“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” (to use their official and preferred name) has announced that on Saturday the 26th of November 2022, it will be holding a groundbreaking ceremony for the first Mormon temple to be built in Nicaragua.
UPDATE 1st December 2022: Joy at groundbreaking for Nicaragua’s first temple
The temple will occupy an almost nine acre site that has been chosen for the construction of a 25,000 square foot (2,323 square meters) single story building with a central spire. The land is located just off the Carretera Masaya at Kilometer marker 9.3 which is between what is known as the 2nd and 3rd entrances to “Residencial Las Colinas”.
History
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has had a presence in Nicaragua since 1953, however the in 1978, a year before the revolution, missionaries left the country. They returned in the late 1980 and amassed a membership of 3,500 by the time the Nicaragua Managua Mission was organized in October 1989. By 1990, membership had increased to 8,000.
According to their statistics, the church in Nicaragua has a total membership of 101,133 made up of 109 congregations. This represents 1.53% of the population or 1-in-66 people.
The original announcement of the first Mormon temple in Nicaragua was made on April the 1st 2018. At that time, as is still true now, Nicaragua and Belize were the only countries in Central America that did not have a temple which means that Nicaraguans travel to their nearest temples; Tegucigalpa in Honduras or San José in Costa Rica in order to experience a temple church service. The Managua, Nicaragua temple will be the seventh in Central America.
Latin America Region
As well as Nicaragua, three other groundbreaking dates have been announced for temples in the region; two in Mexico and one in Guatemala. They are at; Miraflores in Guatemala City as well as Querétaro and Torreón in Mexico. There a currently more than 200 temples around the world either in operation, under construction or announced (as in the case of Nicaragua).
Other Managua construction articles.
