Could there ever be a Temple In Edmonton?

By Rob Ficiur

In August 1986, armed with a brand new teaching degree, my family moved to the Wainwright Branch in the Edmonton Millwoods Stake.  The members in Wainwright made many sacrifices to be active in the church.

One farm family drove 75 minutes one way from Provost (Alberta) to get to church in Wainwright.  That brother told me once that the Lord blessed him for the sacrifice he made to get to church.  When we were there members drove from Amisk, Viking, Provost, Chauvin and Irma to meet the small branch in Wainwright.  For the most part we saw very few members of the church during the week.

Attending Stake meetings was an all day Saturday affair because it was a two hour drive to “the city.”  Going to the temple could only be done on long weekend or if you didn’t need to sleep.

The members in the Wainwright branch talked about “when” there was a temple in Edmonton.  In 1986 there were 39 temples in the world and only one in Canada.  Some members speculated that if there were six or seven stakes in the Edmonton area – maybe one day there could be a temple in Alberta’s capital.

We spent only one year in Wainwright and lost track of the enthusiasm and speculation on this subject.

Ron and Lyn Larsen lived in Edmonton from 1966-1971.  I asked them what “rumors and speculations” there were twenty years earlier about an Edmonton Temple.  In their time there was one Edmonton Stake consisting of six wards.

Lyn Larsen replied that no one speculated about a temple in Edmonton in the 1960’s.  The members suspected that Calgary would have a temple before Edmonton because there were more members in Calgary.  A temple trip to Calgary would still be only half the distance for the Edmonton Saints.

However in the 1966 there were only thirteen temples in the entire church.  A six hour drive to Cardston was short compared to the distances members faced elsewhere in the world.

During the 1960’s missionary work was growing the church in Edmonton.  The Larsens shared a few stories.

1.

A pilot who flew all over the world wanted a change in his life.  At the major cities he went to the library and began to study religion.  Some of the anti-Mormon literature he had come across made him wonder what this Book of Mormon was all about.   At one library he wanted to get a copy of the Book of Mormon but he couldn’t find it.  The librarian told him it was in the fiction section.  When he read the Book of Mormon he was touched.  Back home in Edmonton he went into one of the churches during the week (back in those days Primary and Relief Society were a week day activity) and asked how he could be baptized.

2.

There was major construction project next to one of the LDS chapels.  The way the fencing was set up – it allowed kids to go behind the church undetected and drink for the evening.  It was not uncommon for members to come to church and find broken bottles beside the church.  One young partier got even more carried away and drove his vehicle into the glass door of the church breaking the frame.  This time the church members called the police.

  The investigating officer did his report and then asked the janitor if this church had a Sunday School for his kids (not for him or his wife, but for the kids).  Arrangements were made for someone to come by and pick up the children for Sunday School.  The police officer was impressed because no one charged any money for picking up and dropping off the children.

   After the children had come to Sunday School for a while the members approached the couple.  “We don’t feel comfortable teaching your kids every Sunday without you knowing what we are teaching them.  Could we send someone over and share a few lessons with you so that you would know what we are teaching your children.

   The missionaries came and taught the family.  Eventually the police officer and his wife came to church and were baptized.  Later the officer described how overwhelmed he was by the reception they had received in the church.  The world he worked in was full of trouble, drugs and corruption.  His exposure to the church taught him that there were still many wonderful giving people out there.

3.

A co-worker kept talking about what he did at church.  He talked a bit about the programs or about the doctrines whatever seemed to fit.  As these two men worked together every day, the non member decided he wanted to prove Danny’s church was wrong.  As he studied the church literature he came to have a testimony of the gospel.  This convert later served as a high councilman and as a Bishop.

This convert did wonder why every long weekend all the members in Edmonton had to run “to Mecca” (Southern Alberta).

The church grew in Edmonton because of converts and members moving up there. 

On April 5, 1998 there were 51 temples in the world.  At the concluding session of General Conference President Hinckley stood up and made the following announcement:

“Now, in conclusion I wish to make an announcement. As I have previously indicated, in recent months we have traveled far out among the membership of the Church. I have been with many who have very little of this world’s goods. But they have in their hearts a great burning faith concerning this latter-day work. They love the Church. They love the gospel. They love the Lord and want to do His will. They are paying their tithing, modest as it is. They make tremendous sacrifices to visit the temples. They travel for days at a time in cheap buses and on old boats. They save their money and do without to make it all possible.

    They need nearby temples—small, beautiful, serviceable temples.

Accordingly, I take this opportunity to announce to the entire Church a program to construct some 30 smaller temples immediately. They will be in Europe, in Asia, in Australia and Fiji, in Mexico and Central and South America and Africa, as well as in the United States and Canada. They will have all the necessary facilities to provide the ordinances of the Lord’s house.

    This will be a tremendous undertaking. Nothing even approaching it has ever been tried before. These will be in addition to the 17 buildings now going forward in England; Spain; Ecuador; Bolivia; the Dominican Republic; Brazil; Colombia; Billings, Montana; Houston, Texas; Boston, Massachusetts; White Plains, New York; and Albuquerque, New Mexico; and the smaller temples in Anchorage, Alaska; Monticello, Utah; and Colonia Juárez, Mexico. This will make a total of 47 new temples in addition to the 51 now in operation. I think we had better add 2 more to make it an even 100 by the end of this century, being 2,000 years “since the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the flesh” (D&C 20:1). In this program we are moving on a scale the like of which we have never seen before.

    I will not give you the specific cities at this time. Stake presidents will be advised as property is secured. I am confident the membership of the Church will do a lot of speculating as to whether one of these will be in their city.” (Ensign May 1998 p. 87)

In one conference session a prophet of God announced that the number of temples in the 168 year old church would double in two years.  Instead of waiting for the population of members to raise to a certain level to have a temple – smaller temples would do the land – bringing the temple to where the people were.

