Exactly 29 years ago today, the Ulaanbaatar Mongolia District was organized. Now the location for Mongolia’s first house of the Lord has been announced.
The Ulaanbaatar Mongolia Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be a single-story structure of approximately 18,850 square feet.
It will be built on almost 11 acres at Naadamchid Road, Khan Uul, 8 Khoroo, in Mongolia’s capital city of Ulaanbaatar. Also constructed on the site will be a patron housing facility and meetinghouse.
This announcement comes from the First Presidency of the Church, published in a Sept. 15 news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org. A site map and exterior rendering were also released.
Ulaanbaatar currently resides in the district of the Hong Kong Temple, a distance of approximately 1,800 miles south.
About the temple and Church in Mongolia
On Oct. 1, 2023, President Russell M. Nelson announced a house of the Lord for Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. It was the last of 20 temple locations he identified in that general conference, alongside two other temples for Asia: in Laoag, Philippines, and Osaka, Japan.
Missionary work began in Mongolia with six missionary couples, the first arriving to the country on Sept. 16, 1992. Although they were unable to proselytize openly, the couples taught university and high school classes. They would then privately teach those interested in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
The first two Mongolian converts, students of the missionaries, were baptized Feb. 6, 1993. The Ulaanbaatar Branch was organized Jan. 16, 1994, and the Ulaanbaatar Mongolia District was organized almost three years later on Sept. 15, 1996.
In late 2001, the translation of the Book of Mormon into Mongolian was completed and distributed to Church members. Mongolia’s first stake, the Ulaanbaatar Mongolia West Stake, was organized in the same decade, on June 7, 2009.
In 1999, membership in the country was 1,850 in nine branches. Mongolia is now home to more than 12,500 Latter-day Saints across nearly 25 congregations.
