APIA, Samoa — Patience is typically rewarded in the Samoan Islands.

Drive slowly along the congested, narrow streets here and you'll arrive safely. Endure the heavy heat for a minute or two knowing a cool trade wind is approaching. Extend a Samoan greeting of "Talofa" to a native of, say, Savai'i or Pago Pago and you may make a lifelong friend.

For LDS Samoans, patience was rewarded Sunday when President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the rebuilt Apia Samoa Temple. He was joined by his first counselor in the First Presidency, President Thomas S. Monson, and other leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The temple was dedicated in two sessions. Many participated in the ceremony at the new edifice, while thousands of others watched the proceedings on closed-circuit broadcasts in Western Samoa, American Samoa and in other Samoan congregations.

"It's a great pleasure to have a temple here again," said Apia resident Faamoana Utai.

For some two years Samoa has been a nation without an LDS temple. It took just 45 minutes for fire to engulf the original edifice. Dozens of volunteers joined fire crews in a futile attempt to douse the blaze.

For the first time in two decades, LDS faithful in Samoa could not simply jump in their car or catch a bus to attend the temple.

Watching the temple burn was devastating to many LDS Samoans who had been frequent visitors since the building was dedicated in 1983. Utai had been working as the temple's engineer when he got an evening phone call from an associate with word that his workplace was on fire. He dismissed the call as a joke until the phone rang again with the same sad news.

He rushed to the temple grounds to see for himself. "When I saw the temple burning, I cried," Utai said.

He didn't weep alone. Many found themselves at the edge of the temple grounds, watching the flames, shocked and wondering if an LDS temple would ever be found again in Samoa.

Iamafana Lameta isn't a trained firefighter; he's a translator. But when he saw the temple burning he joined other volunteers on the roof and tried to save the building.

"(The temple) means a lot to me, so I didn't mind getting up there. We tried so hard, but the fire was out of control," said Lameta, an LDS bishop.

With the temple destroyed, Lameta's thoughts shifted to his ancestors and his own children. He remembered how his Samoan forebears had once sacrificed much to travel abroad to simply attend an LDS temple.

"Now this temple is a gift from our Heavenly Father," Lameta said.

During a member meeting Saturday, President Hinckley challenged LDS Samoans to grow in their faithfulness. The rebuilt temple, he added, is "where the blessings of eternal life may be available to you and to your forbears whom you will serve there."

The Apia Samoa Temple's new president, Suauupa'ia K. Pe'a, admits to feeling worried and a bit impatient after he learned the original Samoan temple had been destroyed. It passed in a single second. "(God) would not let us go without. We prayed for a temple, and look what he has given us."

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E-mail: jswensen@desnews.com