Tegucigalpa Honduras Temple
On June 9, 2006 the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ announced plans to build a temple in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The Central American Area President Spencer V. Jones, a member of the Seventy, made the announcement to members of the area. In the letter, the First Presidency stated, "We are confident that this will be a blessing to the many faithful Saints in this and surrounding areas who have had to travel long distances to enjoy the blessings of the temple." With its completion, the Tegucigalpa Temple will be the first Mormon temple in Honduras and the fourth Mormon temple in Central America. Currently, members in the area must travel to Guatemala City, to attend the nearest temple.
The new temple will serve Mormon members in Honduras and Nicaragua. Currently, there are more than 168,000 members in 302 congregations in these two countries. This is a dramatic accomplishment and a testimony of the faith of the members in the area, because the Mormon Church is still very young in the area. The first Mormon missionaries arrived in Honduras in 1952, when Elder Spencer W. Kimball, Elder Bruce R. McConkie, and President Gordon M. Romney (president of the Central American mission) opened the area for missionary work. On December 10, 1952 the first two Mormon missionaries, James T. Romney and George W. Allen, arrived in Tegucigalpa. On March 21, 1953 the first five Mormon members from Honduras were baptized and a branch was organized the next day. By 1960 there were 411 members in Honduras, and in just ten years, by 1970 there were 3,000 members. In another ten years membership more than doubled to 6,300 and by 1990 there were 43,00 members in Honduras.
The public was invited to visit the temple during an open house from Saturday, 9 February, through 2 March 2013, excluding Sundays. More than 210,000 people attended the Mormon temple open house, including local dignitaries — Honduran president Porfirio Lobo Sosa, First Lady Rosa Elena de Lobo, and a large government delegation that included 10 cabinet ministers.
The temple was formally dedicated on Sunday, 17 March 2013, in three sessions, by Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency of the LDS Church. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Gregory A. Schwitzer of the Seventy also joined him for the dedication. The sessions were broadcast to Mormon meetinghouses in the temple district, which includes Nicaragua.
In conjunction with the dedication of the temple, there was a cultural celebration featuring music and dance on Saturday, 16 March 2013. About 4,100 Latter-day Saints participated in the presentation. It took ten months to prepare the colorful program. Approximately 15,000 people attended the program, including President Ucthdorf, other Church leaders and the president and first lady of Honduras.
The 28,254-square-foot temple is made of gray granite from China and stands 41.2 meters tall, with an angel Moroni on top.
