Buenos Aires Argentina Temple

The Buenos Aires Argentina Temple is the 39th operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Mormon missionaries, Melvin J. Ballard, Rey L. Pratt, and Rulon S. Wells, arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1925 after thirty-four days of traveling by land and sea. When they arrived there were only four members of the Mormon Church present. On Christmas Day, Elder Ballard dedicated South America for the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Each day, the Mormon missionaries would prepare two to five hundred handbills to be distributed to those on the street. For eight months the missionaries walked the streets of Buenos Aires handing out handbills, anxiously hoping to teach people about the Mormon faith. [1] Since that time the membership of the Mormon Church in Argentina has grown rapidly, with a hallmark being the construction of the Buenos Aires Argentina Temple.

Visitors to Argentina traveling from the airport to downtown Buenos Aires drive right past the beautiful Buenos Aires Temple. Although Argentine Mormon memberss were generally unable to contribute much in the way of finances toward the building of their temple, many contributed in other ways. A group of sister'sm for instance crocheted sixty-four cloths, when all that was asked was seven.

President Thomas S. Monson, then an apostle presided over the temple dedication on January 17, 1986. In the dedicatory prayer he asked, "May all who enter this, thy house, be privileged to say, as did the psalmist of old, 'We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company'... We pray thou wilt accept of our offering and hallow this house which we have built." [2]

The Buenos Aires Argentina Temple has a total of 11,980 square feet, four ordinance rooms, and three sealing rooms.

Notes

1. "The Kingdom Rolls Forth in South America", Ensign, May 1986, 12
2. "The First 100 Temples", Chad Hawkins, 2001, 106

See also

• Inside Mormon Temples
• Mormon Temples
• The Temple Endowment
• Mormon Undergarments
• LDS Weddings

External links

• Official LDS Buenos Aires Argentina Temple page
• Buenos Aires Argentina Temple page
• Buenos Aires Argentina Temple page
• Mormon Temple Ordinances - ReligionFacts
• Mormon Temples - Wikipedia
• Mormon Temples and Secrecy
• Mormon Missionaries - BBC Religion & Ethics
• Prophet Joseph Smith - Lightplanet