In October of 2008, President Thomas S. Monson stood up in general conference to give an announcement.

I am pleased to announce five new temples for which

in coming months and years will be built

in the following locations.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Cordoba, Argentina, the Greater Kansas City Area, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

And then pausing and smiling, he looked over the conference center congregation and said,

And Rome, Italy.

After the audible gasp, understanding the significance of this announcement, President

Monson smiled and even chuckled a little bit, drawing laughter from the audience.

Well over in Utah when President Wantson announced this

stained-glass artist Tom Holdman and his wife Gail were watching in their home and

Tom actually jumped out of his chair and said out loud,

I will do that temple glass.

Tom has done art glass in over 80 temples for the Church of Jesus Christ

or Latter-day Saints throughout the world,

and he and his Holdman Studios were indeed given the project

to do the art glass in the Rome Temple.

They created about 800 art glass windows

that are in that building,

no two of which are alike.

However, they also created a masterpiece of art glass

for the Rome Temple Visitor Center,

...