SMITHFIELD – All of Cache Valley was taken aback when in 2021 President Russell M. Nelson announced the construction of the Smithfield Temple during the April 4, General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Not many people were more surprised than soon-to-be 95-year-old Georgia Downs of Smithfield.
Georgia Downs is excited to see the progress of the temple construction.
“I was sitting with my granddaughter Becky watching General Conference when they announced the Smithfield temple,” she said. “We just looked at each other in shock.”
The surprise continued when she found out the temple would be built a few blocks from her home. She lives on some of her family’s original farm ground where they raised corn, peas and other crops. She is mostly proud of the four daughters and two sons they raised there.
For someone who has lived their whole life in Smithfield, a temple seemed like a dream. Downs has watched with interest the construction of the sacred building. She doesn’t get around like she used to so neighbors and family take her to see the progress of the temple.
Work continues on the Smithfield temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on Friday Oct. 25 2024.
“Once every other week I get a chance to look and see the progress of the temple,” she said. “It is a beautiful site to see and watch the construction moving forward.”
Downs thought it was special when she was able to go to the groundbreaking and site dedication on June 18, 2022. Seeing Cache Valley native Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles lead the dedication ceremony was a highlight. He was accompanied by his wife and another member from the Quorum of the Twelve and Cache Valley native Gary E. Stevenson and his wife.
“A friend, Dan Strong, gave me his tickets to the groundbreaking ceremony,” she said. “He thought it was more important that I go instead of him.”
Temples have always been important to Downs.
“I was baptized in the Logan Temple baptistry,” she said. “My parents didn’t have a car, but my aunt Bessie did. They took me and my cousin to Logan, then to the temple and a temple worker baptized us both.”
Before her husband Roland died in 2007 they would go weekly to the Logan temple to do ordinance work.
“Smithfield was a fun place to grow up,” she said. “We would hitch a ride to Logan with my uncle who hauled milk to the Borden’s milk plant.”
They would shop and when it was time to go the same uncle would bring them back to Smithfield.
She talked fondly of going to the movie theater on Main Street in Smithfield. They would try to charge her an adult rate because they thought she was thirteen.
“I was tall for my age, and they wouldn’t believe that I was 12 years old,” she said. “I was the tallest one in my age at school.”
She talked about going by train to Preston for a high school football game between North Cache and the Preston Indians.
The crown jewel of Downs’ life in Smithfield will be raising a good family and maybe the opening of the Smithfield temple just down the road.
Downs hopes she feels good enough when the temple construction is complete to go to the open house. She wants to see the inside of the 81,000 square foot temple and get a look at the four instruction rooms, four sealing rooms and two baptismal fonts.