Introduction

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Courtship and Marriage

Education

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History and Politics

Farming

Church Service

Mission President

Temple Presidency

Ashcroft Observatory

Family

Funeral

Photo Gallery

TEMPLE PRESIDENCY

"The temple is a point of intersection between heaven and earth. In this sacred place, holy work will be performed through selfless service and love. The temple reminds me of all that is good and beautiful in the world."

― David A. Bednar

When President Lee called Theron and asked him to retire from teaching and to serve in the Temple Presidency of the St. George Temple, Theron accepted.  He started work at the Temple in November, but didn’t finish his teaching obligation until the end of the quarter at Christmas time.  That required a lot of trips back and forth to St. George.  At the end of the quarter, they took an apartment in St. George, but kept their basement apartment in Cedar City so they could come home on weekends.

Theron was set apart by Joseph Fielding Smith on November 6, 1970 to be the Second Counselor to President Reed Whipple.

Andrew McArthur was the First Counselor. At that time, there were 375 officiators at the temple. As Second Counselor, Theron’s responsibilities included all endowments, sealings, and the cafeteria. President McArthur, as First Counselor, was responsible for baptisms, initiatory work, and clothing. President Whipple took care of finances, the grounds, and everything in general. When they took over they were holding seventeen sessions a week. When they closed for remodeling they were holding forty-six sessions a week, and when they reopened the temple with the new film, they were holding eighty sessions a week.

Theron loved serving as a sealer. He performed many marriages and live sealings. These were always accompanied by sage counsel, a little bit of humor, and always at least one good story. Many people from Cedar City and the surrounding area asked President Ashcroft to perform their temple marriage/sealing.

Two special experiences President and Sister Ashcroft had are recorded in Lucretia’s personal history.

“At one time we received word that we were to have a couple from Brazil come to the temple to receive their temple sealing.  We assumed that they would speak Spanish and made arrangements to have an interpreter there.  When they arrived and we had them in the sealing room, we found out that they spoke Portuguese and could not understand either Spanish or English.  We decided to go ahead with the ceremony since they had traveled so far.  Theron gave a brief introduction before starting the ceremony, after which the woman said in very broken English, "Go ahead, I can understand everything you are saying".  We felt like it was a demonstration of the gift of tongues.

“Another family came from deep in Mexico to have their family sealed.  They had borrowed a cattle truck and the couple and their eleven children, uncomfortable as they may have been, had traveled the whole distance non-stop.  When this couple knelt at the altar with their eleven children, all dressed in white, it was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen.  When they joined their toil-worn hands together and the eleven children placed their hands upon theirs to be sealed for eternity, the spirit was so strong in the room that you could almost taste it.  I knew that, to them, the effort they had made to come to the Temple of the Lord had been rewarded.”

The work was hard with long hours.  One must wonder how they kept up with all of it for six years!  Lucretia described their rigorous schedule:

 “We would arise at 4 a.m., have breakfast and prepare ourselves for the temple.  We arrived at 5:00 a.m. and changed into our white clothing, held a prayer meeting as a presidency, and then met the officiators for prayer meeting and instruction at 5:30.  From then on we were busy with scheduling, initiatory work, endowments, marriages, and sealings.  Usually we broke away about 1:30 p.m. and went home for an hour's rest. At 3 p.m. we returned for the evening sessions and were there until about 9 p.m.  This was our schedule for five days a week.  On Saturday afternoon we came home to Cedar City where we carried out our Sunday duties and on Monday took care of matters on the farm, washing, ironing, cleaning and preparing food for the following week.”

During the time Theron and Lucretia served in the Temple Presidency, President Whipple had a heart attack and was not able to be at the temple for about six months, so President McArthur and President Ashcroft completely ran the temple.  It happened during the time they were remodeling the temple and converting it from live actors to films.  During the remodel they discovered a fake wall in the temple that created a space between the real wall and the fake wall.  Inside this space they found a wooden box with some remarkable things inside.  One was the hand-written temple endowment that had been penned by Wilford Woodruff.  The other was a hand-written list (also made by Wilford Woodruff) of those dead men who had appeared to him and requested that he do their temple work.  President Ashcroft and President McArthur called Salt Lake and reported what they had found.  They offered to package it up and send it by UPS straight to Salt Lake.  The brethren said, “Oh no, not on your life.  That package needs to be personally delivered to the First Presidency, today!”

After the temple was remodeled it was re-dedicated on November 11th and 12th.  President Spencer W. Kimball presided over the six dedicatory sessions, and almost all of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve spoke during the two days of dedication.  Theron and Lucretia were able to participate in all of the dedicatory sessions.  The temple presidency continued to serve until they were released in 1976.