News for Temple Groundbreakings in Michigan and Colombia

Ground has been broken for the Grand Rapids Michigan Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The First Presidency has also announced the groundbreaking date for the Cali Colombia Temple, and the rendering for the Tacloban City Philippines Temple has been released.

Grand Rapids Michigan Temple

A groundbreaking ceremony for the Grand Rapids Michigan Temple was held on Saturday, December 7, 2024. Elder Mathias Held, First Counselor in the North America Northeast Area, presided at the groundbreaking.

In the dedicatory prayer, Elder Held asked that the temple site be a beacon of holiness, inspiring Latter-day Saints to prepare for worship in the house of the Lord.

“We petition Thee, Father, to hallow and protect this temple site, which will come to be a place of great spiritual strength and power,” he prayed.

As she prepared to return home from serving a mission, Eden McIntyre of the Holland Michigan Stake was encouraged by her mission president to attend the temple regularly. McIntyre has since traveled the two hours to the Detroit Michigan Temple with her father each month to worship in the house of the Lord.

“In no place here in mortality will we ever be closer to our Savior than in the temple,” she said at the groundbreaking. “I have experienced this for myself.”

David C. Wadsworth, the patriarch of the Grand Rapids Michigan Stake, likewise spoke about how his temple worship draws him closer to Jesus Christ and His gospel.

“There are magnificent architectural wonders in the world, designed to draw our thoughts to heaven, but in the temple, I feel His presence as nowhere else,” he said.

The building of this house of the Lord will bring this divine connection even closer to the community of Grand Rapids.

Elder Held added, “We can witness before our eyes how the work is rolling forward, how the Lord is hastening His work at this very special time.”

The Grand Rapids Michigan Temple will be built on a 10.5-acre site located at 2400 Forest Hill Avenue SE in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Plans call for a single-story temple of approximately 20,000 square feet.

Church President Russell M. Nelson announced this house of the Lord during the October 2022 general conference.

The Grand Rapids Michigan Temple will be the second temple in the state, joining the Detroit Michigan Temple, which was dedicated in October 1999.

The first Latter-day Saints in Michigan were baptized a year after the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ in 1830. The growth of the Church in Michigan slowed after the martyrdom of Church President Joseph Smith in 1844 in Illinois, but the establishment of a new mission in 1876 brought many new converts.

Today, more than 46,000 Latter-day Saints in nearly 100 congregations call the state of Michigan home.

Cali Colombia Temple

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Cali Colombia Temple will be held on Saturday, March 1, 2025. Elder Jorge T. Becerra, President of the Church’s South America Northwest Area, will preside at the event.

Attendance will be by invitation only. Additional details will be communicated as the date of the groundbreaking approaches.

The Cali Colombia Temple will be on a 3.14-acre site on La Flora in Cali, Colombia. Plans call for a single-story temple of roughly 9,500 square feet.

President Nelson announced this temple during the April 2021 general conference.

“Keep your temple covenants and blessings foremost in your minds and hearts. Stay true to the covenants you have made,” he said then.

The Cali Colombia Temple will be the country’s fourth temple. The other three temples in operation or announced in Colombia are in Bogotá, Barranquilla and Medellín.

Colombia was dedicated for the preaching of the gospel by Elder Spencer W. Kimball of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in May 1966. After a mission was created there in 1971, Church growth in the country greatly accelerated. Nearly 12,000 Latter-day Saints resided in Colombia when its first stake (a collection of several congregations) was organized in 1977.

Today, Colombia is home to more than 215,000 Latter-day Saints in nearly 260 congregations.

Tacloban City Philippines Temple

An artistic rendering for the exterior of the Tacloban City Philippines Temple has been released.

As previously announced, the groundbreaking ceremony for the temple will be held on Saturday, January 18, 2025. Elder Michael B. Strong, Second Counselor in the Philippines Area Presidency, will preside at the event.