That a new Mormon temple would be constructed in Sapporo Japan, was announced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on October 3, 2009 at the 179th General Conference of the Church in the Saturday morning session.

The site for the Sapporo Japan Temple is at 1-620-5 Ohyachi-Nishi, Atsubetsu-ku, Sapporo-shi, Hokkaido, Japan. The site is 9.8 acres. The parcel of land is on the Atsubetsu River, adjacent to the campus of Hokusei Gakuen University. The land was once occupied by the Shin Sapporo Golf Center and offers convenient access from the Hokkaido Expressway and the Ooyachi Subway Station.

The Sapporo Japan Temple was designed with inspiration from Asian architecture. The temple will anchor a complex of supporting buildings including an Arrival Center, a Patron Housing Facility, a Temple Missionary Housing Facility, a combined home and office for the Japan Sapporo Mission, and space for a future meetinghouse. The grounds will feature distinctive trees and plants, large landscaping stones, and a pond and waterfall spanned by a pedestrian bridge.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the Sapporo Japan Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“Mormons“) was held Saturday, October 22, 2011, amidst wind and rain, marking the beginning of the Church’s third temple in Japan and sixth in Asia. Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Church’s First Quorum of the Seventy presided at the groundbreaking. He was joined by Elders Michael T. Ringwood and Koichi Aoyagi of the Seventy.

The goal to qualify for a temple on Hokkaidō was five stakes (groups of congregations).

This will be the third temple built in Japan, which has 29 stakes and 14 districts. Sapporo is Japan’s fifth largest city and is located on the northern island of Hokkaidō.

There are presently two Mormon Temples in Japan — the Tokyo Japan Temple (1980) and the Fukuoka Japan Temple (2000).

On October 2, 2010, at the commencement of the 180th general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Thomas S. Monson announced the building of a new temple in Urdaneta, Pangasinan, Philippines.

Urdaneta is located about 100 miles north of Manila on the island of Luzon.  Latter-day Saints in the area currently attend the Manila Philippines Temple.  There are ninety-nine stakes and districts in the area. 

Recently, the Mormon Church re-aligned missions around the world to better facilitate missionary work. In June 2011, the Philippines Baguio Mission will be relocated to Urdaneta City, which offers a more central and accessible location for the members and missionaries of the mission. A new mission home and office will be located next to the recently refurbished Urdaneta Philippines Stake Center.

With the addition of the Urdaneta temple, there will be three temples in the Philippines. The third is the Cebu Philippines Temple.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the future construction of a temple in Lahug, Cebu City, Cebu, Philippines, on 18 April 2006.  Groundbreaking for the future temple took place on 14 November 2007.

The temple sits on 11.6 acres and will be over 29,000 square feet in size. The temple will support a single central spire and share its 11-acre site with a building for patron housing, a meetinghouse, residences for both the temple and mission presidents, and a mission office.

This will be the second temple to be located in the Philippines.  The Manilla Temple has consistently been filled to capacity, as dedicated members in the Philippines have been willing to make huge sacrifices in order to travel and attend the temple.

Missionary work began in the Philippines in 1898. The first two missions were in Manila and Cebu City. The first two Mormon missionaries were in the U.S. military and had been set apart to do missionary work before leaving for the Philippines. The work was initially very slow, but increased dramatically after World War II. In 1961, the Church was officially recognized by the Philippines government. When the Manila Temple was built, there were 76,000 members in the Philippines.  Church membership in the Philippines has grown dramatically over the past 25 years. The nation now is home to over a half million Church members organized into more than 80 stakes with 1000 congregations.

The Angel Moroni statue was placed upon the spire of the temple on Thursday, November 5, 2009, and a crowd gathering below applauded the event.  The installation merited front-page coverage in one of the major daily newspapers in Cebu.

The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced a public open house prior to the dedication of the Cebu City Philippines Temple.

The public was invited to visit the temple beginning on Friday, 21 May 2010, and continuing through Saturday, 5 June 2010, excluding Sundays.

After the open house, the temple was formally dedicated on Sunday, 13 June 2010. Three dedicatory sessions were held to accommodate Latter-day Saints in the area served by the temple.

In conjunction with the temple dedication, there was also a cultural celebration of music and dance. This event was held on Saturday, 12 June 2010 at the Cebu Coliseum.

Formal temple work commenced at the Cebu City Philippines Temple on Monday, 14 June 2010.

