NEW DESERET INDUSTRIES OPENS MONTHS BEFORE TEMPLE

The new Saratoga Springs Utah Temple is not the only large facility to be completed in the city of Saratoga Springs by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in recent months.

After nearly three years of construction and preparation, the church’s 46th Deseret Industries location opened in Saratoga Springs in September of 2022.

The 54,000-square-foot Deseret Industries and Welfare and Self-Reliance Services facility, located at 104 W, Medical Drive, also includes offices for the church’s Family Services, Development Counseling Services and Employment Services. An adjacent building houses a bishops’ storehouse and home storage center.

The new facility serves 42 local stakes of the church in western Utah County.

“This new facility — the Saratoga Springs Deseret Industries complex — is all about caring for the one,” said Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, first counselor in the Presiding Bishopric of the church, during a dedication program for the facility in September.

The complex was built on land that for many years was part of the church’s ongoing farming efforts in the region. It was one of several plots used to supply the bishops’ storehouse, which provides food for families in need. Now people in need will be referred to the new storehouse or to counseling or to other services based on their needs.

“All will be received with open arms, without judgment and with Christlike love,” Waddell said.

Deseret Industries locations sell donated used items in good condition such as clothing, books, kitchen goods, shoes, home furnishings, small appliances and toys. Items can be donated as well as purchased at the Saratoga Springs DI location.

However, DI is more than a thrift store and donation center — its main purpose to serve as a job-training facility. DI associates work under the direction of a job coach who provides training and helps them prepare for future work opportunities. DI associates can also access resources like tuition benefits, employment services, certificate programs and development counseling.

A total of 160,000 shoppers are expected annually at the store along with 40,000 order recipients at the bishops’ storehouse and 2,165 counseling hours at Family Services. Those numbers may be large, but they represent individuals.

Waddell spoke of how the Atonement of Jesus Christ was infinite but infinitely individual, and the temporal work of Welfare and Self-Reliance is also “all about the one.”

“This facility is large and it has lots of workers, but every individual who comes and needs help, whether for a food order or job assistance, everyone will receive individual assistance,” Bishop Waddell said.

The Welfare and Self-Reliance vision speaks of embracing the two great commandments to love God and one’s neighbor by ministering to temporal needs, building spiritual and temporal self-reliance, and blessing both givers and receivers.

Sister Kristin M. Yee, second counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency of the church, said during the Saratoga Springs facility’s dedication ceremony, “Before we can truly love God and our neighbor, we must first feel God’s love for us as His children. When we feel God’s love for us, we desire to love Him in return.”

Yee said God’s love permeates the work and people who come to the Welfare and Self-Reliance Centers — the missionaries, employees, job coaches and counselors who “carry the desire in their hearts to love as the Savior would.”

Highlands 2nd Ward Bishop Moises Ortiz, in the Eagle Mountain Utah North Stake, said he was happy to have the new complex built closer to his city so that members of his congregation could use the resources they need.

“Many members use these services, and it is a bit of a drive to go to American Fork or to Lindon for the bishops’ storehouse, so having a bishops’ storehouse here will be a blessing, especially when people are struggling with gas prices so high,” he said.