BAHIA BLANCA, Argentina — As the open house for the Bahía Blanca Argentina Temple was beginning in mid-October, three leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spoke at a devotional on themes of the temple and family history work.
Latter-day Saints and community friends attended the devotional that featured remarks by Elder Joaquín E. Costa, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Church’s South America South Area; Sister Andrea Muñoz Spannaus, second counselor in the Young Women general presidency; and Elder Mark A. Bragg, a General Authority Seventy and executive director of the Family History Department, according to the Church’s Argentina Newsroom.
Elder Costa expressed joy to see the growth of the Church in Bahía Blanca, a port city in Argentina’s Buenos Aires province, located about 400 miles south of the capital city of Buenos Aires.
“This is a historic moment for all of us who live in this region,” he said.
Elder Costa quoted a line from the Kirtland Temple dedicatory prayer, found in Doctrine and Covenants 109:13, “That all people who shall enter upon the threshold of the Lord’s house may feel thy power, and feel constrained to acknowledge that thou hast sanctified it, and that it is thy house, a place of thy holiness.” Similar wording is found in the Salt Lake Temple dedicatory prayer.
Elder Costa promised that members will feel the same divine power in the Bahía Blanca temple.
“Those who cross the threshold of this house will feel power and will be strengthened in their daily lives. Here they will find protection, comfort and direction,” he said. “Having a temple in Bahía Blanca is a gift from God. It is a sign of His love and an invitation to strengthen faith, family and peace.”
Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will dedicate the Bahía Blanca Argentina Temple on Sunday, Nov. 23, with the single dedicatory session to be broadcast to all units throughout the temple district.
Following its dedication, the Bahía Blanca temple will be the Church’s fifth operating house of the Lord in Argentina. Other temples announced, under construction or in operation in the South American country are located in Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires City Center, Córdoba, Rosario, Salta and Mendoza.
A dream fulfilled
For Sister Spannaus, a native of Buenos Aires, the visit to Bahía Blanca was her first. But her husband, Alin Spannaus, served as a missionary in the city more than 40 years ago. At that time, the missionaries and members dreamed of one day having a house of the Lord in their midst.
“Today that dream has been fulfilled,” she said. “Seeing this completed temple is a blessing that will strengthen many families, not only in Bahía Blanca but also throughout southern Argentina.”
Sister Spannaus invited the youth to engage in temple and family history work and find true peace in the house of the Lord.
“In the midst of life’s storms, the temple is a refuge where we can feel the peace that comes from God,” she said. “The temple is right here to fill you with spiritual power.”
In his remarks, Elder Bragg invited the Saints in Bahía Blanca to follow prophetic counsel to “nourish temples with names.”
“It is a miracle to have a house of the Lord in Bahía Blanca,” he said. “Today we all feel that emotion, but we must not let it become commonplace. We must nourish the temples with the names of our ancestors, especially with the help of young people, who are the key to connecting temple work with future generations.”
The Church in Bahía Blanca
According to the Church History Department, the first missionaries arrived in Argentina in 1925. Later that year, Elder Melvin J. Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles visited Buenos Aires and offered a prayer dedicating South America for the preaching of the gospel.
Thirteen years later in the spring of 1938, Elder Ben E. Clark and Elder Reed J. Chalk began preaching the gospel in Bahía Blanca. The missionaries began renting homes in Bahía Blanca to live, hold meetings and teach English classes. They also expanded their labors to surrounding towns like Punta Alta, Tandil and Coronel Suárez.
The Bahía Branch was organized in February 1939.
In April 1939, Luis Constantini, an older Latter-day Saint from Buenos Aires, was called to serve a short-term mission in Bahía Blanca. With friends and family already in the region, Constantini became a great source of support to the American missionaries. Over the following year, the four missionaries assigned to Bahía Blanca saw growing success, holding meetings with dozens of interested individuals and baptizing the first converts in the city.
During this time, the missionaries taught the Looney family, who were referred to them by Church members in Buenos Aires. Thomas Murti Looney was born in Australia in 1888 but had moved to Argentina in the 1910s and married Maria Angela Dido, an Italian immigrant from Piedmont. They also had a daughter, Ines Looney, who was born in 1918. Thomas Looney first met the missionaries in January 1939, attended Sunday services at the missionaries’ home in May of that year and continued to meet with the elders over the ensuing months.
In January 1940, Looney was baptized, becoming the Church’s first convert in Bahía Blanca. He received the Aaronic Priesthood in 1941 and the Melchizedek Priesthood in 1943, serving in multiple local leadership roles and contributing musically by playing the violin during Sunday meetings. Ines Looney was baptized in 1944. Although her husband never joined, her children were raised in the Church, served missions and married in the temple.
