Emma Davis was sitting with her family in the front two rows of the Portland Maine Stake center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when a temple in Maine was unexpectedly announced during their stake Christmas fireside on Sunday, Dec. 14.
“I just started crying,” recalled Davis, who is 24. “I looked at my grandparents and they were so happy and couldn’t believe it. All of my cousins were there. It was just a really special moment.”
At the end of the fireside, Elder Allen D. Haynie, General Authority Seventy and president of the United States Northeast Area, read the statement from the First Presidency — “We’re pleased to announce the construction of a temple in Portland, Maine. The specific location and timing of the construction will be announced later.
“This is a reason for all of us to rejoice and thank God for such a significant blessing — one that will allow more frequent access to the ordinances, covenants and power that can only be found in the house of the Lord.”
The Portland Maine Temple will be the first house of the Lord in this coastal New England state.
Davis said this announcement is especially meaningful for her family because her congregation, the Windham Ward in the Portland stake, started in the home of her grandparents, Jonathan and Linda Miele. “Through everybody’s hard work and efforts and the Church growing in that area, they were finally able to afford a building. … So to have a temple be built in my grandparents’ lifetime is really special and really emotional for our family.”
The temple announcement didn’t come with big cheers or claps in the audience, but rather quiet gasps and sniffles, she added. “It was a very reverent and sacred moment that we all shared.”
Excited to ‘move the work forward’
From where he was on the stand, Portland Maine Stake President Richard J. Taylor could see the excitement and emotion in people’s faces as Elder Haynie read the announcement.
“There was not a dry eye in the room that I could see. … We’re so thrilled, so blessed, and we feel honored to have this announcement and to also be the first to have it announced in this way. We feel overwhelmed, frankly, by the opportunity. It’s a blessing to us this Christmas season,” President Taylor said.
Elder Allen D. Haynie, General Authority Seventy and president of the United States Northeast Area, looks at the congregation just after he read an announcement from the First Presidency of a temple to be built in Portland, Maine, on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
President Taylor said members of his stake currently travel anywhere from one hour 45 minutes to two hours 45 minutes to attend the Boston Massachusetts Temple.
Beyond the distance and travel necessary to attend the temple in Boston, President Taylor said the members are ready for “ownership of a temple.”
“I think that’s the spirit we’ve had here as members of the Church. We’re ready to ‘own’ a temple and own everything that goes into that, of operating and bringing the blessings to people. We’re really excited to have that opportunity to move the work forward,” President Taylor said.
President Taylor estimates more than 300 individuals attended the event Sunday evening. A snowstorm dampened attendance, but a Zoom link was provided for those who could not make it.
Valerie Bradshaw, a member of the Windham Ward, said the way the temple was announced at their stake Christmas fireside “was just so special.”
“My husband and I were talking about how amazing it was to tell us — the people it will affect the most — in person. Then it immediately went out on social media. … So it was exciting that even though it was just us there in the room, the whole world found out and were so excited for us,” Bradshaw said.
After a Christmas devotional for the Portland Maine Stake on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, Latter-day Saints react to Elder Allen D. Haynie, General Authority Seventy and president of the United States Northeast Area, as he reads an announcement from the First Presidency of a temple to be built in Portland, Maine. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
A celebration of generations
Like Davis, Will Guerrette has pioneer ancestry in Maine. He said his great-great-grandparents on his mother’s side were some of the first Latter-day Saints in Maine after the exodus West. They held sacrament meeting in their home in the early 1900s before there were enough members to create a branch.
“Today I felt like I got to be a part of something that was a celebration of literally generations of effort in the gospel in Maine,” Guerrette said.
Guerrette, a former bishop of the Saco Ward in the Portland stake, commented on what it felt like to sit next to his fellow Saints as Elder Haynie read the temple announcement. “It felt like you were getting to rejoice in this thing with all of your best friends,” he said.
“Even if we had hoped and dreamed that this day would someday come — that a temple would be announced in Maine — I don’t think we ever thought we would be able to participate in it in such an intimate way. … It was an unbelievable experience. I think the communal part of the experience is what made it next-level sublime.”
At a Christmas devotional for the Portland Maine Stake on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, Latter-day Saints stand and sing “Joy to the World” after Elder Allen D. Haynie, General Authority Seventy and president of the United States Northeast Area, reads an announcement from the First Presidency of a temple to be built in Portland, Maine. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The “real moment” for him came during the closing song, he said. “Hundreds of Latter-day Saints sang ‘Joy to the World’ with more gusto than I’ve ever heard in my life as a Latter-day Saint. …
“After the closing prayer, it wasn’t irreverent, but the room just exploded with chatter and hugs and crying and high fives. It’s difficult to describe the Spirit that was in the room, because the Holy Ghost was very obviously present. But it was also just absolute, sheer jubilation. … I felt like I was floating above the pew.”
Guerrette said the fireside also made a “big impression” on his sons, ages 11 and 13.
“We feel sometimes like we’re far from Church headquarters, and like we’re just this small area of the kingdom, and yet the Lord is blessing us with a temple, which is just unbelievable,” he said.
