Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Dedicated: June 1983 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Many high-profile people were in attendance of this temple's open-house, among them Dale Murphy of the Atlanta Braves.
Location: Apia, Tuamasaga, Samoa
Dedicated: August 1983 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: In 2003, the Apia Samoa Temple, while closed for maintenance, was destroyed when a fire broke out. About a week later, the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley announced plans to rebuild. The new temple was finished in 2005, still possessing most of the original architectural details of the original, though updated with a more practical floor plan. The statue of the Angel Moroni which stood atop the original temple's steeple survived the blaze, and was used on the new temple as well.
Location: Nuku'alofa, Tongatapu, Tonga
Dedicated: August 1983 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The Nuku'alofa Temple was under construction around the same time as the Apia Samoa Temple, and the two shared an arhcitectural layout until the Apia Samoa Temple was redesigned.
Location: Santiago, Chile
Dedicated: September 1983 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: This was the first temple built in a Spanish-speaking nation.
Location: Papeete, Tahiti
Dedicated: October 1983 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Before this establishment of a Tahitian temple, members of the Church would have to travel 2,500 miles if they wished to attend the nearest temple (Hamilton, New Zealand).
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Dedicated: December 1983 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The Mexico City Temple is the largest temple outside of the United States, and recieved an international award for its artistic use of precast concrete. The University of Mexico's school of architecture has praised the temple, and given it much study.
Location: Boise, Idaho, USA
Dedicated: May 1984 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: For the year following its dedication, the Boise Idaho Temple operated at 102 percent of its capacity, showcasing the local members' pride in temple work.
Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Dedicated: September 1984 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: When the Temple was built, the Australian government originally ruled that it had to be without the statue of the Angel Moroni. Members of the Church gave the matter much prayer and fasting, and a year later, the decision was overturned and the statue found its place atop the spire of the temple.
Location: Manila, Metro Manila, The Phillippines
Dedicated: September 1984 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: A typhoon was headed directly for Manila the day before the groundbreaking was to take place. Prayers were said by the members, and the next day, the storm changed course, allowing the groundbreaking to happen as scheduled.
Location: Dallas, Texas, USA
Dedicated: October 1984 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The Dallas Temple shares an architectural design with its counterparts in Boise, Idaho and Chicago, Illinois.
Location: Taipei, Taiwan
Dedicated: November 1984 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Church officials made efforts to be respectful of the surrounding community in there design of this temple. The blue tile roof complements the nearby Chiang Kai-shek Memorial hall.
Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala Department, Guatemala
Dedicated: November 1984 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Some 3,700 free copies of the Book of Mormon were given to visitors of the temple open-house, and most of these books contained handwritten testimonies of Church members in Guatemala.
Location: Freiberg, Saxony, Germany
Dedicated: June 1985 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Having been built in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the temple in Freiberg holds the distinction of the first, and so far only, temple built in a communist nation.
Location: Stockholm, Södermanland, Sweden
Dedicated: July 1985 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: In 1995, King Carl XVI and Queen Silvia visited the temple grounds, welcomed by the Prophet Thomas S. Monson.
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Dedicated: August 1985 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The Chicago Temple became the second to be built in the state of Illinois, the first being the Nauvoo Temple, which was destroyed by arson in 1848 and eventually rebuilt in 2002.
Location: Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Dedicated: August 1985 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: This was the first temple built on the continent of Africa.
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Dedicated: December 1985 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The Church and the people of Korea have a common passion for family history. It is an old tradition in Korea to remember and keep records of ones ancestors, and the LDS Church stresses family history to perform temple ordinances for ancestors that didn't have a chance in life to be exposed to the gospel, but would have accepted it had they been given the chance. Thanks to this shared interest, one Korean Mormon was able to offer his own ancestral records dating all the way back to 927 AD.
Location: Lima, Lima Province, Peru
Dedicated: January 1986 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The temple in Lima is known for being extremely busy, crowds of Saint often waiting in lines that stretch outside the building.
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Dedicated: January 1986 by Thomas S. Monson
Fun Fact: Built with similar architecture to the Lima Peru Temple, the Buenos Aires Temple was dedicated just one week after its sister in Peru.
Location: Denver, Colorado, USA
Dedicated: October 1986 by Ezra Taft Benson
Fun Fact: At first, residents of the neighboring community were opposed to the idea of the Temple being lit with floodlights all night, so the Church agreed to shut the the lights off at 11:00PM. Over time however, the community grew to enjoy the beauty of the Temple, and requested that the lights be left on all night.
Other parts in this series:
Part IPart II
Part III
More to come...
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