Cambodia’s first temple is dedicated on Sunday

Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple on Sunday, 30 August 2026. It is the first temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cambodia. It is the 222nd temple of the Church. Church News’s Mary Richards filed from Phnom Penh at 2:27 a.m. MDT.

Sunday, 30 August 2026, is the dedication. Elder Patrick Kearon offered it. Sister Jennifer Kearon took part. Elder I. Raymond Egbo and Sister Comfort Egbo took part. Elder David L. Buckner and Sister Jennifer Buckner took part. The house stands on Russian Federation Boulevard, Phnom Penh 12040.

Elder Kearon said: “As we let our gaze be drawn heavenward in this way, we find the inward peace which can be so elusive in our busy lives.” Heavenward is the direction he named. Inward peace is what that gaze finds. Busy lives make the peace elusive. A dedicated house is built to lift the eyes.

He named the land next. “We are in a land that has known extraordinary pain, hardship, loss and despair. It is so fitting that the Lord has seen to provide a house here which will draw our hands and hearts far beyond the trials of mortality and into eternity.” Extraordinary pain. Hardship. Loss. Despair. Then a house. Hands and hearts drawn beyond the trials of mortality. Into eternity. Fitting is the apostle’s word for a temple in Cambodia.

Late President Russell M. Nelson announced the Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple on 7 October 2018. He did not live to see Sunday’s service. The announcement is his. The dedication on 30 August 2026 is Elder Kearon’s. The 222nd temple in the Church’s sequence is this house. 7 October 2018 names the temple. 30 August 2026 opens it as a house of the Lord.

The groundbreaking was 18 September 2021. Then-Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission President Veasna Kuonno Neang presided. A mission president already serving in the country put the first work into the ground. 18 September 2021 is the earth date. 30 August 2026 is the house date. The lot stood between those two days, then opened as a temple.

The address is Russian Federation Boulevard, Phnom Penh 12040. The lot is 1.3 hectares. The floor is about 924 square metres. The height is about 35 metres to the spire. The district is Cambodia and parts of Vietnam. The architecture is inspired by traditional Cambodian religious structures. White walls. A courtyard. A spire on a boulevard the city already knows by name.

1.3 hectares is the ground. About 924 square metres is the house. About 35 metres is the rise. Phnom Penh 12040 is the postcode. Russian Federation Boulevard is the street. The still on this page shows an empty courtyard and a white house. No people. The dedication is a service inside. The picture is the building.

Sister Jennifer Kearon called the temple a gift. Everything in the temple, she said, draws people closer to the Savior and prepares families. A gift is her word. Closer to the Savior is the work. Families prepared is the other work. The two sit together in the house on 1.3 hectares. The apostle’s heavenward gaze and her gift belong to the same Sunday.

Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cambodia has grown from a handful to more than 18,000 over three decades. More than 18,000 is the Church News figure. A handful is how it began. Three decades is the span. Members used to travel to Hong Kong. Members used to travel to the Philippines. Those were the nearest temples. They are still temples. They are no longer the only temples for Cambodia. The first in the country is now dedicated in Phnom Penh.

Hong Kong is a journey. The Philippines is a journey. Russian Federation Boulevard is an address in the capital. For more than 18,000 members, and for a district that includes parts of Vietnam, the work that required a flight now has a house at home. That is the change Sunday, 30 August 2026, makes. A handful became more than 18,000. A flight became a boulevard.

The open house had two invitations. Dignitaries came on 12 August 2026. The public came from 15 August through 22 August, excluding Sunday. 12 August is the dignitary day. 15 August is the first public day. 22 August is the last public day. Sundays were not open-house days in that week. Dedication Sunday, 30 August, is a different Sunday. The city was invited to walk through the house before the apostle dedicated it.

Phnom Penh Cambodia North Stake President Samnang Sea spoke of the Light of Christ shining to the rest of the city. He did not keep the light on the 1.3 hectares. He named the rest of Phnom Penh. The house on the boulevard, in that telling, is for the city as well as for the members who already come. The Light of Christ is his phrase. The rest of the city is his reach.

