This is a special pre-General Conference episode of the Every Temple Podcast where we talk to our new friend Olivia about her educated guesses for where new temples may be announced. If you have any guesses please add them in the comments on Spotify or on our Instagram and Facebook pages!

We will meet up with Olivia after conference to review what she got right and what she thinks about the temples that are announced!

The Bern Switzerland Temple begins a new era of temple building, and operation. This is the first temple in Europe, the eastern hemisphere and in a multi-lingual area. Brother Gordon B. Hinckley pioneered the use of films in temples at this time in order to accommodate all the different languages of the members in Europe.

Initially the temple was built with just one big instruction room, and sessions began every 2 hours. In the 90's the room was divided into 4 smaller instruction rooms, now sessions could run every 30 minutes.

Moroni wasn't added to the temple spire until 2005.

Built between 1937 and 1945, this temple is a special building for many Idaho Latter Day Saints. Because it is built on the banks of the Snake River it is called The Temple by the River, and is surrounded by some very scenic views.

This temple has amazing murals - Janelle's favorite even. And the best looking oxen Toni has seen in a baptistry! please join us as we talk and learn about the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple!

Announcement:  3 March 1937

Dedication:  23–25 September 1945 by George Albert Smith

Rededication:  4 June 2017 by Henry B. Eyring

Ordinance Rooms:  Four instruction rooms (four-stage progressive), seven sealing rooms, and one baptistry

Total Floor Area:  Originally 48,500, now 85,624 square feet  |  7,955 square meters

Height:  156 feet  |  47.5 meters

This week we have another amazing guest! My friend Laurie Jayne loves the Mesa Arizona Temple and shares some great stories and history with us!

The first donation toward a Latter-day Saint temple in Arizona came almost 33 years before its announcement. On Jan. 24, 1887, Helena Roseberry — a widow from Pima, Arizona — gave $5 to Elder Moses Thatcher of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for a house of the Lord in her home state. That money was held dear in Salt Lake City until a temple was announced for Arizona on Oct. 3, 1919.

This is our eighth episode of our first season, so today we are talking about the impressive Cardston Alberta Temple! And I’m so glad I picked Janelle to be my cohost because she has some history with this temple!  Listen until the end to hear the craziest baptism story I've heard!

The Deseret Evening News reported that the inside design “would be similar to other temples in the Church, but outside it is totally unlike any of them.” The architects' goal was “to conform to the peculiar requirements of such a building rather than to imitate any [architectural] style.”

Architects Harold Burton and Hyrum Pope drew their inspiration from famed American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, whose designs “were bold in form, original in their geometric decorative details, and carefully blended with their natural surroundings.”1 They were particularly influenced by Wright’s Unity Church in Oak Park, Illinois. 

"each of the ordinance rooms ... is decorated with different inlaid and panelled hardwoods, which include oak, birdseye maple, South American walnut, African mahogany, rosewood and ebony. There is a hierarchal order in the use of the woods, so that the decoration begins in the lower rooms with small panels of simply grained, light-coloured woods and culminates in the Celestial room with large and elaborate panels of the richest woods."

Announcement:  27 June 1913

Public Open House:  Tours offered during the final years of construction (1920–1923)

Dedication:  26–29 August 1923 by Heber J. Grant

Rededication:  2 July 1962 by Hugh B. Brown (addition only)

Re-re-dedication:  22–24 June 1991 by Gordon B. Hinckley

Ordinance Rooms:  Four instruction rooms (four-stage progressive), five sealing rooms, and one baptistry

Total Floor Area:  88,562 square feet  |  8,228 square meters

Height:  85 feet  |  25.9 meters

In December of 1850 the first missionaries arrived in Hawaii to preach the gospel. They organized a branch and built a meetinghouse, and in 1852 George Q Cannon began the hawaiian translation of the Book of Mormon, this process took two years. By that time there were thousands of baptized church members and a branch on each island.

