The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced the dates of the open house and dedication of the Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple and the groundbreaking ceremony of the Grand Rapids Michigan Temple. Renderings have also been released for the San Jose California and Grand Rapids Michigan Temples.
Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple
The Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple will be dedicated by Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on Sunday, May 25, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. Greenwich mean time. The dedicatory session will be broadcast to all units in the temple district.
Cȏte d'Ivoire Temple
Exterior Rendering of the Abidjan Cȏte d'Ivoire Temple.2018 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.Prior to the dedication, a media day will be held on Monday, April 28, 2025. Invited guests will tour the temple on April 29 and 30. The temple will be open to the public for tours from Thursday, May 1, through Saturday, May 17, 2025 (excluding Sundays).
The Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple was announced by then Church President Thomas S. Monson during the April 2015 general conference.
“As we enter through the doors of the temple, we leave behind us the distractions and confusion of the world. Inside this sacred sanctuary, we find beauty and order. There is rest for our souls and a respite from the cares of our lives,” he said.
The Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple will be the first in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, a West African country also known as the Ivory Coast.
The first Latter-day Saints from this country consisted of two families who originally joined the Church in Europe in the 1980s. Today, this area is home to more than 63,000 Latter-day Saints in over 260 congregations. Ivorian Saints stand out for their dedication to family history and temple work, often bringing their own family names and ordinance workers.
Grand Rapids Michigan Temple
A groundbreaking ceremony for the Grand Rapids Michigan Temple will be held on Saturday, December 7, 2024. Elder Mathias Held, First Counselor in the North America Northeast Area Presidency, will preside.
The Grand Rapids Michigan Temple will be built on a 10.5-acre site located at 2400 Forest Hill Avenue SE in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Plans call for a single-story temple of approximately 20,000 square feet.
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
A rendering has also been released for the exterior of the temple.
This temple was announced by President Russell M. Nelson during the October 2022 general conference. “I promise that increased time in the temple will bless your life in ways nothing else can,” he said.
Michigan is currently home to more than 46,000 Latter-day Saints in nearly 100 congregations. The first Latter-day Saints in Michigan were baptized only a year after the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ in 1830.
The Grand Rapids Michigan Temple will be the second temple in the state, along with the Detroit Michigan Temple, which has been in operation since October 1999.
San Jose California Temple
An artistic rendering has also been released for the exterior of the San Jose California Temple.
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
This temple will be built on a 4.73-acre site at 771 West Fremont Avenue, Sunnyvale, California. Plans call for a single-story temple of approximately 30,000 square feet and an accompanying distribution center.
President Nelson announced the temple during the April 2023 general conference.
The San Jose California Temple will be the 12th temple built in the state. Situated on the West Coast of the U.S., California has more than 728,000 Latter-day Saints in about 1,100 congregations. Other temples announced, under construction, or in operation in the state include the Bakersfield, Feather River, Fresno, Los Angeles, Modesto, Newport Beach, Oakland, Redlands, Sacramento, San Diego, and Yorba Linda Temples.
Latter-day Saints consider each temple a house of the Lord and the most sacred place of worship on earth. Temples differ from the Church’s meetinghouses (chapels). All are welcome to attend Sunday worship services and other weekday activities at local meetinghouses. The primary purpose of temples is for faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ to participate in sacred ceremonies such as marriages, which unite families forever, and proxy baptisms on behalf of deceased ancestors who did not have the opportunity to be baptized while living.