Between 1943 and 1947, because of World War II, no missionaries were sent to Argentina, and Church meetings were held in the homes of members, including the Looney family. Despite these challenges, the Church continued to grow in the region through both convert baptisms and Latter-day Saints relocating from Buenos Aires. Growth resumed more steadily as young full-time missionaries returned to the area after World War II and again following the Korean War between 1951 and 1953.
In 1964, construction began on the first meetinghouse in Bahía Blanca, with local members contributing significant time, labor and resources. The building was dedicated two years later by Arthur H. Strong, who served as mission president.
The meetinghouse construction coincided with the creation of the Bahía Blanca District, which encompassed areas as far away as General Roca, Comodoro Rivadavia and Trelew.
In 1975, the Bahía Blanca Branch was divided into the Bahía Blanca 1st and 2nd branches.
In January 1980, the Bahía Blanca Argentina Stake was created with Daniel Humberto Fucci as president. That same year, the Argentina Bahía Blanca Mission was created.
On Jan. 17, 1986, President Thomas S. Monson dedicated the Buenos Aires Argentina Temple, located approximately 375 miles (600 kilometers) from Bahía Blanca — an expensive journey that takes a full day each way by bus. The Saints in Bahía Blanca have remained part of this temple district ever since. January 2026 marks the 40th anniversary of the dedication of the Buenos Aires temple.
In November 1995, the Bahía Blanca Argentina Villa Mitre Stake was created, with Jorge Horacio Cizek as president.
The Bahía Blanca Argentina Temple was one of eight announced by President Russell M. Nelson during April 2020 general conference.
Elder Costa, a native of Concordia, Argentina, presided at the groundbreaking ceremony on April 9, 2022.
General Cerri branch
Elder Martín P. Fernández, an Area Seventy from Resistencia, Argentina, cherishes fond memories of his final months as a missionary serving in the General Cerri Branch on the outskirts of Bahía Blanca after the unit was created in November 1993.
The small branch of less than 20 members first met each week in the living room of the Maldonado family. Some of the members were Bolivian immigrants who farmed a tomato field, including Cari Fructuoso, the first branch president.
“President Cari was a hard-working farmer and a true disciple of Jesus Christ,” Elder Fernández said.
Elder Fernández and other missionaries taught and baptized the Candido and Teodoro Vale family, also Bolivian immigrants who arrived with little and created a new life through hard work and faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Over the years, the Vale family remained active. Their sons served missions, and the family was sealed in the Buenos Aires Argentina Temple, a 12-hour drive from Bahia Blanca. Their youngest son, Jaime Vale, was serving as branch president when it became a ward on Dec. 8, 2024.
As the branch grew, several baptism services were held in a local stream. When Elder Fernández finished his mission in February 1994 — three months after the branch was created — three more families had joined the Church, and attendance had doubled to nearly 40 members.
Elder Fernández said serving in the branch was a significant blessing in his life. He remains in contact with several members today.
“They did more for me than I did for them,” he said, noting the members’ generosity as they often willingly skipped meals to feed the missionaries.
“This is why our Church is so strong, because of these kind of people. ... The Saints in Bahía Blanca and surrounding areas, as well as southern Argentina, have been faithful temple-goers for decades. They have their own beautiful temple now in Bahía Blanca, and it is a blessing for decades of faithfulness.”
‘A beacon for our city’
In 1986, several months after the dedication of the Buenos Aires temple, the Balderrama family joined the Church in Bahía Blanca. The family was sealed in that house of the Lord in 1994.
In recent years, a member of the family, Jessica Balderrama Turner, and her husband were asked to assist individuals and families by organizing group excursions to the Buenos Aires temple.
“Families made sacrifices to attend the temple,” said Turner, who serves as Young Women president in the Pueyrredón Ward. “We felt blessed to be working and organizing the groups to go to the temple. We have always seen His tender mercies in our lives.”
One special visit to the house of the Lord came last February when Turner and her husband, Javier Turner, who joined the Church in 2022, were sealed. Their family members said they felt joy as they volunteered during the Bahía Blanca open house, and Turner looks forward to serving as a temple worker in the coming years.
“The temple is a beacon for our city,” she said.
Turner’s sister, Veronica Balderrama Pietropaolo, lives with her family in Ushuaia at the southern tip of Argentina. Ushuaia, also known as the “end of the world,” is 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the nearest temple, in Bahía Blanca.
Despite the distance, Pietropaolo said she and other members across Patagonia have rejoiced in anticipation of the dedication of the new house of the Lord.
“Knowing there is a temple in Bahía Blanca shows how the Lord has opened the gates of heaven and poured blessings upon the city so that they may continue working with greater strength blessing more people with the sacred ordinances,” said Pietropaolo, who served in the Chile Santiago West and South missions in the late 1990s. “We have immense joy in our hearts for this great blessing of the temple in the city of Bahía Blanca.”
