Mesa Temple

Mesa Temple
By Jenny Komenda


“The wilderness and the dry land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.”
Isaiah 35:1

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Dedicated in 1927, only fifteen years after Arizona became a state, the Mesa Arizona temple has been a testament of pioneer faith and resilience for nearly 100 years. Mormon pioneers first began settling in Arizona in 1877, fifty years before the temple’s dedication. Despite the land and environment being extremely challenging, the community in Arizona had flourished. As historian James McClintock wrote in 1921, before construction on the temple had even begun:

“In Arizona, … the Mormons set their stakes and, with united effort, soon cleared the land, dug ditches and placed dams in unruly streams, all to the end that farms should smile where the desert had reigned. It all needed imagination and vision, something that, very properly, may be called faith. Sometimes there was failure. Occasionally the brethren failed to live in unity. They were human. But, at all times…with them went the engendered confidence that all would be well, whatever befell of finite sort. It has been said that faith removes mountains. The faith that came with these pioneers was well backed and carried with it brawn and industry.”

Even still, the speed at which the pioneers had built up thriving communities of faith out of such rough and challenging terrain caused B.H. Roberts to exclaim, “A temple in Arizona! It scarcely seemed credible! … No, modern men! I address you, miracles have not ceased, they are only different.”

Spencer W. Kimball has taught, “The house of the Lord is functional. Every element in the design, decoration, atmosphere, and program of the temple contributes to its function, which is to teach.” The Mesa temple was built in a neoclassical style suggestive of the Temple in Jerusalem, lacking the spires that have become a mainstay of temples built since then. Encircling the temple’s roof are a series of eight enormous friezes – each 16 feet wide and nearly 4 feet tall – depicting people of various countries, continents and nationalities gathering together as God’s people, as the prophet Isaiah testified would occur in the last days.

The prayer dedicating the temple offered by Church President Heber J. Grant invoked blessings upon those of all faiths who visit this temple even today: “May Thy Spirit ever dwell in this holy house and rest upon all who shall labor… May Thy peace ever abide in this holy building, that all who come here may partake of the spirit of peace… [M]ay all who come upon the grounds which surround this temple, whether members of the Church of Christ or not, feel the sweet and peaceful influence of this blessed and hallowed spot. And may this building be sacred unto Thee.”