A new temple will be built in The Hague, Netherlands, the First Presidency announced in a letter to priesthood leaders Aug. 16.

The new temple will be the first in the Netherlands and the 115th in the Church. There are currently 59 temples in operation and 56 announced or under construction. This is mainland Europe's second smaller, standard plan temple to be announced; the first was in Kiev, Ukraine, which was announced in July 1998. Another temple was announced for Copenhagen, Denmark, in March 1999, which will be an extensive remodeling of an existing meetinghouse.

Currently, seven temples are in operation in Europe.

The temple district of the Hague Netherlands Temple will include the Apeldoorn, Rotterdam, and The Hague stakes in Netherlands and the Antwerp and Brussels stakes and the Liege District in Belgium, with a total of 10,700 members.

A temple in the Netherlands will be a hallmark for the country where the first non-English language stake in the Church was created in 1961. The Holland Stake was also the first on the Europe mainland.

The stake was created 100 years after the first missionaries arrived in the country to begin missionary work. Elder Orson Hyde of the Quorum of the Twelve did preach in the Netherlands in 1841 while on his way to dedicate the the Holy Land, but his efforts were centered on Jewish rabbis. The first missionary effort to the general population of Netherlands began 20 years later. The first converts in the Netherlands were relatives of one of the first two missionaries, Elder A. Wiegers van der Woude, and were baptized by him on Oct. 1, 1861. He and his companion, Elder Paul S. Schettler, baptized 14 people in Amsterdam and the first branch was organized May 10, 1862. In the summer of 1864, some 61 members emigrated from the Netherlands to the United States. The Netherlands Mission was created Nov. 1, 1864, with some 25 members. Additional groups emigrated as missionary work in the nation continued uninterrupted. Membership in Holland in 1930 was 2,631 in four conferences.

Following World War II, members in the Netherlands who had been ravaged in the war by the German army donated 70 tons of potatoes to the starving German members. This was described later by President David O. McKay as "one of the greatest acts of true Christian conduct ever brought to my attention."

During the first century of the Church in this land, some 14,000 people were baptized, most of whom immigrated to the United States. In August 1955, the Church received legal status after almost 20 years of petitioning. This status allowed the Church to own property and be exempt from taxes, and won respect for the members. In more recent years, the Church has continued to grow in the Netherlands. Elder Jacob de Jager, now an emeritus member of the Seventy, was the first General Authority born in Holland. About 8,000 members now live in the Netherlands.