temple and he told us what he thought we should pay and when he said those words and that announce and that amount i looked at my husband and he looked at me and it was a lot of money for us and he said bishop will do it and i'm grateful for the lessons that i learned then about sacrifice for the temple in dallas is a great place for us to go two of our sons were endowed in that temple and i'm so grateful that we had the mind and heart to learn that wonderful experience of sacrificing that was enlarged in another experience that i had we had just had a new baby and i'd had a difficult pregnancy our then stake president arthur brown came to our door one night in november about this time and it was cold and it was raining as i remember he stood on our doorstep and he said susan i don't have time to come in but i just wanted to let you know that i'm going to call your husband as a stake president or as the counselor to me in the stake presidency and then he left i walked into the house i put this little baby that i had in my arms on the floor and knelt down and just started to cry and just say oh my father i don't think i can do this the steak was large geographically and i knew the time and the energy that would involved and be involved in the sacrifice that it would take for me to share my husband with this steak with the small branches and the warts that were in the steak that was huge geographically and i decided that i needed to support him and i did but it wasn't always cheerfully and i was just going through the motions many times with three small boys and it was really hard and i thought i've got to get past just thinking about the time that he's spending and the sacrifice that's involved and move this to a higher and holier way and as i studied as i prayed as i thought about what was going on the lord blessed me with some amazing insights and i was able to make a journey from my mind to my heart i was focusing on all the things that i had to sacrifice for my husband to serve but then i learned about the lesson of consecration that consecration is dedicating ourselves and our families to a holy purpose and as i did that and tried to make that more a part of my life i was blessed to see the compensating blessings that were coming from my husband's service what a great great experience that was for me and it's blessed my life forever i also learned something about temple covenants that the power of godliness has made manifest through those covenants and i felt that power of christ's attorney sacrifice blessing me and strengthening me to do more than i ever thought i could do he was the reason that i was able to support my husband and love him and care for him and help him as he served in this wonderful area now i'm grateful that we have a temple coming in northwest arkansas it throws my heart i can't even tell you how grateful i am i wish that we could all jump for joy and that we could be together to give each other hugs and celebration of this wonderful wonderful moment and i pray that the lord will bless us to be able to build and maintain within ourselves a temple of god as president nelson asked us to do i have a testimony brothers and sisters of the gospel of jesus christ i know that it's true i'm grateful to know that i have a heavenly father who has a plan of happiness for all of us i'm grateful and testify of the atoning sacrifice of his son jesus christ that we have access to his redeeming love when we make poor choices and mistakes and we have access to his enabling power a power that magnifies us and blesses us and helps us to do things we don't think we can do i bear witness of the holy ghost how it teaches and testifies and pray that that spirit will be with us as we each prepare for this momentous temple that is coming i'm grateful that heavens are not closed that god continues to speak his mind and will today to men whom we sustain as prophets seers and revelators i bear witness that president nelson is a prophet of god i am grateful to be here with you today express my love and pray for the lord's choices blessings to be with each and every one of you in the name of jesus christ amen my dear brothers and sisters excuse me this is a moment that for most of my life i never could have imagined would occur even in this moment i find it hard to believe what we're celebrating and the service that we're participating in today and it's also a moment that i wish would never end i love you and given susan's description of how we used to begin meetings in fort smith and the rogers stakes i hope all of you have brought your scriptures i want to take just a moment and trace some history i'm aware of the fact that i don't want to become an old person who just endlessly tells stories about the past but i think on this occasion today there is some value in going back 40 years to the summer of 1980 when susan and i first arrived in fayetteville arkansas i recall very vividly going to my first stake priesthood meeting in the jenny lynn building in fort smith arkansas gathered in that chapel for a straight priesthood meeting was a relatively small number of brethren i don't think we fully filled up just the chapel area where the benches were but i loved the spirit that i felt and i immediately love these brothers in the gospel i recall one of the speakers was a man who had served as the physical facilities representative in that part of the church for a number of years i don't recall his name but i will always remember what he said in his message he began and he said i've been transferred to a new assignment and i'm leaving this part of the united states and i have no authority to say what i'm about to say but i'm just going to go ahead and say it anyway and i kind of sat up in my seat and i thought this is going to be interesting and he began to describe all of the small struggling branches and wards in the fort smith arkansas stake that state covered eastern oklahoma southwestern missouri and much of western arkansas the distances as sister bednar has indicated were quite extensive and he's in it as i recall at the time there were approximately 2 200 members of the church in that stake and as i recall 16 or 17 units and he said i have driven on every road in every valley in every hauler in this entire state i've seen this territory and i think i know it better than anyone and we have many weak units of the church now at that point in his message i said where is this going is this is this man angry is he just letting us have it as he's headed out the door and he said i want to tell you something that you'll think is just ludicrous he said in every single location where we have weak struggling branches and wards today there will be thriving strong wards and stakes of zion and given the contrast in how he had begun describing the weakness of the church in the area i was quite surprised at his prediction that there would be strength across the entire area now what i'm about to describe i'm quoting from him i don't suggest that this is doctrine but what he taught and the illustration that he gave had an immediate and