RELIGION
Six New Temples Announced, Including A Seventh For Utah County
Oct 4, 2020, 3:51 PM | Updated: 5:10 pm
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Office Building is pictured in Salt Lake City on July 18, 2008. (Tom Smart, Deseret News)
(Tom Smart, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – During his concluding remarks at a historic General Conference, President Russell M. Nelson announced six new temples, including another in Utah.
The announcement came at the end of the Sunday afternoon session of the 190th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The new temples will be built in the following locations:
- Tarawa, Kiribati
- Port Vila, Vanuatu
- Lindon, Utah
- Greater Guatemala City, Guatemala
- Sao Paulo East, Brazil
- Santa Cruz, Bolivia
The additions bring the total number of temples announced, under construction or operating to 230.
The latest 49 temple announcements have come since President Nelson became the leader of the Church in 2018.
The Lindon Utah Temple was the third announced in the last three years for Utah County. The Saratoga Springs Utah Temple, currently under construction, was announced by then-President Thomas S. Monson in April 2017.
We look forward to working with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they design and construct a temple…
Posted by Lindon City on Sunday, October 4, 2020
President Nelson announced the Orem Utah Temple during the October 2019 conference. Ground was broken on September 5.
The new temples would bring the total in Utah County to seven. Temples already under operation included the Provo, Provo City Center, Payson and Mount Timpanogos Temple.
Details on the exact location for the Lindon Utah Temple were not announced.
The temple in Guatemala would be the third in the country, and second in the Guatemala City area.
Two of the temples were announced for the remote islands of the Pacific Ocean. Vanuatu is located between Australia and the Fiji Islands, and has a population of around 300,000. According to the Church, there were over 10,000 members in Vanuatu, which accounts for about 3.5 percent of the population.
President @NelsonRussellM announced plans to build temples in the following six locations:
– Tarawa, Kiribati
– Port Vila, Vanuatu
– Lindon, Utah
– Greater Guatemala City, Guatemala
– Sao Paulo East, Brazil
– Santa Cruz, Bolivia #GeneralConference— The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (@Ch_JesusChrist) October 4, 2020
The Republic of Kiribati is located less than halfway between Fiji and Hawaii. It has a population of around 120,000 residents. Church membership in Kiribati neared 21,000, made up of 37 congregations and two stakes.
One in six people on the small island were members of the Church.
Other temples in the area were located in American Samoa, Fiji, Tonga and French Polynesia.
The Sao Paulo East temple would be the twelfth in Brazil and third in Sao Paulo. The Santa Cruz temple would be the second in Bolivia.
