The First Presidency has announced groundbreakings and released renderings for the Bentonville Arkansas and McAllen Texas temples. The Friday, Aug. 28, announcement also identified the location of a third, the Syracuse Utah Temple.
The dates, renderings and location were released on Newsroom.
Groundbreaking ceremonies for the two temples in the south-central United States will be held in November 2020, with no specific dates released for either. Local government social distancing guidelines will result in invitation-only attendance at both groundbreakings.
Both the Bentonville and McAllen temples — along with six others — were announced during the October 2019 general conference by President Russell M. Nelson.
Bentonville Arkansas Temple
Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will preside at the Bentonville groundbreaking ceremony. Elder Bednar, a former University of Arkansas professor, served as a stake president in the stake, and as an apostle has organized two stakes in Arkansas, including the Bentonville Arkansas Stake in 2014.
The single-story, center-spired edifice of approximately 25,000 square feet will be located on an 8.8-acre site at 1101 McCollum Road in Bentonville, with an existing meetinghouse at the location.
It will be the first temple in the state of Arkansas, home to some 32,000 members in nearly 70 congregations.
McAllen Texas Temple
Elder Arthur Rascon, an Area Seventy in the Church’s North America Southwest Area, will preside at the McAllen temple groundbreaking ceremony.
Plans call for an approximately 25,000-square-foot temple with a single story and a center spire. The site sits on 10.6 acres on the northwest corner of Second Street and Trenton Road, with a meetinghouse to be built on the property.
It will be the fifth in Texas, joining temples in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Lubbock. More than 350,000 members reside in the state.
Syracuse Utah Temple
A 12-acre site has been identified at the intersection of 2500 West and 1025 South in Syracuse, with plans calling for a three-story temple of approximately 89,000 square feet. An exterior rendering will be released later, and no groundbreaking date has been set yet.
President Nelson announced a temple for Syracuse in the April 2020 general conference less than five months ago. It is the first of the eight temples announced then to have a site officially announced.
In addition to 17 operating temples, Utah has two more under construction in Layton and Saratoga Springs as well as temple locations identified in Orem, Taylorsville, Tooele Valley and St. George (the Red Cliffs Utah Temple).
