Any guesses?

With the crazy building spree of temples in the last 20-30 years and the recent decline in active membership throughout the world I wonder if there are temples out there totally unused (other than missionary couples keeping it going).

I'm aware that outside of 'high traffic' mormon areas, the temples are open only certain days of the week. I can't imagine that the African temples are open six days a week...

I checked the church org site and found a page titled "temple schedules" but all that's listed is the name of the temple and its phone number, along with the advice that the schedule of each temple can be obtained via an app:

"http://ldschurchtemples.org/schedules/";

If someone wants to go to the trouble, you can look up each temple's schedule...

Based on my fairly quick review, the fewest sessions/week seem to be at Bismarck, Fukuoka, Regina, and Halifax.

Way to go Canadians!

I can't imagine that the Fukuoka temple is used at all, except for maybe the missionaries. I think they just took the mission home and upgraded it to a temple.

Is Preston used at all besides by missionaries?

Where? did you mean Chorley?

No, this one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_England_Temple

The Preston temple is located in Chorley which is 19 km (12 mi) from Preston. To Europeans, that is a totally different town. It is not part of the "Preston metropolitan area" as no such thing exists. Wigan, Blackburn and Bolton are equally close and also well-known market towns. If this temple had to be named after a bigger place, the obvious choice would be Manchester, which is less than 20 miles away.

Think of it as Orem. Not many people from Orem would say they live in Provo, but to people from NYC or California they would just say they live south of SLC. The Preston temple in Chorley is like building a temple in American Fork and calling it the Lindon temple.

Trivial, you think? It's little things like this that make mormonism so unsuccesful in the mission field. They just don't understand the first thing about the places where they seek converts.

Maybe it's the way they pronounce 'Fukuoka '- that would be off-putting to me.

The Fukuoka Temple looks like a federal prison.

I've been to Fukuoka and did not notice the temple. It would be drowned out literally by the ancient shrines and temples there for the Japanese religion, Shintoism.

Here's a pic of the temple there which does resemble some of the old shrines in the ancient city: (minus Moroni on top)

http://ldschurchtemples.org/fukuoka/gallery/images/fukuoka-mormon-temple13.jpg

Here's the one in Hong Kong, which resembles a box:

http://ldschurchtemples.org/hongkong/gallery/images/hong-kong-mormon-temple21.jpg

Son who lives there tells me there is little interest by the Japanese in religion other than the cultural, historical aspect of it to their communities (mostly secular these days.) The celebrations there do focus on the gods and demons of Shinto lore still to this day.

Occasionally he sees Mormon missionaries going by on bicycles or walking on the sidewalks. He doesn't speak to them in passing however.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2017 12:57PM by Amyjo.

The schedules are available on lds.org

I looked at Aba, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana. Both are open five days a week (surprising), but Aba has about five sessions daily while Accra has three or four.

My body...damn I hate getting old! The Bone.

BYU Boner Wrote:
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> My body...damn I hate getting old! The Bone.


Sing along: My body is a temple. I'm going there someday.

On his 95th birthday, somebody asked Mark Twain how he was feeling.
"Not bad," he answered. "Considering the alternatives."

Right now, probably Houston.

+1000!!

Gives new meaning to the words 'Houston, we have a problem.'

I thought that the honor went to one of the Australian ones. I seem to recall that it was open once or twice a week. Maybe Adelaide?

Yeah, Adelaide has about 7 sessions/week, Regina seems to average about 6. Halifax, Bismarck, Fukuoka have 7-8/week.

Lets take it one step further and speculate on which temple will be the first one that financially floundering LDS Inc will be forced/ compelled to dump/ abandon !!!!!

Hey, that's a thought - the church has sold off its buildings before. There was also a chapel in Tonga ( I think ) that the gov't seized and turned into a restaurant. From memory, the church didn't adhere to regulations re the building.

