A rededication date for the San Diego California Temple has been announced by the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A dedication date has also been announced for the Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple, and corresponding open houses are planned for both temples.
San Diego’s house of the Lord will be rededicated Sunday, Aug. 23, at 10 a.m., with a rebroadcast at 2 p.m. A presiding authority has not been announced.
This will follow an open house from June 18 to July 11, excluding Sundays. A media day is planned for June 15, and invited guests will tour the sacred edifice June 16-17.
Cambodia’s first house of the Lord, the Phnom Penh temple, will be dedicated Sunday, Aug. 30, by Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The ceremony — at 10 a.m. and broadcast to all units in the temple district — will be rebroadcast at 2 p.m.
Earlier that month, a brief open house will be held, from Saturday, Aug. 15, through Saturday, Aug. 22, excluding Sunday. A media day will be Aug. 12, and invited guests will tour Aug. 13 and 14.
These dates were published Monday, March 2, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org .
Read more below about the history of these temples and the Church in California and Cambodia.
About the San Diego temple
The San Diego California Temple. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
San Diego’s house of the Lord was California’s third temple and the 45th temple of the Church still in operation.
On April 7, 1984, President Gordon B. Hinckley, then second counselor in the First Presidency, announced this temple at the start of April 1984 general conference.
President Ezra Taft Benson, as President of the Church, later presided over the temple’s groundbreaking on Feb. 27, 1988. His second counselor, President Thomas S. Monson, dedicated the site.
The temple would be “a standing witness that the power of God can stay the powers of evil in our midst,” said President Benson in his remarks to the congregation.
After construction, an open house was held from Feb. 20 to April 3, 1993. Although 650,000 visitors were expected to tour the building during this time, the open house drew some 720,000.
The San Diego California Temple was dedicated in 23 sessions, from April 25 to April 30, 1993. President Hinckley, then first counselor in the First Presidency, presided over 13 sessions, while President Monson presided over the other 10.
In his dedicatory prayer, President Hinckley pleaded, “To the millions who will see it as they move swiftly over the adjacent highway, may it be a thing of singular beauty from which shall emanate a spiritual glow that speaks of peace and goodness.”
Three decades of performing temple ordinances passed by, until the San Diego temple closed July 31, 2023, for extensive renovations.
At the time of its closure, the temple reached 169 feet in height and 72,000 square feet in size, featuring twin central spires surrounded by four smaller ones. Highly visible beside Southern California’s Interstate 5, the temple sits on a 7.2-acre site in northern San Diego, near the suburb of La Jolla.
About the Phnom Penh temple
An exterior rendering of the Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple. | Credit: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Phnom Penh temple, built in Cambodia’s capital city, will be the first house of the Lord in the country.
Announced Oct. 7, 2018, it was one of 12 temple locations that then-Church President Russell M. Nelson announced in October 2018 general conference. This was President Nelson’s second general conference as Prophet.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held Sept. 18, 2021, with President Veasna Kuonno Neang of the Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission presiding. To adhere to local COVID-19 social guidelines, attendance was limited, but it was broadcast throughout Cambodia and neighboring countries.
Church leaders and members participate in the groundbreaking ceremony of the Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple on Sept. 18, 2021. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
“Today, a holy temple of God will begin its foundation, representing the faithfulness, love and joy of the Saints in Cambodia,” said President Neang. “We know that when we come to the temple, we can feel closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. It will be such a blessing to come to the temple as often as we can.”
The Phnom Penh temple was planned as a single-story building of approximately 10,000 square feet. It is built on a 3.16-acre site on Russian Confederation Street, between the Cambodia Institute of Technology and the Institute of Foreign Languages, near the Royal University of Phnom Penh. An ancillary building was also planned for the site.
The Church in California and Cambodia
The San Diego California Temple. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
California is home to eight dedicated houses of the Lord, with two others under construction and two in planning stages.
Besides the under-renovation San Diego temple, seven others have been dedicated: the Los Angeles (dedicated in 1956), Oakland (1964), Fresno (2000), Redlands (2003), Newport Beach (2005), Sacramento (2006) and Feather River (2023) temples.
The Yorba Linda California Temple is scheduled to be dedicated June 7, 2026, and the Modesto California Temple has been under construction since October 2023.
Temples are planned for Bakersfield and the San Jose suburb of Sunnyvale, both announced in April 2023.
Latter-day Saints first arrived in California on July 31, 1846, in what was then Yerba Buena. The company of around 230 people tripled the population of Yerba Buena and helped build it into the prosperous city of San Francisco.
Today, nearly 730,000 Latter-day Saints live in California, meeting in more than 1,000 wards and branches.
Youth and leaders pose for a photo in front of the under-construction Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple on June 18, 2025. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
On the other side of the globe, the Cambodian government officially recognized the Church of Jesus Christ in early 1994. The Phnom Penh Branch was subsequently organized in September 1994.
On May 25, 2014, Cambodia’s first two stakes were created: the Phnom Penh Cambodia North Stake and Phnom Penh South Stake. This was the second time in Church history that the first two stakes in a single country were created on the same day.
More than 17,000 Latter-day Saints reside in Cambodia, meeting in 31 wards and branches.