Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple
During the Sunday Morning Session of the April 2015 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on 5 April 2015, President Thomas S. Monson announced the Church's intention to build a temple in Port-au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti. Soon Latter-day Saints who live in one of the Western Hemisphere's poorest nations with a poverty rate approaching 60 percent, will be able to partake of the richest blessings of their faith through temple ordinances.
Haiti is home to more than 22,000 Mormons (out of an overall population of nearly 11 million), 46 LDS congregations, and one mission.
At a stake conference held on Sunday, 12 March 2017, at the Centrale Chapel in Port-au-Prince, Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles announced that the Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple would be built on land immediately behind the chapel on Route de Frères.
The Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple will be the first built in the country and the second built in the Caribbean, where missionary work officially began in 1980. Church members in Haiti currently attend temple services in the Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple, requiring nearly a day's journey. The Church is growing steadily in this island nation where its third and fourth stakes were recently organized in 2012—all four stakes being headquartered in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, which boasts well over two million residents.
A Few Facts About the Church in Haiti
The first Haitian member of the Church was converted after reading a Joseph Smith pamphlet. A pair of missionaries at a Florida airport gave a Joseph Smith pamphlet and Book of Mormon to a Haitian who was passing through the terminal. That pamphlet made its way into the hands of Alexandre Mourra, who upon reading it, immediately wrote the mission home in Florida, asking to be baptized. In 1977, he traveled to the U.S. and returned as the first official Latter-day Saint in Haiti.
Haitian Saints love to sing, even though many of the early Saints had to learn hymns by ear. Haitian-born Marc-Aurel reveals, "The saints in Haiti really love to sing. They sing loud. I would say most of them don’t know how to read music. But they like the words, they like the tune, and they sing as if they really mean it." His mother learned the hymns by hearing others sing early in the Church's history in Haiti when hymnals and other church resources were not widely available.
Less than 0.2% of Haitians are Mormon—that's 2 in 1,000. The vast majority of Haitians—80%—are Catholic. With only 18,165 members in a nation of almost 10 million, Mormons in Haiti are still a very rare thing. Pioneer Haitian Church member, Fritzner Joseph says, "I have been living in Haiti for all my life. I grew up in Haiti, and I made progress living in Haiti. And I know that if the saints there can remain faithful, they will succeed."
The Church's quick response and ample aid following the earthquake have proven to be one of the biggest boons to the Church's visibility in Haiti. The humanitarian assistance of the Church, which was on the ground before the Red Cross after the earthquake, has helped the Church come further out of obscurity in the tiny island nation. Joseph continues, "Today in Haiti we have people who are not members who are willing to defend the church because they know who we are through the earthquake."
According to LDS Living.com, "While the earthquake was a day of devastation, out of tragedies come stories of triumph. The Haitian people were beaten but not broken, and those Haitian Saints who experienced heartache at the hands of this natural disaster remain resilient." Dieudonne Martial, a native of Haiti, commented, "I had a very good experience that benefited me. With this earthquake, I was reminded that material things take second place. In the matter of a few seconds, the material possessions could disappear. That helped me to become more compassionate."
Another member, Kesner Kella, also shared her faith in the wake of the tragedy. She said, "I realized that this must happen in order to strengthen our faith in the omnipotence of God." Trusting in Him and relying on Him were both critical lessons that the Saints in Haiti learned through the earthquake. Kella continues, "The pain was terrible but the Eternal Father has relieved us."
Groundbreaking Ceremony
The ground was broken for the Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple on Saturday, 28 October 2017, as Mormons and community leaders gathered to participate in the event. Elder Walter F. González, a member of the Seventy, president of the Caribbean Area for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and an Uruguayan native presided at the groundbreaking ceremony. Elder Claudio D. Zivic and Elder Jose L. Alonso, counselors in the Area Presidency, also participated. They hosted Dominique Saint-Roc, mayor of the community of Pétion-Ville, the location of the Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple.
Responding to questions from the local media, Elder González said, "“When I think about this day, I can only think about everlasting joy and gratitude for all what the temple means in our lives." A choir comprised of local Mormons in Haiti provided music for the sacred occasion.
After the temple is completed, open house dates will be announced so the public can tour the temple before it is dedicated. A date for the dedication will also be announced.
There are currently 182 temples throughout the world either in operation, under construction or announced. Six are currently being renovated and seven more temples have been announced to be renovated in 2017 and 2018.
