Ground has been broken for the Santiago West Chile Temple, the second in the country’s capital city and one of five total houses of the Lord of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that are dedicated, under construction or in planning for the South American nation.
Elder Alan R. Walker, a General Authority Seventy and the first counselor in the Church’s South America South Area, presided at the Saturday, Aug. 17, groundbreaking ceremony in Santiago, offering remarks and a prayer dedicating the site and construction process.
“We thank Thee, Father, for the privilege of being instruments in Thy hands as we serve in Thy work and as we strive to be faithful disciples of Thy Son, Jesus Christ,” said Elder Walker during the dedicatory prayer. “This temple will stand as a beacon of light, a place of peace and a refuge from the world, inviting all to come to Christ and receive His saving ordinances.”
More than 200 attended the ceremony, including Tomás Vodanovic, the mayor of Maipú, Chile, and other civil, law enforcement, religious authorities, Latter-day Saints and other friends of the Church in Santiago, according to an article on ChurchofJesusChrist.org and the Church’s Spanish-language Newsroom.
President Russell M. Nelson announced the temple — the South American country’s fourth house of the Lord at the time — during the October 2021 general conference, one of 13 temples identified that day.
“As I emphasized this morning, please make time for the Lord in His holy house,” President Nelson said prior to announcing Santiago West and the other new temple locations. “Nothing will strengthen your spiritual foundation like temple service and temple worship.”
The temple’s site location was released on Dec. 19, 2022, with the single-story building of approximately 12,500 square feet to be constructed at Primo de Rivera 1551, Comuna de Maipu, Santiago, Chile.
The temple will serve Latter-day Saints who live in Santiago’s metropolitan region, Rancagua, Valparaíso and the provinces of Curicó and Talca.
The nation’s first house of the Lord as well as the first in Spanish-speaking South America — the Santiago Chile Temple — was dedicated in September 1983, followed by the Concepción Chile Temple, which was dedicated by President Nelson in October 2018. The Antofagasta Chile Temple is currently under construction following its November 2020 groundbreaking.
A fifth house of the Lord in Chile — the Viña del Mar Chile Temple — was announced in 2023 and is in planning and design.
More than 600,000 Latter-day Saints comprise over 570 congregations in Chile.
