The Torreón Mexico Temple — one of 23 temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in that North America nation — is now in its construction phase, following groundbreaking services on site Saturday, Dec. 10.
Elder Hugo Montoya, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Mexico Area, presided at the services, offering remarks and a dedicatory prayer on the site and the construction process.
“This building, as you can see, will be beautiful,” Elder Montoya said in his message, adding that the temple will be “made with high-quality materials and built with the highest standards. However, it is not the building itself that allows us to feel joy but what takes place inside the building, which are ordinances and covenants.”
The event was attended by representatives of municipal, local and state governments; special guests, such as the organization Mujeres Salvando Mujeres; members of the media and Latter-day Saints, reported ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Josué García Castañeda, a young Latter-day Saint with ancestors who were pioneer Church members in the area, shared his gratitude for construction of the temple.
“As I prepare to enter the temple, I remember that God desires me to be near Him, and He has placed His temple as a special place for me to draw closer to Him,” said Castañeda. “What a grand blessing that the construction of this holy place is starting, because I will be able to be closer to my Heavenly Father in my youth.”
After the prayer, Elder Montoya and several invited guests participated in the ceremonial turning of the dirt, formally marking the beginning of the temple’s construction.
The temple is located in the La Laguna metropolitan area — one of the 10 largest in Mexico — that includes Torreón and Matamoros in the state of Coahuila and Gomez Palacio and Lerdo in the state of Durango, with the Nazas River separating the larger municipalities of Torreón and Gomez Palacio.
And while the temple carries the name of the larger Torréon, it is actually located just across the river in southern Gomez Palacio — a 0.89-acre site at the corner of Paris and Amsterdam streets. Plans call for a single-story temple of approximately 10,000 square feet.
The Torreón Mexico Temple was among the 20 announced by President Russell M. Nelson in April 2021 general conference, with the site location released in September 2021.
It is one of Mexico’s 23 temples, with 13 dedicated and operating temples in Ciudad Juárez, Colonia Juárez Chihuahua, Guadalajara, Hermosillo Sonora, Mérida, Mexico City, Monterrey, Oaxaca, Tampico, Tijuana, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Veracruz and Villahermosa. A temple is already under construction in Puebla, with a groundbreaking for a temple in Querétaro scheduled for next month. Others temples in planning and design have been announced for Culiacán, San Luis Potosí, Mexico City Benemérito, Cuernavaca, Pachuca, Toluca and Tula.
