The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has released the locations of the Culiacán Mexico Temple and Tuguegarao City Philippines Temple. An exterior rendering of the house of the Lord in Tuguegarao City has also been released, and the groundbreaking ceremony for the Lethbridge Alberta Temple has been announced.
Culiacán Mexico Temple
The Culiacán Mexico Temple will be built on an approximately 5-acre site located off of Avenida Milenium in the Colonia Country Tres Rios, between the cross streets of Miguel Tamayo Espinoza de los Monteros and Boulevard José María Figueroa Díaz. Plans call for a one-story temple of approximately 10,000 square feet, with an adjacent patron housing building.
Church President Russell M. Nelson announced this house of the Lord during the October 2021 general conference.
“Please make time for the Lord in His holy house,” he said then. “Nothing will strengthen your spiritual foundation like temple service and temple worship.”
The Culiacán Mexico Temple will be the 26th house of the Lord in the country. Dedicated temples in Mexico are found in Ciudad Juárez, Colonia Juárez, Guadalajara, Hermosillo, Mérida, Mexico City, Monterrey, Oaxaca, Puebla, Tampico, Tijuana, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Veracruz and Villahermosa. There are also temples under construction or announced in Cancún, Chihuahua, Cuernavaca, Juchitán de Zaragoza, Mexico City Benemérito, Pachuca, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Toluca, Torreón and Tula.
Mexico is home to more than 1.5 million Latter-day Saints in nearly 1,900 congregations. Missionary work began in Mexico in 1875.
Tuguegarao City Philippines Temple
The Tuguegarao City Philippines Temple will be built on a 6.3-acre site south of Enrile Avenue, Cariq Regional Centre, Tuguegarao, Philippines. Plans call for a single-story temple of approximately 18,850 square feet. Patron housing and a distribution center will also be constructed.
An exterior rendering has also been released for the 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 |
President Nelson announced this temple during the April 2023 general conference.
He said then, “Jesus Christ is the reason we build temples. Each is His holy house. Making covenants and receiving essential ordinances in the temple, as well as seeking to draw closer to Him there, will bless your life in ways no other kind of worship can.”
The Tuguegarao City Philippines Temple will be the 13th in the country. The other 12 temples that have been announced, are under construction or are in operation in the country include those in Alabang, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu City, Davao, Iloilo, Laoag, Manila, Naga, Santiago, Tacloban City and Urdaneta.
There are nearly 870,000 Latter-day Saints in almost 1,300 congregations in the Philippines. Since the country officially opened for missionary work in 1961, Church growth there has been among the fastest in the world.
Lethbridge Alberta Temple
The groundbreaking services for the Lethbridge Alberta Temple will be held on Saturday, April 26, 2025. Elder Randall K. Bennett, North America Central Area President, will preside at the event.
| 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 |
This temple will be built on more than nine acres located at the corner of Whoop Up Drive West and Mauretania Road West, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. Plans call for a multistory temple of approximately 45,000 square feet and an accompanying distribution center.
President Nelson announced the Lethbridge Alberta Temple during the April 2023 general conference.
The first known Latter-day Saints to enter what is now Alberta were Simeon F. Allen and his son Heber S. Allen of Hyrum, Utah, who contracted work in 1883 on the Canadian Pacific Railroad between Medicine Hat and Calgary. They were joined by other Saints from Utah working on the contract.
The Lethbridge Alberta Temple is one of 11 temples operating or announced in Canada, including the Calgary Alberta Temple, Cardston Alberta Temple, Edmonton Alberta Temple, Halifax Nova Scotia Temple, Montreal Quebec Temple, Regina Saskatchewan Temple, Toronto Ontario Temple, Vancouver British Columbia Temple, Victoria British Columbia Temple and Winnipeg Manitoba Temple.
Latter-day Saints worship in temples for several reasons: to feel God’s love and peace, to learn more about God’s plan for His children and the gospel of Jesus Christ, to make promises with God and with one’s husband or wife and to unite families in this life and the next through sacred ordinances.