The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has released the dates for the dedication and open house of the McAllen Texas Temple.
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
The McAllen Texas Temple will be dedicated on Sunday, October 8, 2023, in two sessions (10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. CDT) by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. A public open house will start on Friday, August 25, and continue through Saturday, September 9, 2023, excluding Sundays. A media day will be held on Monday, August 21, after which invited guests will tour the temple from Tuesday, August 22, through Thursday, August 24.
The dedicatory sessions will be broadcast to all units in the McAllen Texas Temple district. It is anticipated that appointments for living ordinances will be available for scheduling sometime in July, and online scheduling of proxy ordinances will become available around September.
The McAllen Texas Temple was first announced in October 2019 by Church President Russell M. Nelson. Construction began in November 2020 with a groundbreaking ceremony.
Once dedicated, this house of the Lord will join the four other temples in Texas in operation in Dallas, Houston, Lubbock and San Antonio. There are also plans to build temples in the cities of Austin, Fort Worth and Prosper.
Located in the South-Central United States, Texas was first visited by missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ in 1843. In 1898, about 300 Church members settled on land purchased by the Church in northeast Texas that would become the colony of Kelsey. Church growth in Texas has been rapid in recent decades, with more than 132,000 Latter-day Saints in 1985 growing to just over 210,000 in 2000. Today, Texas is home to more than 378,000 members in nearly 750 congregations.