Laie Hawaii Temple

1919 Dedication of the Laie Hawaii Temple

In 1915, the chosen site for the Laie Hawaii Temple already housed the community chapel, the I Hemolele chapel. In order to build the temple, the I Hemolele chapel had to be moved to a new location. Twenty years later, the I Hemolele chapel burned down in 1940, and the Laie community hosted a Hukilau for tourists on Hukilau Beach to raise money to build a new chapel.

The Laie Hawaii Temple was the first Latter-day Saint temple built outside the continental United States. Previous to 1915, when members of the Church living in Hawaii wanted to attend a house of the Lord, they had to travel almost 3,000 miles to the Salt Lake Temple in Utah. Many members from Hawaii chose to move to Utah in order to be close to and receive the blessings of the temple.

The Hawaiian Saints who moved to Utah settled a city where they lived from 1889-1915. The Saints named this city "Iosepa," which is the Hawaiian name for "Joseph." It was named after Joseph F. Smith, who served a mission in the Hawaiian islands when he was 15. Later, Joseph F. Smith became Church President and announced a temple to be built in Laie.

After the temple was announced, the Saints moved back to Hawaii, leaving Iosepa, Utah, a ghost town. After returning to Hawaii, the Saints named a street near the temple "Iosepa Street," after the city in Utah where they had lived for the previous 26 years.

The Laie Hawaii Temple was originally dedicated on Thanksgiving Day, 1919, by President Heber J. Grant. The ceremony's five sessions spanned from Nov. 27 to Nov. 30, 1919. It was the first Latter-day Saint temple dedicated outside of the continental United States, and the first temple in Polynesia. This house of the Lord was announced by President Joseph F. Smith, who had served a mission in the Hawaiian islands in his youth before becoming the Church President in 1901.

Dedicatory prayer excerpt: "May all who come upon the grounds which surround this temple, in the years to come, whether members of the Church of Christ or not, feel the sweet and peaceful influence of this blessed and hallowed spot."

Read the 1919 dedicatory prayer of the Laie Hawaii Temple here.

1978 Rededication of the Laie Hawaii Temple

In attendance for the Laie temple’s 1978 rededication was Lydia “Tu Tu” Colburn. She reminisced that she was a 32-year-old convert when she sang soprano in the choir for the 1919 Laie temple dedication. Years earlier, she had lost her two-week-old son. The church she attended at the time taught that her son would not be saved since he had not been baptized. After encountering Latter-day Saint missionaries, she felt prompted to join the Church of Jesus Christ.

The 1919 choir, Colburn recalled, started off the morning with a different song than Church President Heber J. Grant had wished. Afterward, for the next session, he asked them to sing the hymn “A Temple in Hawaii,” which had been written for the temple. Despite not feeling ready, the choir sang it “with tears in their eyes.”

“And we sang that way today,” Colburn said at the 1978 rededication, where she had the distinction at 91 years old of being the only person to sing at both the 1919 and 1978 dedications.

Church President George Albert Smith once told her and other sisters that “if we would continue to sing the songs of Zion and our Hawaiian songs as they should be sung, we’d never lose our talent.” Decades laters, in her 90s, she continued to sing nightly at Laie’s Polynesian Cultural Center.

The Laie temple’s first rededication was from June 13 to June 15, 1978, in nine sessions, done by President Spencer W. Kimball, President of the Church. This came after the Laie temple’s closure in 1976 to incorporate a large addition to the building. The addition expanded the temple from 10,500 square feet to over 42,000 square feet, and it also included building a new entrance to the temple and enlarged patron facilities.

Like Colburn, Church President Kimball experienced the tragic death of a loved one when his mother died when he was 11.

In his 1978 dedicatory address, he recited the words of the hymn “O My Father,” which was sung at his mother’s funeral. It ends with the words “Let me come and dwell with you.”

He said that life after death was “not a passing fancy. It is real and true. The Lord has given us this glorious truth.”

