Simply put, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has embarked on an unprecedented era of more international temples.
Of the Church’s 161 currently operating temples, 81 temples are located within the United States and 80 located in other countries. But the last two temples dedicated in late 2018 were in South America — the Concepcion Chile and Barranquilla Colombia temples.
Those two are the start of an extensive and historic string of international temples to be dedicated over the next several years, given that the 10 temples in various stages of construction and next in line to be dedicated are all outside the United States.
And of the 30 “announced” temples still awaiting formal site designations and groundbreaking dates, 24 are located outside of the United States. In all, that’s 34 of the 40 future temples — 85 percent — that will be beyond the U.S.
The numbers: 201 total temples scattered across six continents and 58 nations and U.S. territories.
Download a PDF of temples around the world here.
Temples dotting the land
The result is temples dotting the earth, the start of fulfilling the words of latter-day prophets who spoke of hundreds and even thousands of temples over multiple continents.
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President Joseph F. Smith first used the phrase of temples “dotting the land” — referencing Europe during several conferences with members there in the early 1900s. Prophets and apostles since have echoed the “dotting” phrase, expanding it to not just North and South America and Europe but to the entire world.
Lead image from Church News