Almost four months after New Zealand’s second house of the Lord was dedicated, ground was broken for the country’s third.
Elder Taniela B. Wakolo — a General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the Church’s Pacific Area presidency — presided over the Aug. 2 groundbreaking ceremony of the Wellington New Zealand Temple.
More than 500 attended the temple groundbreaking, which was also broadcast online. Information about the ceremony was published in a news release on the Church’s Pacific Newsroom.
Once dedicated, the Wellington house of the Lord will become the Church’s southernmost temple in the world.
Elder Wakolo, in his remarks to the congregation, mentioned significant events in the history of the Church in New Zealand, including the first convert baptism in the nearby Karori Stream in 1854.
He testified that “God’s greatest blessings are available in His temples. Having temples on the earth is a witness of God’s love for us. Everything in the temple testifies that God is our Father, that Jesus Christ is His Son and the Savior of the world.”
In his dedicatory prayer on the site and construction process, Elder Wakolo expressed thanks for the accommodating city officials and New Zealand’s religious freedoms. He blessed the nation’s leaders, as well leaders of other nations based in Wellington, with “wisdom to protect this land as a haven of peace, with political and economic stability for all.”
Elder Wakolo added that this temple will stand “not only as a symbol of our membership in the Church, but as a sign of our faith in life after death and as a sacred step toward eternal glory for us and our families.”
Recognizing the higher purpose of this house of the Lord and bearing their testimony to the congregation, a choir sang “This Is the Christ.”
About the temple and Church in New Zealand
Planned as a two-story structure of approximately 14,900 square feet, the edifice will be built near Okowai Road and Whitford Brown Avenue, in Aotea, Porirua, New Zealand. Aotea is a suburban area north of Wellington. An ancillary building with arrival facilities and patron housing is also projected for the 3.35-acre site.
President Russell M. Nelson announced a temple for Wellington, New Zealand, on April 3, 2022, during April 2022 general conference. It was the first of 17 temples announced at the conference, totaling 100 at that point during his tenure as Prophet.
New Zealand currently has two operating temples. The Hamilton New Zealand Temple, the Church’s first built in the Southern Hemisphere, was dedicated in 1958 by Church President David O. McKay. The Auckland New Zealand Temple was dedicated almost four months ago, on April 13, by Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
New Zealand’s first branch was created in Karori, 2 miles west of Wellington, in April 1855. The New Zealand Mission was created in 1898 when the Australasian Mission was split. At the time, there were 4,000 members of the Church in the island nation, and 90% were Māori.
Many Māori recognized the missionaries’ efforts as fulfillment of earlier prophecies by Māori prophets, and they embraced the restored gospel.
Today, New Zealand is home to almost 120,000 Latter-day Saints in around 220 congregations.
