A Pictorial History of Mormonism | Temples of the LDS Church | Part III

Alas! Part III in my LDS temple series. Read on for pictures and interesting facts about each of the existing 140 temples and their place in the history of the LDS Church. (For other parts in this series, scroll to the bottom for nifty directory!)

41. Frankfurt Germany Temple
Location: Friedrichsdorf, Hesse, Germany
Dedicated: August 1987 by Ezra Taft Benson
Fun Fact: The week that the ground was broken for this temple was very busy for Gordon B. Hinckley, who was then First Counselor to the Prophet Ezra Taft Benson. President Hinckley had dedicated the Freiberg Germany Temple just the day before, and the day after Frankfurt's groundbreaking he had gone to Sweden to dedicate the Stockholm Temple

42. Portland Oregon Temple

Location: Portland, Oregon, USA
Dedicated: August 1989 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The open house for the Portland Temple drew an unprecedented 314,000+ visitors, at the time, a record-setter.

43. Las Vegas Nevada Temple

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Dedicated: December 1989 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The lobby of the Las Vegas Temple has an architectural element known as a "whispering gallery". The ceiling is shaped in a parabola which allows sound waves to travel and spread throughout the area enclosed by the dome. If a person standing directly beneath the edge of the dome whispers gently, another person standing under the opposite edge of the dome (a few meters away) can hear them clearly, as if they were right next to each other.

44. Toronto Ontario Temple

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Dedicated: August 1990 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Due to the cultural diversity of the area, the dedication services were translated from English into six other languages: French, Spanish Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Korean.

45. San Diego California Temple

Location: San Diego, California, USA
Dedicated: April 1993 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Crushing the record for the Portland Oregon Temple's open house, the San Diego Temple's open house brought in  over 720,000 visitors

46.Orlando Florida Temple

Location: Orlando, Florida, USA
Dedicated: October 1994 by Howard W. Hunter
Fun Fact: Along with the Bountiful Temple, one of only two temples dedicated by the Prophet Howard W. Hunter during his brief ministry.

47. Bountiful Utah Temple

Location: Bountiful, Utah, USA
Dedicated: January 1995 by Howard W. Hunter
Fun Fact: Set a new record for open house attendance by attracting 870,000 visitors, who were guided on their tour by 45,000 volunteeers from the Church.

48. Hong Kong China Temple

Location: Hong Kong, China
Dedicated: May 1996 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Standing on a lot where a Church meetinghouse and a handful of other small Church buildings originally stood, the Hong Kong Temple was designed as the Church's first multipurpose temple, housing facilities for those other buildings within its walls.

49. Mount Timpanogas Utah Temple

Location: American Fork, Utah, USA
Dedicated: October 1996 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The Mount Timpanogas temple was built to relieve some traffic from the heavily visited Provo Temple. Many members wished to attend the dedicatory service, so the building had to be dedicated over 27 sessions.

50. St. Louis Missouri Temple

Location: St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Dedicated: January 1997 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The establishment of this Temple constituted a moment of healing and forgiveness for the Latter-day Saints, who had fled Missouri in 1838 due to persecution. The temple generated much interest and articles were written about it in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and in USA Today.

51. Vernal Utah Temple

Location: Vernal, Utah, USA
Dedicated: November 1997 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: This is the first temple to be made from an already-standing building. The building was originally a large meetinghouse, or "tabernacle" for the Uintah Stake of the Church, built in 1907. The tabernacle was gutted, the interior was redesigned, and the iconic Angel Moroni Statue was placed on one of the tabernacle's spires.

52. Preston England Temple

Location: Preston, Lancashire, England
Dedicated: June 1998 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The second temple built in England, following the London Temple.

53. Monticello Utah Temple

Location: Monticello, Utah, USA
Dedicated: July 1998 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The Monticello Temple originally featured a Moroni statue made from off-white colored granite similar to the stone of the rest of the building. Temple officials soon realized however, that the statue sort of melted into the background on cloudy days, so just a year later, the statue was replaced with a taller, more traditional gold-leafed version.

54. Anchorage Alaska Temple

Location: Anchorage, Alaska, USA
Dedicated: January 1999 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: At 61.10152° N, this is the northernmost LDS temple worldwide.

55. Colonia Juarez Chihuahua Mexico Temple

Location: Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico
Dedicated: March 1999 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: At the time this temple was being dedicated, the surrounding area was experiencing a severe drought. In his dedicatory prayer on the Colonia Juarez Temple, the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley asked God for a rain to fall and quench the dry landscape. After the final session of the dedication, it started to rain.

56. Madrid Spain Temple

Location: Madrid, Spain
Dedicated: March 1999 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: In the same complex as the Madrid Spain Temple, reside a meetinghouse, a missionary training center, and another Church building. The plot is often referred to as the "Temple Square of Madrid".

