News for Temple Groundbreakings in Kansas and Kiribati

Two temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have marked groundbreaking milestones. Groundbreaking services were held for the Wichita Kansas Temple on Saturday, September 7, 2024. The First Presidency has also announced the groundbreaking date for the Tarawa Kiribati Temple.

Wichita Kansas Temple

At a groundbreaking ceremony for the Wichita Kansas Temple, Elder Steven R. Bangerter offered a prayer: “Please bless us this day that, as we turn this dirt as a symbol of a new beginning, that we may feel Thy Holy Spirit within our hearts as a manifestation of the divine mission of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that we may each feel a new beginning with renewed commitment to live our lives according to His teachings and filled with His love.”

Elder Bangerter, First Counselor in the North America Central Area Presidency, presided at the groundbreaking event.

Several community and government leaders attended the event, including Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau and Rep. Stephen Owens from the Kansas State Legislature.

Thomas Dayley of the Wichita Kansas Stake spoke of how the knowledge he has gained in the temple has strengthened him through trials, including the death of his mother.

“I learned of how Christ gave His life for me within the temple, so I strive to give my life to Him,” Dayley said.

John Bazzelle spoke about the significance the temple has for Church members in the Wichita area. Bazzelle is a sixth-generation Latter-day Saint in Wichita whose ancestors helped establish the Church in Kansas.

“With each succeeding generation, temple blessings came ever closer to us,” he said. “Now, we stand on sacred ground, able to see the house of the Lord rise before our very eyes.”

The temple will be the first in the state of Kansas. It was announced by President Russell M. Nelson at the April 2022 general conference.

“Positive spiritual momentum increases as we worship in the temple and grow in our understanding of the magnificent breadth and depth of the blessings we receive there,” President Nelson said.

The Wichita Kansas Temple will be built on a 6.42-acre site located at Lot 1, Block 1 of The Moorings Plaza Fourth Addition in Wichita, which is located in Sedgwick County, Kansas.

Plans call for a single-story temple of approximately 9,950 square feet. Currently, Latter-day Saints in Kansas travel to the neighboring states of Oklahoma or Missouri to worship in temples.

Members of the Shawnee and Delaware tribes in the Kansas area welcomed missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1831. For Church members emigrating from Europe, the Atchison, Kansas, area became a layover site on the journey to the Salt Lake Valley.

The first stake in Kansas was organized in June 1962. Today the state is home to nearly 40,000 members in about 75 congregations.

Tarawa Kiribati Temple

The First Presidency has announced the date of the groundbreaking ceremony for the Tarawa Kiribati Temple. The groundbreaking ceremony will be held on Saturday, November 2, 2024. Elder Jeremy R. Jaggi, Second Counselor in the Pacific Area Presidency, will preside at the event.

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Attendance at the site will be by invitation only. Additional details will be released later.

This temple was one of six announced by President Nelson in the October 2020 general conference.

“As we build and maintain these temples, we pray that each of you will build and maintain yourself so you can be worthy to enter the holy temple,” he said.

The Tarawa Kiribati Temple will be built on a 0.80-acre site located at Ambo, South Tarawa, Kiribati. Plans call for a single-story temple of approximately 10,000 square feet with an end-spire. Additional ancillary facilities will be located about a quarter mile west of the temple site. Plans for a meetinghouse and patron housing facility are in development.

This will be the first house of the Lord built in Kiribati. Nearly 23,000 members in over 40 congregations call the island nation home.

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Missionary work first began in Kiribati in 1975, when students from Kiribati returned to their home country as Latter-day Saint missionaries after attending a Church-owned high school in Tonga. These missionaries helped establish the first branch of the Church. Church meetings were held on the campus of the Auriaria Kokoi Ataria School on the island of Tarawa.

Latter-day Saints consider each temple a house of the Lord and the most sacred place of worship on earth. Temples differ from the Church’s meetinghouses (chapels). All are welcome to attend Sunday worship services and other weekday activities at local meetinghouses. The primary purpose of temples is for faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ to participate in sacred ceremonies, such as marriages, which unite families forever, and proxy baptisms on behalf of deceased ancestors who did not have the opportunity to be baptized while living.