"Temples are literally houses of the Lord. They are holy places of worship where individuals make sacred covenants with God. Because making covenants with God is such a solemn responsibility, individuals cannot enter the temple to receive their endowments or be sealed in marriage for eternity until they have fully prepared themselves and been members of the Church for at least a year. Throughout history, the Lord has commanded His people to build temples. The Church is working to build temples all over the world to make temple blessings more available for a greater number of Heavenly Father's children."

"The first LDS temple was built and dedicated in 1836 in Kirtland, Ohio. The edifice, used for meetings and instruction rather than the type of ordinances currently performed by temple patrons, still stands, but it is no longer owned by the church."

"The original Nauvoo Temple was completed in 1846, two years after the martyrdom of church founder Joseph Smith and shortly before the Latter-day Saints were forced from the city and began their exodus to the Salt Lake Valley. It was destroyed by arson."

"The Salt Lake Temple was the first temple started in Utah Territory, with construction beginning in 1853. But three other temples were finished before the April 6, 1893, dedication date — in St. George (1877), Logan (1884) and Manti (1888).

Those four Utah temples are Nos. 1 through 4 of the church's list of operating temples."

The next LDS temple — built in Laie, Hawaii, in 1919 — was the first outside the North American continent.

"The LDS Church constructed only 11 temples over the next six decades, highlighted by late-1950s temples in Bern, Switzerland; Hamilton, New Zealand; and London; as well as the lookalikes in Ogden and Provo in the early 1970s and subsequent temples in Washington, D.C., and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

During the 1980s, the number of LDS temples more than doubled — 17 of the 26 dedicated that decade came between 1983 and 1985. Besides placing temples in the likes of Tokyo, Mexico City and Sydney, the church built its first temples in Africa (Johannesburg, South Africa) and behind the Iron Curtain (Freiberg, Germany)."

"Another 25 temples were dedicated during the 1990s — 15 alone in 1999. The LDS Church's 50th operating temple was dedicated in St. Louis in 1997; other temples from the '90s were found in Hong Kong; Madrid; Toronto; and Bogota, Colombia.

The church's most prolific year in temple dedications came in 2000, with the rush to meet — and exceed — then-President Gordon B. Hinckley's goal of having 100 operating temples by the end of the calendar year."

#100 Boston Massachusetts