In the 1980s and early 1990s, when Presidents Spencer W. Kimball and Marion G. Romney and later Ezra Taft Benson were unable to travel, he presided at the dedications of 22 temples and offered dedicatory prayers. This began in 1983 with the Atlanta Temple and continued throughout his tenure as church president, beginning with the May 1996 dedication of the Hong Kong Temple.

One interruption came in November 1999 when the Halifax Nova Scotia and Regina Saskatchewan temples were scheduled to be dedicated on consecutive days. President Boyd K. Packer, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve, ended up dedicating the Regina Temple after President Hinckley's plane developed trouble before leaving Salt Lake City.

President James E. Faust dedicated two temples in Mexico in March 2000, and President Thomas S. Monson dedicated the Louisville Kentucky Temple two weeks before general conference. These two counselors later dedicated other temples. The accelerated dedication schedule — 34 temples were dedicated in 2000 alone — made it necessary to dedicate two temples on the same day in April and May 2000. Members of the First Presidency divided the assignments.

A highlight came in June 2000 when President Hinckley dedicated the Fukuoka Japan, Adelaide and Melbourne Australia temples as well as the Suva Fiji Temple on the same trip.

Each dedication reflected the unique customs and circumstances of the land or area, but the spirit was always the same — profound and penetrating. And, for various reasons, each dedication was memorable.

Regarding the temple ceremony, President Hinckley, in a 1995 video biography, told of being called into President McKay's office in fall 1953 and learning that the church was going to build a temple in Switzerland, just north of Bern — a temple of a different kind.

"It would need to accommodate the languages of Europe and, at the same time, require fewer personnel to operate," President Hinckley said.

"I want you to find a way to present the temple ceremony to accommodate this need," President McKay told President Hinckley.

"Having received that charge, I went to work and gathered a group about me of trusted, able, competent people to see what could be done. ... For the next year and a half, we worked on it. And that was the pioneering effort of what has now become the general method of presenting the temple ceremony," President Hinckley said.

"We produced the first films, and I carried those to Switzerland in September of 1955 to initiate the work in the Swiss Temple."

Derek F. Metcalfe, former managing director of the church's temple department, said: "When he arrived at the Swiss Temple to help prepare for the dedication, he found that the finishing carpenters were behind schedule. So, he borrowed some work clothes, picked up a hammer and saw and went to work.