57. Bogota Colombia Temple

Location: Bogota, Colombia
Dedicated: April 1999 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Because of difficulty in finding a location that was both available and suitable for the temple's needs, nine years elapsed between the time this temple was announced and the groundbreaking ceremony.

58. Guayaquil Ecuador Temple

Location: Urdesa, Ecuador
Dedicated: August 1999 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The first members to perform ordinances in this temple traveled ten hours by bus. They came from two different stakes, and almost filled the temple in one session.

59. Spokane Washington Temple

Location: Spokane, Washington, USA
Dedicated: August 1999 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Spokane Temple's dedication, Mormons in the surrounding area strove to fill every seat of every ordinance through the entire day.

60. Columbus Ohio Temple

Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA
Dedicated: September 1999
Fun Fact: The white marble used to construct the Colombus Temple was quarried in the vicinity of Sharon, Vermont, the birthplace of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' founder Joseph Smith Jr.

Other parts in this series:
Part I
Part II
Part III
More to come...

History of Mormonism: Latter-day Prophets, Part IV (final)

The history of Mormonism is a unique and interesting one, and one that has been touched by the hands of many amazing men and women. Since the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was officially organized in 1830, there has been a total sixteen Prophets who have led the Church. Below is a the fourth and final installment of a chronology of these great men, along with a brief bio and some major accomplishments they made during their ministry as President of the Church.

13. Ezra Taft Benson Growing up as the oldest of 11 children, Ezra Taft Benson learned at a young age how to be a good leader, and the value of hard work from chores on the family farm. In his youth and adulthood he was very involved with his family and community. He was also involved with his nation, serving as Secretary of Agriculture during both of Dwight D. Eisenhower's terms. During his service as Prophet of the Church, President Benson urged the members to renew their vigor in the Book of Mormon, reiterating and emphasizing its importance as the "keystone of the church." Any Mormons who were alive to experience his 1989 address to the Church in General Conference on the subject of "pride" were surely blessed. It has become an iconic speech, a moment in his ministry that many Church members remember him for to this day.

14. Howard W. Hunter Hunter was a man of many talents and played several musical instruments, including the piano, drums, violin, clarinet, and others. As a young man, he formed a band called "Hunter's Croonaders", and the group performed at local events and even booked a gig on an Asian cruise line. Though his professional career eventually settled on law, he held various jobs over the course of his life, among them were bridge painter, and laundry detergent salesman. President Hunter is notable for having shortest run as Prophet in the history of the Church, dying only nine months after being ordained in June 1994. A famous event in the life of president Hunter occurred just a couple years before he became the Prophet of the Church. In February 1993, when Hunter was still an apostle, he was delivering a speech to a group of young single adults at Brigham Young University. As he was preparing for his talk, a man named Cody Judy walked up to Hunter with a briefcase, which he said contained a bomb. Judy ordered Hunter to read a three page paper he had written, declaring Judy the President of the Church. Hunter outright refused. At that moment, the audience spontaneously started singing "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet", a famous Mormon him. During the song, a few men from the congregation and campus security overpowered Judy and detained him. Hunter then got up and calmly delivered his speech, as if nothing had happened.

15. Gordon B. Hinckley President Hinckley was known by the Church as well as by many others as a spiritual giant and a wonderful leader. As President, he oversaw some major increases for the Church. His presidency saw the building of 77 new temples throughout the world bringing the number from 47 when he started to 124 when he died early 2008. The Church also grew significantly in membership under President Hinckley. By the time of his death it was calculated that a third of the Church's membership had joined while he was the Prophet.

16. Thomas S. Monson Thomas S. Monson is the current President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, being ordained to the post after the death of President Hinckley in 2008. Throughout the course of his life he has had a great focus on charity, doing whatever is necessary to help his fellow man. As a boy in the heat of the Great Depression, a friend of his let him know that his family had nothing to eat but cold cereal for their Christmas dinner. In a display of sacrifice and kindness beyond his years, he gladly gave his friend his pet rabbit, so that they would have something eat. As a young man, he became the bishop of a Salt Lake City ward of approximately 1000 members. Eighty-five of these members were widows, and as their bishop, Monson visited each one regularly, bringing them wonderful home-cooked meals and good company. Even after he was released as bishop, he kept in contact with these women, and continued to visit them and bring them happiness. As the years went on, he would speak at each and every one of their funerals. As Prophet, he continually reminds the Mormons to strive to generous and charitable to their fellow man, and to "come to the rescue" of anyone in need.
  If you want to learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you can click here to chat live with real Mormon missionaries.

Other parts of this series:
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV