Sod, Wheat and Temples

There is a secretary at the Orem Institute of Religion that is an LDS stake Relief Society president, one of her counselors has a lovely story that probably belongs in the Ensign/Liahona but it is unlikely that it'll actually end up there, so second best place for it= my blog.

So, this lovely RS counselor out in Payson Utah, along with her husband, have been farming sod for years and years. On their property is a little hill-like feature that they couldn't plant sod on because of its curviness. One day a few years back this lovely lady and her husband were talking about what they could do with this hill that had turned into a weedy eyesore. After some thought and discussion they decided that they could clean it up and plant wheat. So the lower lands grew sod while the 10 acre hill grew wheat.

The first harvest came and they didn't really know what to do with the wheat that they had basically grown for the fun of it and ultimately felt that they needed to give it away. They harvested, cut, cleaned and bucketed up the wheat and went door to door to the members of their Payson ward giving away around 600 pounds of wheat to each of the individual families. They proceeded to do this for a few years expecting nothing in return.

Not too long after this the LDS church was looking for some land in Utah County for a temple. One late fall morning some neighbors noticed a few black cars pull up to this family's farm and about 15 men and women dressed in suits walked around the sod farm. On closer inspection they noticed that among those 15 people were Presidents Eyring and Uchtdorf accompanied by a spattering of the quorum of the Twelve. These little Mormon neighbors about lost their minds!

The cars loaded back up and drove away. Rumors began circling as to why these men had been wandering around a farm in their suits. Later that evening the black cars pulled up again and this time Presidents Eyring and Uchtdorf were walking around with President Monson himself. Later it was to be explained that the First Presidency had been looking for land and had been all over Utah county. President Monson had driven all day looking at land but had never exited the car. He then asked to go back to the sod farm in Payson. He walked onto the hill where the wheat had been planted, grown and harvested. He then declared that on that hill would be the next temple unto the Lord.

The family that owned the hill ultimately decided to offer the LDS church the land for free.