Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, first counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, said President Nelson had been praying about a number of options presented about the future of the Manti temple. Elder Rasband had said during the broadcast that he was part of a meeting where President Nelson shared his experience of God responding to his pleadings. Elder Rasband spoke further about the circumstances of that meeting after Saturday’s broadcast ended, when the apostle remained on the stand in the tabernacle to take questions from reporters. “President Nelson has described that this was one of his during-the-night promptings of the Spirit,” Elder Rasband said. “He has said before publicly that he goes to bed with a yellow pad next to his bed. I understand that he had this prompting, which turned into a very distinct impression, to move forward in a different way in Manti and to proceed with the Ephraim temple.” President Nelson wrote the impression down on the yellow pad of paper and then assembled a small group of leaders like Elder Rasband with some church staff, recounted the experience to them and directed them to begin work on the announcement. That was just a couple of weeks ago, Elder Rasband said. “It was done very quickly,” he said. “So in my time, and I used to be the director of the Temple Department for President (Gordon B.) Hinckley, this was warp speed. This was moving with all due haste. President (Nelson) had the impression, the prompting, and wanted to act upon it quickly.” Elder Rasband noted that it is “kind of unique” for temple announcements to be made outside of the church’s general conferences each April and October — the last one was the Payson Utah Temple in January 2010 — but he explained why President Nelson announced the Ephraim Utah Temple on Saturday. “As he was talking to others, I heard him say, some of you may wonder why I just don’t wait until general conference to announce this,” Elder Rasband said. “And he said, ‘Because I had the revelation now. Why not announce it?’ ... It was just that beautiful spirit of his. ‘Why wait? Why wait?’ So here we are.” Elder Rasband said that the Manti and Ephraim announcements are a pattern for President Nelson. “It’s what he does,” Elder Rasband said. “He is close to the Lord. He’s close to the Spirit, and he’s very involving of us all, all of the Twelve and First Presidency. But we know who holds all the keys, and we know who is given the authority to exercise all of the keys, and that’s God’s living prophet.” |