 The Taipei Taiwan Temple is the 31st operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The country of Taiwan was first introduced to the Mormon Church in the mid 1950s. At first, United States servicemen would hold church meetings there. Then in 1956 missionaries from the Southern Far East Mission arrived. The printing of the Book of Mormon in Chinese in 1965 was a great blessing to local church members, who had waited for years to have the book available in their own language. It was the announcement and building of the Taipei Taiwan Temple, however, that the Taiwanese Saints had waited for, and it proved to be the greatest development in the history of the Church in that land.

After the announcement of the temple in 1981, Church leaders decided to build on the site of the mission home in the center of Taipei. Church leaders hoped that the beauty of the temple would attract the attention of those who passed by and that they would notice the drastic difference between the surrounding buildings and the temple. In years to come, the temple has been acknowledged as one of the most beautiful buildings in Taiwan.

On November 17, 1984, President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the Taipei Taiwan Temple. The temple is built on one-half acre and has over 16,000 square feet with an exterior of white ceramic tile. There are four ordinance rooms and three sealing rooms.

Mailing address:
256 Ai Kuo East Road
Taipei 106
TAIWAN R.O.C.
Phone:   (886) 2-2351-0218

Plans to build a Mormon temple in Freiberg, Germany, were announced on October 9, 1982. With the temple’s completion in 1985, it became the 33rd operating Mormon temple worldwide. The Freiberg temple was the only Mormon temple to be built in a Communist country. The German Democratic Republic government actually suggested the building of the temple for the Mormon members in the country, because the government wanted to reduce the amount of travel outside of its own country.

Mormon history in Germany goes back to 1840 when members of the Mormon Church began moving there. A small branch was set up in Darmstadt, but it was not until 1852 when the first Mormon missionaries arrived in Germany. They brought with them the Book of Mormon in German. In 1939 with the onset of World War II, missionaries were evacuated from Germany, and missionary work slowed. After the war, missionaries were only allowed to re-enter the Western part of Germany. It was not until March 1989 when Mormon missionaries were finally able to enter Eastern Germany; in November of the same year, the Berlin wall came down. Today there are 36,000 Mormon members in Germany, two temples—Frankfurt and Freiberg—and 14 stakes.

A groundbreaking ceremony and site dedication were held on April 23, 1983. Thomas S. Monson presided at the ceremony. The site of the temple is one acre. The Mormon temple was open to the public for tours June 3-15, 1985. Those who attended the tours of the 14,125 square foot temple were able to see the exterior and enjoy the beauty of the German influenced design of the temple with its gothic style arches, as well as the interior with its one ordinance room, two sealing rooms, baptistry, Celestial room, and other facilities. More than 90,000 people visited the temple during the open house.

The temple was dedicated for official use by Mormon members on June 29-30, 1985, by Gordon B. Hinckley. When the temple was dedicated, there were 29,9000 members in Germany. Renovations were called for, because when the temple was originally built, some of the best materials were not available, and the Church was not allowed to put a statue of the angel Moroni on the spire. The renovations of the temple almost doubled the square footage and added twelve oxen to support the baptismal font, a waiting room for those not able to enter the temple, a matron and bride’s room, as well as an office for the temple president. On December 20, 2001, an angel Moroni statue was placed on top of the temple. A second open house was held August 17-31 2001. After renovations, Gordon B. Hinckley rededicated the Freiberg temple on September 7, 2002. The renovations were also needed because the temple, which before could only be used by Church members in the German Democratic Republic, is now open for use by members in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania.

Physical Address:
HAINICHENER STRASSE 64
09599 FREIBERG
GERMANY
Germany

Mailing address:
c/o Europe Area Administration Office
POUCH
Germany
Phone:   (49) 3731-35960

Other Links:

Temple: Information from Answers.com
Mormon Temple Ordinances – ReligionFacts.com

Search for Mormon Temples at Onlymormon.com/

The Mormon Temple is a holy place set apart from the outside world, whereas the Mormon meeting houses are utilized for weekday activities and Sunday worship services. In the Temple, sacred ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are performed.


Because the Mormon Temple is a unique place, only the finest materials and craftsmanship are used in its construction. After the temple is dedicated, Church members wear white clothing while inside to symbolize purity, cleanliness, and the setting aside of the things of the world.


