Dedication of the Urdaneta Philippines Temple
Sisters Maria Credo and Fe Basconcillo joined the Church while studying in Baguio City, Philippines, in April 1969. When they returned home to Urdaneta, they shared the gospel with their parents, who were baptized in 1970. After Church President Thomas S. Monson announced a temple for Urdaneta in 2010, Fe and her husband, Greg Johnson, bought property in the city, from which the temple can be seen. Maria had moved with her husband, Rogelio Credo, to Canada and had just received permanent residency when they heard the announcement. They knew it was “time to return home.” They turned down their Canadian residency and moved back to the Philippines. “We will work in the temple in Urdaneta for the rest of our lives,” Maria Credo said.
President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency, dedicated the Urdaneta Philippines Temple on April 28, 2024. The temple was the third dedicated in the Philippines.
For President Oaks, his trip was a welcome visit back to a country he grew to love when he was assigned to preside over the Philippines Area from 2002 to 2004 while serving as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. After missionary work began in 1961, membership growth in the Philippine islands was explosive, springing to around 600,000 by 2002. The purpose of President Oaks’ direct oversight, however, was to increase the number of priesthood ordinations and temple recommends — neither of which had kept pace with membership growth.
President Oaks and area leadership soon found ways to reach the hearts and minds of the people, helping them understand the importance of their covenants and responsibilities.
“They are a loyal, wonderful, obedient, faithful, Christian people,” President Oaks said of Filipinos.
“There were many things that changed,” recalled Sister Kristen M. Oaks. “You talked about the culture, you talked about tithing, you talked about Church attendance, you made a huge difference. And they did it.”
It was really rather simple, she said. When the faithful Filipino Latter-day Saints learn what the Lord expects of them, “they do it.”
The Padilla siblings of Urdaneta undoubtedly exemplify that attitude. Living just a few miles from the new temple during its construction, the four brothers and sisters — ages 11 to 17 — wasted no time preparing themselves to perform ordinances in the house of the Lord by reading their scriptures, doing family history work and asking their parents “lots and lots of questions.”
“Every time we go to the Manila temple, I really feel the Spirit,” said 14-year-old Amulek Padilla. “It’s good to know that every time I have a stressful day at school or have a bad day, I can go to the temple just five minutes away. It’s heartwarming.”
Dedicatory prayer excerpt: “We invoke Thy power to assure that Thy Spirit and Thy glory will always be present here and upon all Thy sacred work that will be done here.”
Read the dedicatory prayer of the Urdaneta Philippines Temple here.
Timeline of the Urdaneta Philippines Temple
The Urdaneta temple was announced Oct. 2, 2010, by President Thomas S. Monson. The groundbreaking and site dedication were held on Jan. 16, 2019, and presided over by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
After a public open house from March 15 to March 30, 2024, the Urdaneta Philippines Temple was dedicated April 28, 2024, by President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency.
Architecture and Design of the Urdaneta Philippines Temple
The Urdaneta Philippines Temple is a 32,604-square-foot building of two stories. With an exterior of “golden sand” granite from China, the temple shows an architectural design combining Asian influences with a modern interpretation of local Spanish colonial elements.
Inside this house of the Lord, flooring features honed honey gold tile from Israel and Palestine; broadloom carpets from the United States in the instruction rooms; cream-colored, carved wool rugs from Thailand in the celestial and sealing rooms; and entry rugs made of New Zealand wool. The light fixtures of satin brass and frosted glass were fabricated in Hong Kong, with the furniture and seating coming from Vietnam.
On the 15.34-acre grounds also stands a 22,593-square-foot adjacent ancillary building offering a welcome center and housing for temple patrons, apartment accommodations for the temple presidency and a distribution center. Landscaping includes lush gardens and concrete-paver pathways, local flowers, large acacia trees and two rows of palm trees that line the main approach from MacArthur Highway.
Interior Photos of the Urdaneta Philippines Temple