powerful impact upon me he said now let me tell you why i think that will be the case he said let me use an analogy if you have a tent when you go camping and it's the kind of a tent that has a pole in the middle of the tent do you first put up that pole in the middle of the tent and then take the cords of the tent and stretch them and fasten them or do you first put down the tent fasten the cords put in the pegs and then erect the center pole he said anyone who has been camping knows that you do the latter not the former and then he said the center stake of zion is only a few hundred miles north of where we are and it is the destiny destiny of the church in this area that there must be many strong thriving units and stakes of zion in preparation for the day when that center stake will be established as best i recall i thought well he may not have any authority but that just sounds right that resonates in my soul now if you'll take that experience just within a matter of weeks after first moving to northwest arkansas i was called to be the state clerk by president art brown and to cover all of the units in the stake i was given speaking assignments and if i recall correctly in the fall of 1980 probably close to exactly 40 years ago i went to the rogers branch for the very first time the branch met in a middle school cafeteria in that cafeteria they had the kinds of lunch tables that would fold up into the wall you'd pull them down they had benches that were attached to the table and that's where the members of the rogers branch sat in the fall of 1980 approximately 30 people as we had our sacrament meeting now i also remember going to the huntsville branch the huntsville branch had only a handful of people our meetings were conducted in a real estate office and i remember that the pulpit was placed in a doorway so that you could look at the members of the congregation who were in two different rooms separated by a wall so try to imagine that this pulpit is in a doorway the wall comes to right here and on these two spaces are the members attending sacramento meeting now let me just describe something this morning i went into an online resource that i have to note that in the rogers stake there are 10 units one in pea ridge my wife and i when i came home from a meeting where i had been involved in approving the p ridge branch i said to my wife of all the places on the earth where you cannot imagine a branch has been created try to guess one i think her last guess would have been pea ridge in the rogers stake there are units in pea ridge metfield sugar creek pleasant grove 10 total units in the rogers stake in the bentonville stake nine units grove elm tree central park three wards in centerton two in bentonville 19 units in two stakes where 40 years ago this month there might have been 30 people if you also consider the springdale stake 10 units the monette missouri stake eight units well that's enough brothers and sisters i don't remember that man's name but in that experience in the jenny lynn building in the fort smith arkansas stake that man predicted something that i certainly could not have seen then but i have been blessed to participate in and learn from over the course of the last 40 years surely the lord can hasten his own work he's doing it all over the earth and in a very particular and even special way that has been occurring in eastern oklahoma southwestern missouri and in northwest arkansas it is one of the great blessings and experiences of my life to have lived for about a third of my life in northwest arkansas as i stand here now and think of the faces and the people that i love and the influence that they have had in my life in susan's life and in the life of our family i am filled with deep gratitude and i cannot say the smallest part of what i feel now there's another element of the history of the church in northwest arkansas that stretches far beyond 40 years listen carefully please to these excerpts from the journal the autobiography of wilfred woodruff while still in missouri following the zions camp march wilfred woodruff had an overwhelming desire to teach the gospel to my fellow men one evening he retreated to the woods and called upon the lord in mighty prayer to open my way to go and preach the gospel of salvation wilford later wrote the spirit of the lord rested upon me and bore witness unto me that my prayer was heard and should be answered in november of 1834 he was ordained a priest and approached bishop edward partridge and asked him where my mission should be bishop partridge responded that he that he would like to have some of the brother and go into the southern states through arkansas tennessee kentucky and see if he could find anybody who had faith enough to go for it would be a hard mission wilford and his companion henry brown left liberty missouri on january the 13th 1835 without purse or script to embark on their mission that for wilfred would last nearly two years the pair traveled through missouri eventually crossing into arkansas territory the first known missionaries to labor in the area on january the 28th they traveled southwest from missouri and initially stayed near fayetteville as they began preaching in washington and crawford counties their labors soon extended south into scott and pope counties in all wilford traveled 656 miles throughout arkansas during his two months of preaching the gospel in arkansas although only two individuals were converted wilford's mission became the roots that later established the church in the south and the experience shaped wilford for the remainder of his life shortly after completing his mission which would be the first of many he observed wherever my lot may be cast if i should live till my head blossoms with age i shall remember the scenes of my spiritual youth and the first fruits of my ministry i'd like to believe that wilfred woodruff and art brown and jerry abram and many other noble souls great men and women who've also assisted in the establishment of the church in this area are aware of what's taking place today and rejoice with us in anticipating the construction of a temple in bentonville arkansas i only have one request in all of our excitement about the construction of the temp the temple can we focus on what matters most and it's not the building very appropriately we have children look at the temple we even take them and they go and they touch the exterior of the temple that's good but be careful be wise don't focus exclusively on the building what matters most are the covenants and the ordinances that are available to us in the house of the lord i remember sitting in the conference center in the year 2000 when the building was being used used for the very first time and boyd k packer the acting president of the quorum of the twelve apostles delivered a message and he began by teaching a parable the parable of the pearl in the box it's a very simple parable there was a merchant who searched the world over to find a pearl of great price when he finally found the pearl and he purchased it all he wanted to do was share the