Nhem Sokunthea and Thlong Sokheoun were the open-house coordinators. Their names belong with 12 August and with 15 August to 22 August. Doors do not open themselves. The week had a roster. The BYU Cambodian Oral History Project is on the same Church News file from Phnom Penh. Brigham Young University has been gathering Cambodian members’ histories. Dedication week is a week those histories will mark.

The 222nd temple is a number in a worldwide sequence. Cambodia’s first is a first in the country. Both are true on the same morning. Mary Richards, for Church News, filed at 2:27 a.m. MDT on 30 August 2026, from the city where the house stands. Elder Kearon dedicated. Sister Kearon took part. Elder I. Raymond Egbo and Sister Comfort Egbo took part. Elder David L. Buckner and Sister Jennifer Buckner took part. The facts on this page are that file.

Veasna Kuonno Neang’s groundbreaking on 18 September 2021 is the local beginning of the build. President Russell M. Nelson’s announcement on 7 October 2018 is the worldwide beginning of the name. Elder Patrick Kearon’s dedication on 30 August 2026 is the finish. Announcement, ground, house. 7 October 2018. 18 September 2021. 30 August 2026.

About 924 square metres on 1.3 hectares is the size Church News printed. About 35 metres to the spire is high enough to be seen from the boulevard. Traditional Cambodian religious structures gave the architects their cue. The white house in the still is that cue in stone. Empty courtyard. No living face. The object is the building at Phnom Penh 12040.

Elder Kearon’s first quoted sentence is peace. Gaze heavenward. Find the inward peace busy lives mislay. His second quoted sentence is the land. Pain, hardship, loss, despair — then a house that draws hands and hearts into eternity. Sister Kearon’s line is gift, Savior, families. President Samnang Sea’s line is the Light of Christ for the rest of the city. Four voices. One Sunday. One house.

Members who remember the handful years remember the flights. Hong Kong. The Philippines. Three decades later the count is more than 18,000, and the temple is on Russian Federation Boulevard. The district reaches into parts of Vietnam. The open house let dignitaries in on 12 August and the public in from 15 to 22 August, not on Sunday. Then came dedication Sunday. Then the house was a temple.

This is Cambodia’s first. This is the Church’s 222nd. This is Elder Patrick Kearon on 30 August 2026. This is a white house, about 924 square metres, on 1.3 hectares, about 35 metres to the spire, inspired by traditional Cambodian religious structures, serving Cambodia and parts of Vietnam from Phnom Penh 12040.

The inward peace is what the apostle said the heavenward gaze finds. The gift is what Sister Kearon said the temple is. The Light of Christ is what President Samnang Sea said would shine to the rest of the city. Hands and hearts drawn into eternity is the work named on a land that has known extraordinary pain. The Lord has seen to provide a house here. Fitting, the apostle said. Dedicated, on Sunday.

A handful of members, three decades ago. More than 18,000 now. Travel to Hong Kong or the Philippines, then. A house on Russian Federation Boulevard, now. Announced 7 October 2018 by late President Russell M. Nelson. Ground broken 18 September 2021 under Mission President Veasna Kuonno Neang. Dignitaries on 12 August 2026. Public from 15 August to 22 August, excluding Sunday. Dedicated 30 August 2026 by Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, with Sister Jennifer Kearon, Elder I. Raymond Egbo, Sister Comfort Egbo, Elder David L. Buckner, and Sister Jennifer Buckner. Coordinators Nhem Sokunthea and Thlong Sokheoun. Stake President Samnang Sea. Church News, Mary Richards, Phnom Penh, 2:27 a.m. MDT.

The house is about 924 square metres. The lot is 1.3 hectares. The spire is about 35 metres. The postcode is 12040. The street is Russian Federation Boulevard. The district is Cambodia and parts of Vietnam. The architecture looks to traditional Cambodian religious structures. The still is an empty courtyard and a white house. No people. The news is the dedication.

NKJV: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord.’” (Psalm 122:1)