Quetzaltenango Guatemala Mormon Temple

On 16 December 2006 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,  sometimes nicknamed the  Mormon Church, announced the upcoming construction of a new temple in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.  Groundbreaking took place on 14 March 2009.

Representatives of the Church praised the members of Guatemala and said it is their faith and diligence that has led the Lord to bless them with a temple in closer proximity to their homes.  Members of this region of Guatemala have faithfully attended the temple since the time they had to travel to the Mesa Arizona Temple (1927), then to the México City México Temple (1983), and finally to the Guatemala City Guatemala Temple (1984).

The hillside site selected for the temple is located on the western side of the city in Zone 7, just west of the city zoo—Parque Zoológico Minerva—and across from Los Cerezos condominiums.

Quetzaltenango (Xela) is Guatemala’s second largest city located 128 miles northwest of Guatemala City—the largest city—in a large valley surrounded by mountains and two volcanoes.  This is the second temple in Guatemala.

The public was invited to visit the temple during an open house from Friday, 11 November 2011, until Saturday, 26 November 2011, excluding Sundays. The temple was be formally dedicated on Sunday, 11 December 2011, in three sessions by Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the First Presidency of the Church. The dedicatory sessions were broadcast to congregations of the Church within the temple district.  In conjunction with the dedication of the temple, there was a cultural celebration featuring music and dance on Saturday, 10 December 2011.  LDS youth participated in all aspects of the cultural celebration.

The exact location of the temple is at 9a. calle 4-03, zona 9, in front of the Residenciales Los Cerezos 1.

The Quetzaltenango Guatemala Temple will be the Church’s fifth in Central America (and the 136th worldwide), and will serve approximately 60,000 Latter-day Saints.

LDS Missionary work in Guatemala began in 1947. By 1966 there were 10,000 Latter-day Saints in the country. When the Guatemala City Temple (the country’s first temple) was dedicated in 1984, membership had risen to 40,000. By 1998 membership had quadrupled again to 164,000. In 2006, leaders of the Church announced a temple in Quetzaltenango. Today, Guatemala has more than 226,000 Latter-day Saints spread through more than 400 congregations in the country.