Kona Hawaii Temple

My second stop on this 48-hour Hawaiian temple trip is the Kona Hawaii Temple. I left my sister Patti‘s house in Laie at 5 o’clock this morning. Then, I drove an hour north to the Honolulu airport. Next, I boarded a Hawaiian Airlines flight at 8:30 and flew to Kona, Hawaii.

Why? You might ask. Because that’s where the Kona Hawaii Temple is…

The Kona Hawaii Temple is the 70th operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was announced on May 7, 1998, my 40th birthday! It was dedicated in January 2000 by Gordon B Hinckley.

In March 2000, 38 year-old NFL quarterback Steve Young married Barbara Graham in this temple. Also, it was the first wedding performed in the newly dedicated temple!

The grounds of the temple are spectacular.

After doing more initiatory names in the temple, I went straight for Dominos Pizza just a couple of miles away. There, of course, I ordered a Hawaiian pizza. Then I ate it enjoying a Barq’s root beer and the air conditioning inside of Dominos!

The Kona Hawaii Temple is the 83rd temple I have visited since January 2017. Now, there are only two temples in the United States I have not visited: Bismarck, North Dakota and Anchorage, Alaska.
Stay tuned in the next couple of months for stories on those! Bismarck will be my next one, with Anchorage being the grand finale for the US temples.