Hello again, everyone! A few minutes ago, the First Presidency officially confirmed the opening arrangements for the Yorba Linda California Temple, groundbreaking arrangements for the Huehuetenango Guatemala Temple, and the preliminary details for the Beira Mozambique and Spanish Fork Utah Temples. There's a lot to get to, so let's dive right in!
A media day for the Yorba Linda California Temple will be held on Monday, April 27, 2026, with invited guests touring the temple for the next two days. A public open house will be held from Thursday, April 30, through Saturday, May 23, 2026. The temple dedication will follow on Sunday, June 7, 2026, at 10:00 AM, with a rebroadcast of those services at 2:00 PM.
The dedication will be carried to all units in the temple district. A presiding apostle has not yet been announced, but I am sure any apostle with ties to the area the temple will serve will be the one assigned to dedicate that temple. Who that might be is less certain. As soon as a presiding apostle is assigned, I will note that on this blog in a subsequent comment.
The time frame announced for these arrangements took me by surprise a bit. I was anticipating that the next temple dedication announced would only occur in July or August at the earliest, so it also gives me hope that other temple dedications may be set to occur in June as well. Incidentally, this is the same date previously announced for the Willamette Valley Oregon Temple dedication, so the Church could easily double- or even triple-up on other Sundays in June. So it's back to the drawing board as far as those estimates are concerned, and I hope I'm wrong on those estimates as well.
As for the Huehuetenango Guatemala Temple, groundbreaking services will take place on Saturday, March 14, 2025, with Elder Patricio M. Giuffra, Central America Area president, presiding. The temple dedication follows its announcement in October 2022, with the site location confirmed in mid-March 2023, and the release of its exterior rendering 14 months later. This will be the third groundbreaking this year, and will be occurring at around the same time as the third temple groundbreaking last year.
That brings us to the new information about the temples in Mozzambique and Utah. Mozambique's first temple, planned to be approximately 10,000 square feet (which could mean it will be a modular temple), and with plans including patron housing and arrival facilities, will rise on a 2.5-acre site located at Avenida 24 de Julho, Beira, Mozambique. This announcement follows the temple's April 2021 announcement by then-Church President Russell M. Nelson.
And Utah's newest temple will rise on a 8.7-acre site at the corner of 100 South and 2550 East in Spanish Fork, Utah. The multistory temple of 80,000 square feet will be accompanied by an ancillary building. As confirmed by the Church Temples site, design work for that temple is already underway, and groundwater and soil samples have been evaluated as well. With that in mind, hopefully this temple will have an exterior rendering and groundbreaking announced in the near term. This announcement follows the temple announcement by President Nelson in April last year.
In view of these announcements, there are now 58 temples for which the confirmation of any official information is pending. I am grateful for today's announcements, and hope to see more temple news next Tuesday (since next Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day here in the United States). I also hope we will see the new apostle announced on Thursday or Friday of this week. I will be covering all such updates if/when/as they occur.
I invite you all to stay tuned here for my coverage of the latest updates from the Church News, Newsroom, and Church of Jesus Christ Temples sites. I’ll be sure to pass word of those along to you all as soon as I learn about them. In the meantime, that does it for now. All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated on any post at any time, as long as all such feedback is made per the established guidelines.
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I am excited for the Yorba Linda Temple. It is in the mission boundaries that my son is in (Anaheim California).
ReplyDeleteNathaniel, thanks so much for stopping by to share your son's connection to this temple. If memory serves, the Church often tasks missionaries to help staff the temple during its' public open house, which would be an amazing experience for your son if that happens. But I'm sure being there during the dedication will also be a choice experience for him either way. Thanks again for weighing in here. I always appreciate hearing from you.
DeleteWhen we talked with him today, he stated that they can take friends, but the sister missionaries will be helping with staffing the open house.
DeleteThat makes sense, especially in light of the recent adjustments to the service of sister missionaries in relation to temples. Interesting. Thanks, Nathanial!
DeleteThe Newsroom has created a repository page for temple news in 2026, and both temple announcements from the last two days are linked on it now. And the Church News has provided reports on the dedication, groundbreaking and site announcements.
ReplyDelete