BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Exterior Rendering Released for the Mendoza Argentina Temple

Note: This post was originally published to this blog at 10:41 AM, and was updated between 4:20 and 5:20 PM.

Hello again, everyone! The First Presidency today released the exterior rendering for the Mendoza Argentina Temple. The Church also specified the site location. When originally reading this announcement, it appeared to me as though the confirmed location was different from the one that had been speculated. But as a result of a more careful reading of the release, the site location was confirmed for the speculated spot, which will be between Calle Dr. Pose and Calle Dr. Coni E, along Avenida Champagnat. The temple appears to be a single-story edifice. It will be around 21,000 square feet, and accompanied by an adjacent meetinghouse. At present, a groundbreaking date has not yet been established, with project leaders working through the approvals process in the coming months. But it could be possible that this temple might have a groundbreaking before the end of this year. The announcement of the rendering and site information for the Mendoza Argentina Temple comes just 18 days after the early Jun announcement of the site location, rendering, and groundbreaking for the Salta Argentina Temple. And it is the latest in an unprecedented period of announced temple developments. If, as anticipated, this temple has a groundbreaking later this year, it will mark the first time ever that two new temples will be under construction at the same time in Argentina. And a groundbreaking for this temple will also mark the first time since 2018 that more than two temples are under construction in South America. I do not include Brazil in that definition, since Brazil comprises a separate area of the Church. This announcement also comes in the midst of unprecedented temple developments being reported throughout Latin America (which, by definition, includes Brazil and Mexico, in addition to the rest of Central and South America). As I observed in reply to a comment made by longtime reader Eric S. this morning about this announcement, just when I think I have the likely sequence of temple events for the next 12-18 months sorted out, an announcement like this changes the game again. Based on these most recent announcements, I have adjusted a few of my files again. I will include links to each of those files, along with brief explanations of what the files are, along with any needed additional context.

First, I have updated certain sections of my temple construction progress report. Some iinformation about the numbering used may be helpful. Firstly, with the groundbreakings having been held earlier this year for the Richmond Virginia, Layton Utah, Alabang Philippines, and Auckland New Zealand Temples, those temples are ahead of any temple in this first document. Based on current projections, the Richomond Virginia Temple will either be the last dedicated in 2022 or one of the first to be dedicated in 2023, with the dedication for Layton happening next. Barring any massive delays, Auckland New Zealand may be the next to be completed. I'd anticipate the Feather River California, Alabang Philippines, and Salta Argentina Temples to be completed next, though the three may change places with each other. I'd next conjecture that the Bangkok Thailand Temple would be dedicated, unless full-scale efforts soon begin on either or both the Puebla Mexico and Lima Peru Los Olivos Temples, for which the compleion is hard to gauge while full-scale efforts are pending. With that in mind, hopefully the numbering for the temples in the first couple of sections of the first document makes more sense.

And of course, it goes without saying that the timing of completion of temples which are now or will soon be under construction is up to the Lord, so any thoughts offered in the remainder of that first document are no more and no less than my own personal observations and theories, based on what is currently known or unknown about those temples, and all such information is subject to change as more information comes to light.