In the Mormon Temple, families can be united in the most sacred of all human relationships; as husband and wife and as children and parents. Through priesthood authority from God, marriages are performed that can endure throughout this life and for all eternity. To share these blessings with our ancestors, Mormons perform temple ordinances in their behalf. This is why members of the Mormon Church are so interested in genealogical research. Members research to seek and identify ancestors so that the temple ordinances are performed in their behalf, and so that families can be together forever.


Those who enter the Mormon Temple can find the peaceful serenity the Savior promised his followers in the New Testament: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”1


The Mormon Church in Hong Kong has changed drastically since the first Mormon missionariesMormon missionaries preaching the Gospel.2  President of the Mormon Church, Gordon B. Hinckley, announced that there would be a Mormon Temple in Hong Kong in 1992. However, finding a place in which to build would be the obstacle. Mormon Temple had to be ‘built up’ instead of ’spreading out’ to build. It is the scarcity of space in that crowded land that contributes to the unique design of the Hong Kong Temple. This six-story building is designed to house, not only the Mormon Temple, but also a chapel, mission offices, and living quarters for the temple president and several missionaries.3


The dedication of the Hong Kong Mormon Temple took place on May 26, 1996. Many that attended the Temple Open House were impressed that amid the traffic and confusion of such a busy city, and wherein lives one-fourth of the inhabitants of the earth, there is such peace and tranquility found so easily inside the Mormon Temple.


The Hong Kong Temple serves Mormon members from parts of India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Guam, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Cambodia, Micronesia, Majuro, and Indonesia.  Missionaries arrived to preach the Gospel in 1853. In the 1850’s the missionary effort was unproductive, and the Church made little progress. It was not until 1950, a century later, when eight missionaries were sent back in to Hong Kong to teach.  However, they were taken out of the country and relocated because of the Korean War. Missionaries were sent back in to Hong Kong in 1955 and by 1960, there were 91 full-time foreign and 12 full-time local missionaries.

Mailing address:
2 Cornwall Street
Kowloon Tong
Kowloon
HONG KONG
Phone:   (852) 2339-8100

To learn more about Mormon Temples please visit the following websites:

Temple (Mormonism) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Manhattan Mormon Temple New York City.com : Arts & Attractions …

To Learn the basics of Mormon Beliefs, visit Mormon.org.

To Learn about Jesus Christ in Mormonism, go to JesusChrist.lds.org.

See also, Mormon News.

Plans to build a Mormon temple in Fukuoka, Japan, were announced on May 7, 1998. The Fukuoka Japan temple  was the 88th temple built by the Mormon Church.Missionary work began in Japan in 1901, when Mormon missionaries Heber J. Grant, Horace S. Ensigh, Louis A. Kelsch and Alma O. Taylor traveled to Tokyo. Missionaries worked in the area for more than twenty years, but when the mission had to be closed because of World War I, there were still only 200 members. At the end of World War II, when missionaries entered Japan again, they found that these members had remained strong and were able to find others who wanted to join the gospel. In 1995 the Church published a new Japanese translation of the triple combination (Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants), which has been extremely beneficial in missionary work. Missionary work in Japan is hard because many of the people are connected to different forms of religion all at once—the same person can be married by a Shinto priest, follow Confucian morals, be buried in the Buddhist practice and have no desire to attach himself to a single religion. However, the work does go forward, and today there are more than 114,000 members in Japan and about 1,000 missionaries.

A site dedication and groundbreaking ceremony were held on March 20, 1999. L. Lionel Kendrick, a member of the Seventy and President of the Asia North Area, presided at the ceremony. The site for the temple is 1.25 acres on the southern island of Kyushu. The temple has a single spire design, and the exterior is finished with Empress White and Majestic Grey granite from China.

The temple was open to the public for tours June 1st through the 3rd, 2000. Those who toured the 10,700 square foot Mormon temple were able to see the Celestial room, two ordinance rooms, two sealing rooms, and baptistry and learn more about Mormon beliefs associated with the temple. Getting the information to the public about the open house was a difficult task, because many newspapers and other forms of media in Japan will not run anything they feel is promoting a religious group.

President of the Mormon Church, Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the Fukuoka Mormon temple on June 11, 2000. The Fukuoka temple serves more than 7,700 members in Okinawa, Kyushu, Yamaguchi and Hiroshima.