As soon as that meeting was done members of my ward (and your ward) began to speculate where temples could be.

On that day in 1998 there were two temples in Canada – Cardston and Toronto.  Now there are six with a seventh under construction near Vancouver. 

Edmonton Temple

(From Chad Hawkins The First 100 Temples, Deseret Book 2001)

The Edmonton Temple was made from native granite exterior supported by laminated lumber, one of the few materials able to support the heavy stone facing…Architect Robert Bennett was required to design the building 2 Earthquake Zone categories higher than the usual Edmonton code. 

Yet the heavy clay soil of the area would not support the weight of the temple.  To support the building and provide enhanced earthquake protection holes 45 feet deep and 24 inches in diameter were lined with steel cages and filled with non corroding concrete.  (page 185)

The temple was dedicated byh President Gordon B. Hinckley in seven sessions held December 11and 12, 1989 “Let Thy providence be felt in this great nation of Canada, that it shall continue to be a land where Thy sons and daughters enjoy the precious boon of freedom of assembly and worship.”

Chad Hawkins “I learned a great lesson from a brother who lived in the Edmonton, Alberta Temple District.  At the temple’s open house in 1999, I asked him what the new temple meant to him.  He responded with enthusiasm about his and his wife’s temple-attendance goals.  He explained that for years they could attend the temple in Cardston only once a month because the travel time was twelve hours each way.  He said ‘With a temple so close to home in Edmonton we can now attend the temple once a week because it is only six hours to and from the temple.” Chad Hawkins, Holy Places: True Stories of Faith and Miracles from Latter-Day Temples, p. 2)

Early History of the Church in

Edmonton

By Rob Ficiur

In July I was lost (sort of) driving on the Whitemud Trail in Edmonton.  As I came around a corner there was the Edmonton Temple. I took the exit and looked around the grounds.  Each temple has its own story – the lives of the people who built the church in the area.

I took these notes from the book “A History of the Mormon Church in Canada.”  (If there are errors in any of these dates or facts please let me know).

1914 – Robert John Gordon and his wife Fannie (and their four children) were the first known members to move to Edmonton.  Robert (from Utah) had been called to Canada by the church to develop the irrigation canal system in Southern Alberta.  He moved to Edmonton to take a job as a land surveyor for the provincial government.

Since there was no church in Edmonton, Brother Gordon and his family often attended the United Church.  In 1916 they moved to Lethbridge so their children could attend church.

1920’s – Church members were known to have lived temporarily in Edmonton – but apparently no meetings were held.

Laurence Peterson of Barnwell and George Stringham of Glenwood were elected as MLAs.  They lived in a hotel across from the provincial legislature when they were in Edmonton.

1931 -  No active LDS group existed in Edmonton until 1931 when a  number of university students began associating together.

1933 (February 26) - First church meeting was held in Edmonton in the home of Alfred and Mable Strate.  (The reference book listed the fifteen people who attended the meeting one of whom was Elmo Fletcher – later the president of the Cardston Temple).

1935 N. Eldon Tanner (future General Authority) and Solon Low were elected as MLAs and were put in the Social Credit Cabinet.  There were now 36 members of the Edmonton Branch.  The Edmonton branch was a dependent branch of the Calgary Ward.

1939 (March) – The first Branch conference of the Edmonton Branch was held.  President Asael Palmer (of the Lethbridge Stake) called N. Eldon Tanner to be the Branch President.

1941 Joseph F Merrill (of the Council of the Twelve) was the first General Authority to visit the Edmonton Branch.

1941 (September) Western Canadian mission organized and centered in Edmonton.

1946  LDS Club organized at the University of Alberta.  Brigham Y. Card was the faculty sponsor of the club.

1949 (June 6) N. Eldon Tanner turned sod for the first LDS meeting house in Edmonton.

1951 (August)  Stephen L. Richard of the 1st Presidency came to dedicate the Edmonton chapel.  There were 350 Saints in the Edmonton Branch.

1953 (August)  Heber Jensen set apart as the President of the Edmonton District.  He worked as the Deputy Minister of Mines and Minerals.  Later Brother Jensen served as president of the New Zealand Temple.

1953  Institute building completed and dedicated.

1955 Land purchased for another church site in Edmonton.

1960 (November 15) Edmonton Stake created.  N. Eldon Tanner (then an Assistant to the Twelve and Richard L. Evans of the Council of the Twelve presided at the conference.  Leroy Rollins was sustained as the first Stake President.

Most of the leadership of the new Edmonton Stake were members who had moved from Southern Alberta.  The Stake Presidency, Clerks, Patriarch, High Council and Bishops and Bishoprics were almost all people who had migrated to Edmonton from elsewhere.  To be more exact one Bishop’s councilor was a local resident – and two other leaders migrated from somewhere besides Southern Alberta.

(This may seem unusual – however in 1994 when the Medicine Hat Stake was created I was amazed at how many people I knew from my youth had moved from the Lethbridge area to Medicine Hat.  This included a Bishop, High Councilman, a former Bishop, Social Worker, Doctor and others.)

The following dates and numbers came from the 2007 Deseret News Almanac:

Edmonton Stakes:

1933 First Branch Meeting held (15 in attendance)

1960 Edmonton Stake created

1974  Edmonton Stake divided; Edmonton East Stake Created

1982  Red Deer Stake created

1983  Edmonton Stakes divided into three; now called

Edmonton Millwoods

Edmonton Riverbend

Edmonton Bonnie Doon

1998  Grande Prairie Stake created

2001  Edmonton North Stake created

1998 Canada Edmonton Mission created from the Canada Calgary Mission.

1999 Edmonton Temple dedicated.