Barranquilla Colombia Temple
Colombia, home to over 185,000 Latter-day Saints, will soon be the home to a second Mormon temple. The Barranquilla Colombia Temple will be the second temple built in Colombia, following the Bogotá Colombia Temple which was built in 1999.
Thomas S. Monson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced the Barranquilla Colombia Temple on 1 October 2011, during the Saturday morning session of the 181st Semiannual General Conference of the Church. The date of completion is currently unknown; however, when the temple is finished it will include a baptistery; instruction rooms; a celestial room, which represents eternal life with God; and sealing rooms, where eternal marriages are performed.
Early Latter-day Saint Church History in Colombia
People from North America living in Cali and Bogotá made up most of the first 45 members of the Church in Colombia. Then, in May 1966, the first LDS missionaries arrived in the country. Five years later, there were 27 congregations meeting in 10 different cities. In 1975, a chapel was built. Today, Colombia’s 263 congregations contain a membership almost 19 times what it was 20 years ago. There are now five separate missions dividing the country regionally. The congregations are divided into 29 stakes and 12 districts.
The new structure will be built in Barranquilla, located in the northern region of the country near the Caribbean Sea. Barranquilla is a port city bustling with maritime transportation in the delta of the Magdalena River.
Ground breaking for the new temple will take place on Saturday, February 20, 2016. Attendance at the ceremony is by invitation only, with the general public invited to view the proceedings live from local meetinghouses.
