One of the five new temples announced this weekend by Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will be located in Córdoba, Argentina. It will be the country’s second temple, the first being located in Buenos Aires. Many of the 375,000 Church members living in Argentina will attend the Córdoba temple when it is completed.
The first members of the Church who arrived in Argentina in the early 1920’s were European emigrants fleeing the economic uncertainties of postwar Europe. After settling, they began teaching their neighbors about the Church, and requested that leaders in the United States send missionaries to the country. In 1925 two Church apostles, Elders Melvin J. Ballard and Rulon S. Wells, traveled to Argentine and six days later, the first convert baptisms on the continent were performed in the Rio de la Plata (La Plata River).
The Church has experienced steady growth in Argentina since that time, with hundreds of congregations established from the northern borders of the country to Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip. The Buenos Aires Argentina Temple, the fourth in all of South America, was announced in 1980, and completed in 1986. For 15 years it served all the members in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. There will be 16 temples in South America when the Córdoba Argentina Temple is finished, with at least one temple in every country in the region.
More details concerning the location and design of the newly announced Córdoba temple will be forthcoming.