In 1865 land was purchased in Laie on the east coast of Oahu for a gathering place for the saints

June 1915 The church in hawaii was 65 years old, the gathering in Laie was 50 years old

President Joseph F Smith dedicated the site for the future construction of the temple as he was there on business. It was announced at October conference that year, and construction began in 1916 

Site Dedication:  1 June 1915 by Joseph F. Smith

Announcement:  3 October 1915

Dedication:  27–30 November 1919 by Heber J. Grant

Rededication:  13–15 June 1978 by Spencer W. Kimball

reRededication:  21 November 2010 by Thomas S. Monson

Ordinance Rooms:  Four instruction rooms (four-stage progressive), five sealing rooms, and one baptistry

Total Floor Area:  42,100 square feet  |  3,911 square meters

Height:  50 feet  |  15.2 meters

Today's temple is the beautiful and impressive and iconic Salt Lake Temple!

And because it’s such a big deal, we have a guest for today’s Podcast! My friend Becky has joined us. I love talking to Becky about anything because she has unique perspectives, and a jaw dropping story to tell us!

There is so much to talk about, there's no way we can hit every story or fact that I wish we could. In fact, to prepare I just read a 400 page book called “Forty Years: the saga of building the Salt Lake Temple” by Mark Henshaw, it came out in 2020.

The Manti temple site was dedicated as President Brigham Young traveled back to Salt Lake after dedicating the newly finished St George Temple. In the same month he also traveled to Cache Valley to dedicate the site for the Logan Utah Temple.

The Manti Utah Temple was built on a rattlesnake-infested site, known as the Manti Stone Quarry. Once Brigham Young designated the site for a temple, it became known as Temple Hill. The quarry's stone, Manti oolite, is the same cream-colored stone used for the temple exterior.

Announcement:  25 June 1875
Groundbreaking and Site Dedication:  25 April 1877 by Brigham Young
Public Dedication:  21–23 May 1888 by Lorenzo Snow
Rededication:  14–16 June 1985 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Rededication:  21 April 2024 by Russell M. Nelson
Ordinance Rooms:  Four instruction rooms, nine sealing rooms, and one baptistry
Total Floor Area:  74,792 square feet  |  6,948 square meters
Height:  179 feet  |  54.6 meters

On a visit to Cache valley in 1863 President Young told the youth “you will have the privilege of going into the towers of a glorious Temple built unto the name of the Most High (pointing in the direction of the bench), east of us upon the Logan bench; and while you stand in the towers of the Temple and your eyes survey this glorious valley filled with cities and villages, occupied by tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints, you will then call to mind this visitation of President Young and his company." 

Announcement:  6 October 1876

Site Dedication:  18 May 1877 by Orson Pratt

Groundbreaking:  18 May 1877 by John W. Young

Dedication:  17–19 May 1884 by John Taylor

Public Open House:  5 February–3 March 1979

Rededication:  13–15 March 1979 by Spencer W. Kimball

Ordinance Rooms:  Four instruction rooms with separate veil room, eleven sealing rooms, and one baptistry

Total Floor Area:  Originally  59,000 sqft now: 119,619 square feet  |  11,113 square meters

Height:  170 feet  |  51.8 meters

A Temple in St George was announced in November 1871 - Salt Lake Temple has been going for 24 years at this point. Logan and Manti had not been announced yet. just 1100 people lived in the area who were sent down to try and grow cotton. They knew that had failed, but President Young saw the opportunity to build a community around the temple.

Announcement:  31 January 1871

Groundbreaking and Site Dedication:  9 November 1871 by Brigham Young

Preliminary Dedication:  1 January 1877 by Wilford Woodruff, Erastus Snow, and Brigham Young

Dedication:  6–8 April 1877 by Daniel H. Wells (with Brigham Young presiding)⁠

Rededication:  11–12 November 1975 by Spencer W. Kimball

Rededication:  10 December 2023 by Jeffrey R. Holland

Total Floor Area:  143,969 square feet  |  13,375 square meters
Height:  175 feet  |  53.3 meters

I just want to give a shout out to the website churchofjesuschristtemples.org it is a great encyclopedia of information and pictures, if any listeners are curious about learning more about any of these temples. I use it a lot to prepare my part of the podcast, as well as the church sites. But shout out to the guy who just maintains this site as a labor of love, his name is Rick Satterfield.