Mailing address:
46 Hirao Johsui Machi
Chuo-Ku
Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka-ken
810-0029 JAPAN
Japan
Phone:   (81) 92-525-8255

Other Links:

LDS (Mormon) Temple Resources
LDS Temples – Mormon Temples – Salt Lake Temple
Teachings About Temples – Lightplanet

The Mormon Temple is a house of God; we are God’s family and we are His children. The temple is a constant reminder that God intends the family to be eternal. The temple is a place of learning. Here the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are reviewed and truths of the kingdom of God are taught. If those who enter the temple are in the right spirit and are attentive, the mind and spirit are enriched in gospel knowledge and wisdom.
The Mormon Temple is a place of peace wherein the cares and worries of the outside can be put aside for a time. Promises are made by temple patrons to obey the laws of God, and promises are made by the Lord to those who attend, conditioned upon faithfulness.
The gifts and blessings of the Mormon temple are offered to all who conform to the requirements of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All who accept and live the gospel and keep themselves worthy may partake of them.
Temple work must be done first by each person for himself; then it may be done for those who have passed on. All who have lived will have the opportunity to either accept or reject the work that has been done in a Mormon temple.1
The first member of the Mormon Church in Korea was baptized in 1951. At that time Korea was in the midst of a civil war with the Communist armies from North Korea. Mormon servicemen from America taught the gospel through their example. As one convert noted, “Many of these men had come fresh from the [battle] line…yet even that did not deter [them] from meeting to honor the Sabbath and to share their testimonies.”2
The first Mormon missionaries arrived in South Korea in 1954. Several years later President Boyd K. Packer, a Mormon Apostle, was assigned to travel to South Korea and find a place to build a Mormon Temple. After considering several locations, President Packer eventually chose the property which the Church had purchased almost two decades earlier. In 1981 the temple was announced.

President Gordon B. Hinckley, Mormon prophet, dedicated the Mormon temple December 14, 1985. The temple walls feature Korean granite with six white pillars drawing the viewer’s eyes toward heaven. A traditional, tiled “hundred-year roof” gives the temple a uniquely Korean appearance. Inside, the temple is decorated with delicate brush paintings, intricate wooden molding, silk wall coverings, gold leaf, dome chandeliers, and white lacquer furniture inlaid with mother of pearl.3
After the temple was dedicated, a subway system was built in conjunction with the Summer Olympics at Seoul in 1988. The system included a line that ended right at the base of the hill upon which the temple was built, making the temple even more accessible for Mormon Church members.
The importance of families and one’s ancestors have been a long tradition in Korea. Some families have kept records for hundreds, even thousands, of years. With the dedication of the Seoul Temple, the submission of names for temple work to be done was phenomenal. One such family had submitted names from fifty generations.
Even before the Mormon Temple was announced, President Harold B. Lee in 1954 declared the following: “I feel the Spirit of the Almighty brooding amongst the Korean people and the unfolding of a great work is yet to come.” That work is now being fulfilled.3

Physical Address:
500-23 CHANGCHEON-DONG
SEODAEMUN-GU
SEOUL 120-836
SOUTH KOREA

Mailing address:
c/o Seoul Korea Administration Office
POUCH
South Korea
Phone:   (82) 2-334-9100

All Mormon Temples are designed with the same purpose – to help faithful Mormons worship the Lord in a way that brings them closer to Him.
To Mormons, a temple is a building dedicated to be a house of God. The Mormon temples differ from a church meetinghouse, in that the meetinghouse is used for weekly worship services, and the temples are used for special forms of worship. The importance of temples is emphasized in the Mormon Church, and the Church strongly encourages its members to become worthy to attend the temple often.
Worthy members participate in sacred ordinances and make covenants with God. Like baptism, these ordinances and covenants are necessary for the salvation of man, and they must be performed in the temple. The temple is a learning center where those who enter gain a better understanding of our purpose in life and our relationship with God and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Only in the Mormon Temple can a family be sealed together forever. Marriage in the temple joins a man and woman as husband and wife eternally if they honor their covenants. When a man and woman are married in the temple, their children also become part of their eternal family.1
At this writing there are 146 temples across the world that are operating, under construction, or in the planning stage.

