REXBURG – Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were shocked this weekend to be informed of the announcement of the structure of a momentary temple in Rexburg.

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EastIdahoNews. com would be built on assets in North Second East and Moody Drive across from Walmart.

Shelley Hegsted, who owns the assets with her husband, John, and her 3 sisters and their spouses, Marcia and Don Heinz, Marilyn and Larry Evans, and Diane and Lewis Clements, said the Church had a 100-acre parcel of land in July. several months of negotiations.

“We closed it on July 15,” Shelley says.

Shelley and John’s 3200-square-foot home occupies approximately one acre in the southeast corner of the property. The rest is farmland. He doesn’t know the main points of the task or the expected start date, but he says they have until July 2022 to move.

“Our circle of relatives has lived in this space since 1914, when it was built,” Shelley says. “It’s a glorious position to elevate our circle of relatives, but since the city moved that way and Walmart arrived, it’s been very busy. It is no longer a laughing position to live in.

Still, Shelley says the thought of abandoning land that has belonged to her circle of relatives for 3 generations is sad. Around 2008, The Home Depot and Fred Meyer planned to build a store there, but then pulled out when the economy collapsed. .

Over the years, other gifts never seemed to the paintings and the Hegsted, despite everything, the idea that the sale of the land was simply not meant to be.

The couple, however, sold part of it to Kurt Harmon, a local business owner, this spring and soon after, a church representative contacted either party expressing interest in buying the entire property.

Knowing that the CDS Church is taking over makes Shelley, a lifelong Member of the Church, happy, who is convinced that he is in the hands.

“We were very humbled to think that this is a position for a temple. In fact, we can’t,” he says. Whatever they do, it will be well done and enjoyable. We couldn’t be happier. It will be beautiful.

Rexburg Mayor Jerry Merrill said the YDS Church is an additional publicity trailer next to the temple. He is not aware of the details, but is excited about the prospect of additional earnings and the appeal the allocation will bring to the area.

“There are very few localities in the world that have two temples within the same city limits and we’re going to be one of them,” Merrill says. “Having a temple in the city provides a great impression of the area. This provides a sure sense of reverence and spirituality that is helping to decrease crime. Anything that’s helping in those facets is an exciting thing for us.

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The existing Rexburg Temple was committed in 2008.

Rexburg Area Chamber of Commerce President Chris Mann said he heard rumors about the arrival of some other temple in Rexburg before Sunday’s announcement, but never imagined it would be true.

“It’s exciting for the smart rexburg. C to know that LDS Church has wonderful confidence in the city of Rexburg. We have ordinary academics and ordinary citizens. I can’t wait to see how they expand the assets they bought,” Mann said.

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Once completed, the Rexburg Temple will be open to the public at an open house. Once consecrated, only approved members will be allowed entry through their ecclesiastical leader.

The Rexburg Temple is one of thirteen temples announced at the Church’s biannual general conference. Other temples have been announced in Cody, Wyoming and Heber Valley, Utah. One of the most recently completed temples is in Pocatello. It will be consecrated in November. 7.

The grandfather of John Hegsted, whose call is also John, the original owner of the property. His father, Hans Christian Sorenson, emigrated from Denmark to the United States in the late 1800s (he replaced his call to Hegsted after arriving in America, which referred to Hogsted, Denmark, where he grew up).

At the time, the Church practiced polygamy and Hans had 28 children by 3 other wives: John the fifteenth child and his mother Hans’s wife of the time, Ane Christena Iverson.

“Hans and his circle of relatives joined the church (in Denmark) and Hans as project president (the leader of a project organization in a geographic area) there,” Shelley says. “He is a very unwavering member to stay and help other people emigrate. “

When Sorenson and his circle of relatives despite all that was left to come to America, it was in 1865, when they passed through some other shipment in the direction of Europe, they learned of the end of the civil war from some of the passengers on board.

“People were screaming with oars in the air, shouting, ‘The North just defeated the South in the Civil War,'” passengers said, according to Shelley.

Sorenson and his circle of relatives eventually docked in New York City before crossing the plains and reaching the Salt Lake Valley in November 1865.

“During our adventure through the plains, we met many Indians,” Sorenson writes in his account. “They took one of our comrades . . . and seriously injured 3 of our brothers. “

The following year, they moved to Huntsville, Utah and their crops were destroyed by grasshoppers. John was born in Huntsville on February 9, 1875.

Sorenson’s polygamous way of life caused him pain many years later. In his life story, he says he spent some time in the Utah State Penitentiary in 1887 for “illegal cohabitation. “

The SDS church, however, abolished the practice of polygamy in 1890.

In 1892, despite everything, Sorenson moved to Salem and obtained 160 acres of land. His son, John, obtained the 100-acre estate where Hegsted House now stands in the early twentieth century.

John Hegsted married Edna Porter in 1909 and lived in San Antonio for several years. After her death in 1930, Edna lived there as a widow for about six years, until her son, Jack, and his wife, Dorothy, moved there in 1936. young together, adding Shelley’s husband, John.

“These are compelling stories to our circle of relatives (who remind us) of the sacrifices that were made for (our) faith,” Shelley says.

John and Shelley have lived in the space since 1977, raised 4 children together and renovated it in 1992, adding another 1,000 square feet that included two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a family circle room, a cloakroom, and a renovated kitchen. The couple still have furniture from John and Edna’s time in space.

The Hegsteds plan to move around the city before the Church takes over the assets next summer.

Despite the legacy they leave behind, Shelley says they are ahead of life’s next bankruptcy and are eager to see the progression of the new temple.

“Indeed, it is a legacy for the Hegsted family circle to have had the opportunity to put such deep roots in their legacy,” wrote LDS Living in 2014 on the occasion of the house’s centennial.