The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced dedication and open house dates for three new houses of the Lord — the Layton Utah, Puebla Mexico and Urdaneta Philippines temples.
The dedication dates and senior Church leaders assigned to preside are:
For President Oaks, the dedication assignment is an opportunity to return to the Philippines, where from 2002 to 2004 he served as Philippines Area president as an Apostle. In 2002, then-Elder Oaks and then-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland were sent to the Philippines and Chile, respectively, in a move to shepherd the growth and future of the Church in both areas.
According to a Church news release at the time, the assignments marked the “first time such senior leaders have lived and presided in an international area of the church for nearly half a century.”
The announcements of dedication and open house dates and presiding officers were first published Monday, Dec. 11, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Urdaneta Philippines Temple
President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency, will dedicate the Urdaneta Philippines Temple on Sunday, April 28, 2024, in two sessions at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. local time.
A public open house will run from Friday, March 15, through Saturday, March 30, excluding Sundays. A media day is set for Tuesday, March 12, with invited guests touring the temple Wednesday and Thursday, March 13-14.
Once dedicated, the Urdaneta Philippines Temple will serve Church members residing in central and northern Luzon.
More than 853,000 Latter-day Saints reside in the Philippines and comprise nearly 1,275 congregations.
President Thomas S. Monson announced a house of the Lord for Urdaneta, Philippines, on Oct. 2, 2010, during October 2010 general conference. This announcement came during the first talk of the Saturday morning session.
The groundbreaking of the Urdaneta Philippines Temple was presided over by then-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on Jan. 16, 2019. The ceremony was by invitation only, but it was broadcast over Facebook Live to those not in attendance. The groundbreaking happened more than eight years after its announcement, during which time three more temples were announced for the Philippines.
Today, the Philippines has 13 total temples — dedicated and operating, scheduled for dedication, under construction or in planning.
The Urdaneta temple will be the Church’s third dedicated house of the Lord in the Philippines, joining the Manila Philippines Temple (dedicated in 1984) and the Cebu City Philippines Temple (2010).
Three more temples are under construction — in Alabang (started in June 2020), Davao (November 2020) and Bacolod (December 2021). Seven other temples have been announced and are in planning, but without published sites — in Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo, Laoag, Naga, Santiago, Tacloban City and Tuguegarao City.
Puebla Mexico Temple
Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will dedicate the Puebla Mexico Temple on Sunday, May 19, 2024, with two sessions set for 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. local time.
A public open house will be Friday, March 29, through Saturday, April 20, excluding March 31 (Easter Sunday), April 6 and 7 (April 2024 general conference general sessions) and April 14 (a Sunday). A media day is set for Monday, March 25, with invited guests touring the temple Tuesday through Thursday, March 26-28.
President Nelson announced a temple for Puebla in October 2018 general conference, along with eleven other temples. Construction began following the temple’s Nov. 30, 2019, groundbreaking, which was presided over by Elder Arnulfo Valenzuela, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Mexico Area.
The Puebla temple is one of 24 houses of the Lord in Mexico that are dedicated and operating, under construction or in planning. Dedicated temples are located in Ciudad Juarez, Colonia Juárez, Guadalajara, Hermosillo, Mérida, Mexico City, Monterrey, Oaxaca, Tampico, Tijuana, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Veracruz and Villahermosa.
Temples under construction are in Querétaro and Torreón, with those others with sites released being the Mexico City Benemérito, San Luis Potosí and Toluca temples, with other houses of the Lord in planning for Cancún, Cuernavaca, Culiacán, Pachuca and Tula.
More than 1.5 million Latter-day Saints comprising more than 1,850 congregations reside in Mexico, making Church membership there more than any country except the United States. The preaching of the gospel began in the 1870s in Mexico, with the first stake organized in 1961 and the first temple dedicated in 1983, both in Mexico City.
Layton Utah Temple
Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will dedicate the Layton Utah Temple on Sunday, June 16, 2024, with two sessions, scheduled for 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. local time. The sessions will be broadcast to all congregations in the Layton temple district.
A public open house will be held prior to the dedication, running from Friday, April 19, through Saturday, June 1, excluding Sundays. A media day will be conducted on Monday, April 15, with invited guests touring the temple Tuesday through Thursday, April 18.
President Russell M. Nelson announced a temple for Layton, Utah, on Sunday, April 1, 2018, one of the seven temples announced at the concluding session of the April 2018 general conference. The seven were the first President Nelson announced after becoming President of the Church in January of that year.
The temple site — identified publicly on July 15, 2019 — is an 11.87-acre parcel in southeast Layton at the intersection of Oak Hills Drive and North Rosewood Lane. The street address is 1400 E. Oak Hills Drive.
On Oct. 8, 2019, an exterior rendering of the Layton Utah Temple was released, showing the projected three-story building of 87,000 square feet with two attached end spires and an Angel Moroni statue.
A small-scale groundbreaking ceremony was conducted May 23, 2020, one of the first held with attendance restrictions following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With its capital city of Salt Lake City serving as the Church’s world headquarters, Utah is home to nearly 2.3 million Latter-day Saints, which is approximately two-thirds of the state’s population of 3.4 million people.
Layton is one of 28 total temples in operation, under construction, under renovation or in planning.
Houses of the Lord in Utah that are operating are the Bountiful, Brigham City, Cedar City, Draper, Jordan River, Logan, Monticello, Mount Timpanogos, Ogden, Oquirrh Mountain, Payson, Provo, Provo City Center, Saratoga Springs, St. George and Vernal temples. Two dedicated temples are currently under renovation — the Manti and Salt Lake temples; the Provo Utah Temple will close for reconstruction in late 2024.
The Orem Utah and Red Cliffs Utah temples are completed and scheduled for dedication on Jan. 21 and March 24, respectively. Other temples under construction are the Deseret Peak, Ephraim, Heber Valley, Lindon, Smithfield, Syracuse and Taylorsville temples.
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