{"id":901747,"date":"2026-11-01T03:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T03:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/901747\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T03:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T03:54:13","slug":"corn-wheat-and-the-church-are-growing-in-americas-heartland-church-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/901747\/","title":{"rendered":"Corn, wheat and the Church are growing in America\u2019s heartland \u2013 Church News"},"content":{"rendered":"

WICHITA, Kansas \u2014 Earl McIntyre moved to Wichita, Kansas, in 1978 when he took a job with Boeing. He and his wife, Caren, arrived with their two boys and two girls. The move from Maryland came with changes to their family life, school life and church life. Among those changes, the McIntyres could no longer worship as regularly as they had at the Washington D.C. Temple<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"\"The sun shines on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Washington D.C. Temple in Kensington, Maryland, on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News <\/p>\n

A move to America\u2019s heartland meant a move away from a place that had come to bring much peace to their hearts. <\/p>\n

Once in Wichita, the couple\u2019s home would be part of a temple district that spanned nearly half the width of the United States. Their new temple was nearly a thousand miles to the west in Manti, Utah<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"\"The Manti Utah\u00a0Temple shines in the early morning light Monday, March 11, 2024. | Brian Nicholson, for the Deseret News <\/p>\n

The absence of temple worship wore on Earl McIntyre, and he knew he needed the strength that came from sacrificing to be there. <\/p>\n

\u201cI felt a spiritual drain,\u201d he said. \u201cI had no reason other than not being in the temple.\u201d <\/p>\n

Speaking days before the dedication of the Wichita Kansas Temple<\/a> that is scheduled to be dedicated by Elder Patrick Kearon<\/a> of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on Sunday, Nov. 1, McIntyre said this was a good lesson for him. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs you attend the temple, you build up a spiritual reservoir. And being away from a temple, it started to drain off,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

This didn\u2019t mean he had to be in the temple as frequently while living in Kansas as he had while living in Maryland. He understood that the Lord would help him fill that personal reservoir as he made the sacrifice to be in the temple when he could \u2014 even if that meant only a couple of times per year. <\/p>\n

In 1984, the Dallas Texas Temple<\/a> was dedicated, and the trip to a house of the Lord was cut from 15 hours by car to less than six hours. The McIntyre family had grown to include one more child by then. At one point after that temple opened, Earl McIntyre was called to serve as a temple worker. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Dallas Texas Temple. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints <\/p>\n

He said he would finish work on a Friday and drive straight to Dallas. He would work in the temple all day Saturday, and then he drove home that night to attend sacrament meeting with his family on Sunday. The calling lasted about a year, and he continued to fill that reservoir. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe front of the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints <\/p>\n

The Church\u2019s construction of the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple<\/a> further cut the travel time needed to serve in the temple when it was completed in 2000. That put the drive at under three hours. <\/p>\n

And with the opening of a temple in Wichita? <\/p>\n

\"CarenCaren and Earl McIntyre are pictured on their wedding day on April 2, 1969, outside the Salt Lake Temple. | Provided by Laura McIntyre <\/p>\n

\u201cI can make it there in 10 minutes if I don\u2019t hit any [traffic] lights,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

But as Earl McIntyre prepares to worship in the temple, he does it without his sweet wife physically by his side. Caren McIntyre died five years ago at age 70 after nearly 50 years of marriage. The temple was a part of their marriage from the beginning, and it will continue to be so now, Earl McIntyre said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a time I go [to the temple] that I don\u2019t think about the covenants I made with my wife,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Their example of love and worship now carries on with their 19 grandchildren and their first great-grandchild. Earl McIntyre said he takes advantage of every opportunity to share his testimony of eternal families with his grandchildren. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey might not understand exactly what happens in there, but they know about covenants for eternity,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

McIntyre\u2019s hopes for his children to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ extends to his neighbors and others in the community as well. <\/p>\n

\"EarlEarl McIntyre, center, is pictured with his children and grandchildren shortly after his wife, Caren, died in 2016. | Provided by Laura McIntyre <\/p>\n

\u201cAs the scripture says, \u2018the field is white already to harvest\u2019 (see Doctrine and Covenants 4:4<\/a>)\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what we do around here.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018You\u2019ll have to drag us out\u2019<\/p>\n

The growth of the Church in Kansas has taken it from a single stake that stretched from Colorado Springs, Colorado, on the west to Eureka, Kansas, on the east; and from Nebraska on the north to Oklahoma on the south; to now having eight stakes across the state. <\/p>\n

Across all that land are fields of corn, wheat and sunflowers \u2014 the Kansas state flower. The Church is growing in its season, just like each of those plants. <\/p>\n

Glenda Jones has seen a lot of that growth from her home in Wichita. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had some great missionaries,\u201d she said, reflecting on everything her family has seen over the past 50 years. \u201cThey were helped by all the efforts the members put in.\u201d <\/p>\n

She was a part of that missionary story. She was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1973 after meeting her future husband, Jim Jones. The two were married the following year. <\/p>\n

The Joneses raised their son and two daughters in Wichita, and Glenda Jones said it was a wonderful place to raise her children. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe always had a pretty good youth group,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The community has religious diversity but not much contention among its residents. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe community has been very welcoming,\u201d she said. The temple sits on a road that is home to many other church buildings of other religions. <\/p>\n

A house of the Lord in Kansas gives Glenda Jones a great feeling for the future of the Church and her friends in the surrounding areas. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to give us so much more opportunities to attend the temple,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

That level of opportunity has been met with increasing spiritual preparedness by the members of the Church in the temple district, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re prepared to be in the temple a lot. You\u2019ll have to drag us out,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

That preparation included Church meetings and activities. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Church has always had good activities reminding us who we are.\u201d <\/p>\n

Being spirit sons and daughters of Heavenly Father helps individuals support each other and show love to each other, she said. Jones said she knows that being a member of the Church can seem peculiar to those who aren\u2019t familiar with the Church. But she said she hopes people also see her and others in the Church as normal members of the community. <\/p>\n

They are Kansans. And Kansans are no strangers to hard work and long hours. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re used to hard work,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be good for us. We\u2019re focused on the Savior and how we can help others.\u201d <\/p>\n

In the end, Jones says she knows the temples and the Church are here to help families stay together. <\/p>\n

\u201cFamily always has been and always will be important,\u201d she said. \u201cWe support one another and show love to one another.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WICHITA, Kansas \u2014 Earl McIntyre moved to Wichita, Kansas, in 1978 when he took a job with Boeing.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,250622,3,60601,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-901747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-living-faith","tag-news","tag-temples","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}