I so miss the ex-Christian Science website, "Christianway.org." Every summer, around the "Annual Meeting" time, we had a member who tallied the decline of that cult by posting out the changes for Christian Science "practitioners" and teachers, and branch churches and societies.* Usually a 5% drop or so each year, but it was fascinating to see which states was losing the most.

Fun fact: In large cities, CS churches were listed as "First Church of Christ, Scientist," "Second Church..." "Third Church..." and so on. Large cities like LA had branch churches numbered in the twenties! As they close their doors, they did not re-number the churches: "Sixth Church of Christ, Scientist" did not become "Fifth Church," but remains "6th Church" until it, too, gets shuttered.

So if you look at the Christian Science listings, you have, for example, in Chicago, 2nd, 7th, 8th, 11th, 16th, and 17th "Church of Christ, Scientist." More holes than a hockey player's teeth! (Sorry, HockeyRat.)

*Branches and Societies would be somewhat akin to wards and branches.

I am pleased to report that my town (Hull) has no Christian Science presence at all.

In Mordor, the Manti Temple is mostly idle.

The students at Snow College must be slacking off!

BTW, what is the correct pronunciation of Regina? I got it wrong the one time I was there and someone thought it was hilarious for some reason.

I bet Regina and vagina do not rhyme. Damn shame...

They rhyme. Learned that from an old coworker that was born and raised in Regina. I still chuckle like a school girl at the pronunciation.

I giggle like a school girl because I have a high pitched voice and am socially awkward... Thanks for reminding me.......

I think the queen of England ( Elizabeth Regina ) pronounces it ' Regeena'.

slammingsam Wrote:
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> I think the queen of England ( Elizabeth Regina )
> pronounces it ' Regeena'.

Sure, but only because she doesn't want it to rhyme with 'vagina...' :)

In St Louis, the temple schedule has been reducing over the last decade. First they closed the temple cafeteria, then they started guilt-tripping members from the KC area to make the 400 round trip (assign them to certain days during the month) to fill the sessions. KC now has it's own temple, so I assume St Louis is in deep tapir ca ca.

It's amazing how a cult ritual such as the Mormon temple can control people so much, i.e. guilt, manipulate, and Mind F' them.

Temple marriage is the glue that holds the whole scam together. Family members don't want to look bad and they have to have an active temple recommend to attend a relative's temple wedding. A lot of people just do the bare minimum to keep a temple recommend for that reason. The church get's it's tithing and free labor from it. Without temple marriage the church would not get the money or retain the members in the numbers they currently get. When the church says get a temple recommend they are basically saying pay us and do what we say or you won't get to go to your relative's weddings.

Exmoron Wrote:
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> In St Louis, the temple schedule has been reducing
> over the last decade.

I was in there just a couple months ago, one matron pointed out the cafeteria and that it's been closed for at least 15-20 years. Right now there's just a couple of vending machines and a microwave, in a big dining area with lots of tables. The kitchen is completely closed. I'm told temple workers simply bring their own bag lunch.

Also, this was a late Tuesday afternoon, there was hardly anyone who are not workers inside. Is that normal?

The St. Louis temple was my mom's temple until they built the Indianapolis Temple. One more reason the St. Louis temple is dying. It was a horror for her to drive there because of the heavy traffic and long distance. When she went with ward members they had to leave at 4 a.m. to get there for sessions. It got to be too much for my elderly mother. Even Indianapolis is too far for Mom now days.

Once when I was visiting my mother it was announced in sacrament meeting that there was a special combined meeting of priesthood and relief society in the cultural hall after sacrament. Mom was all excited that something great was going to be announced. It was a huge guilt, shame, condemnation rant by some unknown stake leader about going to the temple more often. Poor Mom. She's such an optimist. But it didn't make her go any more often.

I stopped in Nebraska where there was a fairly new temple along the interstate. Was it Winter Quarters? I forget. Anyway, I cannot imagine there being hoards of Mormons in that part of the U.S. I stopped to get a look at it and there was nothing happening. So I went to the visitor's center. I was standing outside and the poor attendants there came out and nearly dragged me inside. They were so starved for human interaction I don't think they cared why I was there. They just wanted someone to talk with. I had my dog with me and they let the dog come right in too, no questions asked.

