For the first time since 2019, ground will be broken for a Peruvian temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The First Presidency has announced a Saturday, Oct. 10, groundbreaking date for the Iquitos Peru Temple.
Presiding over the ceremony will be Elder Sandino Roman, a General Authority Seventy and member of the Church’s South America Northwest Area presidency.
On that same day, ground will be broken for the Maceió Brazil Temple, in one of Peru’s neighboring countries.
The Iquitos temple’s groundbreaking date was first published in an Aug. 31 news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org. An exterior rendering of the temple was released at the same time.
As previously announced, the Iquitos temple is projected to be a 20,000-square-foot structure on a 1.8-acre site at Calle San Marcos 117-137, San Juan Bautista, Iquitos, Maynas, Loreto, in northern Peru.
Iquitos, located in the Amazon rainforest, is the world’s largest city unreachable by ground transportation. It’s accessible only by air and the nearby Amazon River.
About the Iquitos temple and Church in Peru
On April 2, 2023, then-President Russell M. Nelson announced a temple for Iquitos, Peru, during the April 2023 general conference. It was one of 15 houses of the Lord he announced that day.
The Iquitos temple is the northernmost of 10 Peru temples in various stages of operation and planning.
Four of those have been dedicated: the Lima Peru Temple (in 1986), Trujillo Peru Temple (2015), Arequipa Peru Temple (2019) and Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple (2024).
Three temples planned for the country have site locations: the Cusco (announced 2022), Iquitos (2023) and Piura (2023) temples.
That leaves three more planned for Peru that don’t yet have site locations: for Chiclayo (announced 2022), Huancayo (2023) and Chorrillos (2025).
On Jan. 1, 1956, Frederick S. Williams — a former mission president in Argentina and Uruguay — moved to Peru with his family. He contacted Church headquarters for permission to organize a branch and begin missionary work.
A branch in Lima was subsequently organized on July 8, 1956, and four missionaries arrived on Aug. 7, 1956.
The Andes Mission, headquartered in Lima, was established on Nov. 1, 1959. There were 300 Church members and five branches at the time.
Today, more than 667,000 Latter-day Saints reside in just over 800 wards and branches in Peru.
