Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will dedicate the Pago Pago American Samoa Temple on Sunday, Dec. 13.
The dedication — broadcast to all congregations in the temple district — will follow a public open house from Wednesday, Nov. 4, to Saturday, Nov. 21, excluding Sundays.
A media day will be held Nov. 2, and invited guests will tour the temple Nov. 3.
These dates were published Monday, Aug. 24, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
It’ll be the first temple dedicated in the United States territory of American Samoa. With dedication dates as currently announced by the Church, this would be the final temple dedicated in 2026.
About the Pago Pago temple
A temple for Pago Pago was originally announced in 1977, by then-Church President Spencer W. Kimball, to serve Latter-day Saints in the South Pacific. But when he announced temples for Nuku‘alofa, Tonga, and Papeete, Tahiti, in 1980, he also announced a location change from American Samoa to Apia, Samoa.
A Pago Pago temple was announced anew on April 7, 2019, by then-Church President Russell M. Nelson. It was one of eight locations he identified in the April 2019 general conference, alongside another Polynesian temple — for Neiafu, Tonga.
Ground was broken for the Pago Pago temple on Oct. 30, 2021. Elder K. Brett Nattress, a General Authority Seventy and then first counselor in the Church’s Pacific Area presidency, presided over the ceremony.
“As we symbolically turn the soil,” he said, “let us turn our hearts to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let us establish a firm foundation in our Savior.”
The Pago Pago temple plans call for a single-story, 17,000-square-foot building, located in Tafuna, American Samoa, along with housing for the temple president and missionaries and a distribution center.
The Church in American Samoa
Of the 22 temples in various stages across Oceania, six are in the construction phase: the Neiafu Tonga (since 2021), Pago Pago American Samoa (2021), Port Vila Vanuatu (2023), Port Moresby Papua New Guinea (2023), Tarawa Kiribati (2024) and Wellington New Zealand (2025) temples.
Missionary work began in present-day American Samoa in June 1888, with the opening of the Samoan Mission. Before American Samoa became a U.S. territory in 1900, the first meetinghouse constructed in Samoa was dedicated Oct. 28, 1888, in Aunu‘u. A branch was organized the same day.
On June 15, 1969, the Pago Pago Stake — the first in American Samoa — was created. From 1985 to 1991, Church membership doubled from about 5,500 members to around 11,000.
Today, American Samoa is home to more than 17,600 Latter-day Saints, meeting across 44 wards and branches.