beauty of the pearl with any and all who would be interested in seeing it so he had a craftsman prepare a beautiful box lined the box with velvet then he placed the pearl on the velvet in the box put it on display and invited people to come and behold the pearl but ultimately the merchant was very sad because when the people came what they noticed was the box and not the pearl brothers and sisters the covenants and ordinances of the holy temple are the pearl and the box is the building yes we love the temple we love to see the temple we want to be in the temple but not because just of the building but because of the covenants and the ordinances that provide access for us in our daily lives to the power of godliness and in a world that grows ever more chaotic and confused and dark there is clear direction and light because of the power of godliness available to us through the ordinances please teach that in our families help our children to be focused primarily on the covenants and the ordinances the church has made available now more information more help in learning about the meaning of the covenants and the ordinances so that they can be written in the fleshy tablets of our hearts with all of the energy of my soul i do two things one i express my love to you to the faithful saints in missouri in oklahoma in arkansas who will be so blessed by this temple i love you and i thank you for the things you've helped me to learn and secondly as an apostle of the lord jesus christ i witness that he lives i witness that the lord jesus christ indeed is resurrected he is the only begotten son of the eternal father he has broken the bands of death and he lives the father and the son appeared to the young boy joseph smith in the sacred grove and that initiated the restoration of the gospel in these latter days and i witness i surely witnessed that that restoration is ongoing in this very day i express this love i bear this witness and i rejoice with you on this remarkable occasion in the sacred name of the lord jesus christ amen now if you'll please join with me as we bow our heads and i'll offer the dedicatory prayer on the temple side our heavenly father our hearts are full we cannot say the smallest part of what we feel as we consider the glorious blessing of a temple being constructed in bentonville arkansas we thank the father for our knowledge of thee as our father we thank thee for thy beloved and only begotten son the lord jesus christ we love thee and we love him and we thank thee for thy glorious plan of happiness and for the infinite and eternal atoning sacrifice of thy son we thank thee for the restoration of the gospel through the prophet joseph smith for the return of the knowledge of a true knowledge a correct knowledge of the godhead for the power of the priesthood and its authority and keys for the book of mormon for all things that have come to the earth in this the dispensation of the fullness of times and father meekly and modestly we are grateful to live upon the earth at this time to witness thy powerful hand and the ongoing rolling forth of the gospel in all the earth we stand all amazed at the things that we can see for the blessings that are so evident in the building up of thy son's kingdom all over the earth we thank thee for these magnificent blessings and on this special day we specifically are grateful for the announcement by president russell m nelson of a temple to be built in arkansas father acting in the authority of the holy melchizedek priesthood and under the direction of president russell m nelson who both holds and is authorized to exercise all priesthood keys i now dedicate and consecrate this sacred site for the construction of the arkansas bentonville temple in the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints we petition thee father that this location will be hallowed that it will be safeguarded and protected and that it will be a place of great spiritual power we pray father that during the term of the construction of the temple that there will be particular blessings poured out that the planning that the construction that all of the aspects that must come together for the completion of the temple may be accomplished according to thy will and according to thy timing we pray that inspiration will attend all each individual each man and woman who in any way will play a part in the design the planning the construction the preparation bless each and every one of these men and women with spiritual gifts and blessings and capacity needful to the task before them we pray that there will be a blessing of safety and protection upon this site not just during the term of construction but after the temple is finished may it be a place of holiness may all who come upon this site feel that distinctive spiritual power and may this site be safeguarded from natural disasters and destruction harm vandalism of any type we pray that it will be a place both of protection and of spiritual safety now father on this day of dedication for this temple site we also recognize a need in each of us as disciples of thy son to also become more dedicated to become more devoted disciples please help us as we strive to learn and more fully understand the ordinances and covenants of thy son's gospel and in particular the covenants and ordinances of the house of the lord please enlighten our minds open our hearts bless us with eyes to see and ears to hear that these glorious blessings can take root and that in our countenances there can be a light even the image of thy son because of the power of godliness that comes to us as we receive and remember and honor and live these holy covenants and ordinances we thank thee that we can participate this day in this groundbreaking ceremony may we ever remember what we have felt this day and may we become ever more devoted to thy plan to thy son and to the building of this kingdom in all the earth we humbly pray in the sacred name of the lord jesus christ amen our kind of great heavenly father we're so very grateful that we were able to gather together today please help us to always be have the desire to come to the temple and bless the members of this area to always make time for it and we're grateful for our religious freedoms to be able to have this temple and please bless the leaders of this country to preserve those for us and we're so grateful for the gospel on the earth today in the name of jesus christ amen amen thank you all right let's pick up a shovel full now groundbreaking well for the done arkansas temple we invite the rest of you to come forward [Music] you

Channel: Church Newsroom

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Keywords: Bentonville Arkansas Temple, Bentonville groundbreaking ceremony, Bentonville groundbreaking full program, full Bentonville groundbreaking ceremony, LDS temple groundbreaking, mormon temple groundbreaking, Arkansas temple groundbreaking ceremony, Mormon, LDS, Church of Jesus Christ

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Length: 52min 58sec (3178 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 11 2020