On August 21, 1955, Joseph Fielding Smith, an apostle for the Mormon Church, dedicated the land in the Philippines for the preaching of the gospel.
The first four Mormon Missionaries arrived in June of 1961,and by 1973 over 13,000 Filippinos had been baptized.
On April 1, 1981, the announcement of a Mormon temple was announced; groundbreaking and site dedication for the temple was on August 25, 1982. The Manila Philippines temple was dedicated on September 25, 1984.
In 1987 selections from the Book of Mormon were published in the Filipino language Tagalog, and a missionary training center was established in Manila in 1986.
By the time the Manila Temple was dedicated in 1984, Church membership had reached 76,000. There are now more than 450,000 Mormons in the Philippines.
In January 1981 the Mormon Church purchased land in Quezon City, in the metro Manila area. The site was partly chosen because of its accessibility to members throughout the temple district. When the Temple was announced, a fund-raising campaign was quickly set up in the Philippines. The Mormon Saints sacrificed greatly but nine months later, they had only reached 65 percent of their goal. Church leaders again encouraged the members to give all they could to the fund, and again the Filippino Saints responded once again, reaching and exceeding the goal in three months time.
During the construction of the Mormon Temple, there were several events that hindered its progress. In 1983 the assassination of a Filipino senator led to rioting and demonstrations. That, with a weak economy, unemployment, and the increasing presence of crime, people were struggling just to get by. During these trying times, the Mormon Church established ways to help members become more self-reliant and encouraged them to stay close to God.
On September 25, 1984, President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the Manila Philippines Temple. The Mormon Temple serves half a million members of the Church in the Philippines, Micronesia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, India and part of Burma.
“With all the economic and political troubles hounding us, being inside the temple…gives one a feeling of comfort and peace. The temple is a source of refuge from the wiles and worries of the world.”(Elder Michael John Teh, local Mormon Church leader)2

Physical Address:
13 TEMPLE DR
GREENMEADOWS SUBDVISION, QUEZON CITY
1110 METRO MANILA
PHILIPPINES
Philippines

Mailing address:
c/o Philippines Area Administration Office
POUCH
Philippines
Phone:   (63) 2-635-0954

On August 9, 1975, the First Presidency of the Mormon Church announced that a temple would be built in Tokyo, Japan. Spencer W. Kimball said at a conference in Tokyo, “And now we bring to you a matter of grave importance to all of the people of the Asian countries and the world. Yesterday, we held a meeting of the stake presidents and other leaders to consider this very serious matter. Brother Matthew Cowley, one of the Twelve Apostles, made a prediction that there would be temples in Asia and in Japan. And many of us have been almost holding our breath until the time could come when we could build a temple in this land. We, therefore, propose to you assembled here that we establish a temple in Tokyo, Japan, for all of Asia.” With this announcement the audience broke out clapping and crying. With its completion the Tokyo temple became the first temple built in Asia, and the 18th Mormon temple worldwide.
Mormon history is strong in Japan. The first Mormon missionaries were sent to Japan in 1901, by President Lorenzo Snow. For twenty years missionaries taught in Japan, but the work was slow, and there were still less than 200 members. With the beginning of World War I, the mission in Japan was closed and remained closed until after World War II. Many of the Mormon military men stationed in Japan were some of the best missionaries in Japan following the war. They, along with the newly returned missionaries found members who had remained strong since the 1920’s and others who were ready to accept the gospel. The Church in Japan grew slowly at first, but then began to grow more rapidly, and by the year 2000, there were 114,000 members in Japan.
The temple site is .46 acres in a beautiful residential area across from the historical Arisugawa Memorial Park. The site works well because it is near the embassy and is only a five-minute walk from the subway station. The site had previously been used by the Church as a mission headquarters, but it was demolished to make room for the temple. The temple was designed to go up instead of out, because land is scarce in the area. A parking garage is underneath the temple and an apartment for the temple president and matron is above the temple. The temple has a total floor area of 52,590 square feet, two ordinance rooms, five sealing rooms, a baptismal font, celestial room, and facilities for offices, laundry and other necessities of the temple. The exterior of the temple is reinforced concrete covered with 289 pre-made panels of stone, which look like light gray granite.

An open house was held September 15th through October 18, 1980, to allow the public to see the interior of the new Mormon temple. Spencer W. Kimball dedicated the Tokyo Mormon temple October 27-29 1980. On December 10, 2004, a ceremony was held in which an angel Moroni statue was added to the spire of the temple. The Tokyo temple serves Mormon members in Northern Japan and Vladivostok, Russia.

Physical Address:
5-8-10 MINAMI AZABU
MINATO-KU TOKYO
106-0047
JAPAN
Mailing address:
c/o Asia North Area Office
POUCH
Japan
Phone:   (81) 33-442-8171

Other Links:
Temple (Mormonism) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mormanity: Mormon Temples and “Secrecy”
History of Mormon Temples – Lightplanet.com
Search for Mormon Temples at Onlymormon.com/