Maybe if they let people take their dogs to the temple they would get better attendance. I'd be for cats too except I'm allergic....Oh, wait! I'm not a Mormon any more. Let the cats in too!!!!!

Now you're talking - temple sessions sprinkled with the occasional cat fight or dog-chasing-cat, with all the barking and caterwauling ; not to mention the clean up afterwards. They'd probably insist that patrons bring their own pooper-scoopers.

The Manhattan Temple has a very difficult time getting folks in. Senior missionaries do s lot of the work. There are ward and stake days. Young missionaries go in regularly. And yes, there are ward clean up temple nights, too. The temple is small, just 3 floors of upper stake building. The church wanted to build a temple in Harrison, NY, but they never got the community approval. So GBH decided to split a stake center in two. The top 3 floors are the temple. It's across the street from Lincoln Square.

unbelievable2 Wrote:
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> The Manhattan Temple has a very difficult time
> getting folks in. Senior missionaries do s lot of
> the work.

Isn't that where NewNameNoah's aunt and uncle run the temple? Could he provide some help?

I toured the Manhattan temple when it opened. My most vivid memory was a teenage LDS girl who was standing by the elevator when it opened. She piped up "look - an elevator full of elders!" Never saw a group of young men so actively avoid eye contact while scurrying away as fast as they could without actually breaking into a run.

I have nothing to base this on except my own instincts, but I have to think that Kiev, Ukraine takes the cake here. I just can't imagine that temple gets any usage at all.

Strength in the Loins Wrote:
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> I have nothing to base this on except my own
> instincts, but I have to think that Kiev, Ukraine
> takes the cake here.

Are Russian TBMs able to go there? Even if they could, do their pro-Crimea sympathies sway their consciences?

(from the Kiev, Ukraine temple page):

"No Clothing Rental Available"
"No Cafeteria Available"

They forgot a couple:

"No eternal life available"
"No non-cult people available"
"No entry without having paid your 10% income dues"

Тоже забыл:
Нельзя россиян.

I don't know how it ranks with other temples for usage, but the Atlanta temple seems to be rather defunct. I drive by it once or twice a week and it's been months since I have seen any cars in the parking lot.

Closed for cleaning/ repairs.

Twin Falls, Idaho!??

Detroit. Friday nights draw a crowd. But I've never seen anyone during the day.

No, people around here go to the casinos instead.

I wonder how the temple in Rome is doing. I have heard that people working in the Vatican laugh at it. I have no idea about attendance, but I know that there can't be many active Mormons in Italy. Does anyone know what's going on?

From a previous thread, some info from some lame knuckle-head about the Rome Temple. I wouldn't trust it, since the source is a truly sick & twisted individual...and isn't even White!!!:


"The Rome temple alone!!! The bribery, kick-backs, theft, etc., that's gone on there... It was announced in 2008 and ground was broken in 2010. Did you read that? Ground was broken in 2010!!

On LDSchurchtemples(dot)org the current target date for dedication is late 2018 or early 2019. What a tale could be told if the right people talked.

After all, the income from tithing in Italy can't be all that high. Cumorah(dot)com estimates 6000 active members, and while there may be a few rich-ies, when you factor out the kids, SAHMs, retired folk, there are probably 2000 people paying tithes.

I bet they wish they had it to do over again. The return on this investment will never come close to break-even, even factoring in the 'public/spiritual relations' angle."

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,2033893,2034936#msg-2034936

Not to mention the fact that is being build in an industrial suburb outside the Grande Raccordo Anulare or greater ring road. In Europe, outside the inner ring road of a big city means "hardworking class", which is modest, but entirely respectable. But outside the outer ring road, in what is supposed to be an industrial zone of power plants and smelly food-processing plants? That's for the losers.

They will NEVER get any sane people to become regular visitors out there!