Dedicatory prayer excerpt: "And now we express our gratitude again with thanksgiving in our hearts for the wonderful, splendid labors performed in the land of Hawaii and other islands by the early leadership of this Church. We thank Thee for their devotion to this people."

Read the 1978 rededication prayer of the Laie Hawaii Temple here.

2010 Rededication of the Laie Hawaii Temple

Anciently, what is now Laie was a city called Puʻuhonua, or “city of refuge.” Defeated warriors and fugitives in ancient Hawaii sought sanctuary in that city, marked with white flags sitting atop its walls, beckoning to all who desired protection and cleansing. The Laie Hawaii Temple in the city today offers a similar call, beckoning Saints to come for spiritual protection and cleansing.

The night before the 2010 rededication, about 2,000 youth participated in a cultural celebration with the theme “The Gathering Place,” a reference to Laie’s historical role as a gathering place and sanctuary for Hawaiian Saints.

“The beautiful Laie Hawaii Temple, which will be rededicated in the morning, is the reason for this great celebration,” Church President Thomas S. Monson told the youth. “It shines as a beacon of righteousness to all who will follow its light. We thank our Heavenly Father for the blessings this temple and all temples bring into our lives.”

After the cultural celebration, the Prophet walked into the crowd to personally greet a young woman sitting in a wheelchair, Briana Garrido, 15, of Wahiawa, Hawaii.

“It was the most amazing thing,” she said afterward. “I have never been so thankful.”

The Laie temple was rededicated a second time on Nov. 21, 2010, by President Monson in three sessions. The Church had closed the temple to update the seismic structure of the building and to repair and renovate the baptistry.

President Monson’s love for the people of Hawaii was evident at the temple dedication by the time he took to interact with individuals.

“I think he didn’t pass a person he could have touched to shake a hand, to smile or tousle the head of a child. He was just remarkable,” President Henry B. Eyring, first counselor in the First Presidency, said to Church News. “He was on his ground here, being among the people. He loves people, and people love him. You could feel it everywhere we went.”

“In the years that I had assignments in the far Pacific — Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti and all the other islands of the South Pacific — I would sometimes be gone for five weeks at a time. Hawaii would be my stopping point,” President Monson said. “Being here is like coming home to me. You fall in love with the Polynesians. I love this part of the world.”

Dedicatory prayer excerpt: "Now, our Beloved Father, acting in the authority of the everlasting priesthood and in the sacred name of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, we rededicate unto Thee and unto Thy Son this, the Laie Hawaii Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We rededicate it as a house of baptism, a house of endowment, a house of sealing, a house of righteousness — for the living and for the dead."

Read the 2010 rededication prayer of the Laie Hawaii Temple here.

After he dedicated a site for the Laie Hawaii Temple on June 1, 1915, Church President Joseph F. Smith announced a house of the Lord for Laie, Oahu, Hawaii, on Oct. 3, 1915. This temple would be dedicated just over four years later, on Nov. 27, 1919, by Church President Heber J. Grant.

The Laie temple has since been rededicated twice after renovations. Church President Spencer W. Kimball rededicated the temple on June 13, 1978, and Church President Thomas S. Monson rededicated the temple on Nov. 21, 2010.

Architecture and Design of the Laie Hawaii Temple

There are four friezes carved into the top of the Laie temple, designed by Leo and Avard Fairbanks. Each frieze represents a dispensation of time: On the west is the Old Testament frieze, on the south is the New Testament frieze, on the north is the Book of Mormon frieze, and the frieze above the entrance of the temple on the east depicts the present day.

The Laie Hawaii Temple Visitors' Center is just outside the Laie temple. It houses various interactive displays and videos detailing the history of Laie and the part The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints played in the community's history. Full-time missionaries at the visitors' center give tours and teach guests about the temple.

Interior Photos of the Laie Hawaii Temple