Córdoba Argentina Temple

In February 2010, after months of negotiations, the Church finalized acquisition of property adjacent to the Villa Belgrano meetinghouse for construction of the Córdoba Argentina Temple. The property will be legally joined to the meetinghouse property as a single parcel before temple plans are presented to City Hall.¹ The newly acquired property is a complex of soccer fields formerly owned by a local foundation. One foundation member was reluctant to part with all of the fields, leading to the lengthy negotiations.

Argentina's second temple will be built in the northwestern quarter of the city of Córdoba next to the recently rebuilt Argentina Córdoba Mission home on the grounds of the Villa Belgrano meetinghouse, which houses the Córdoba Argentina Sierras Stake.² The temple will be located on the public bus route near a major stop. The City of Córdoba recently improved Villa Belgrano with paved streets and a new sewer system.

President Thomas S. Monson announced the temple in the opening session of the 178th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.³ Members in the Córdoba area currently travel some 400 miles to participate in temple ordinances in the Buenos Aires Argentina Temple, which serves 60 stakes and 29 districts throughout Argentina.

The first Church members in Argentina were European emigrants, who began teaching their neighbors about the Church in the early 1920s. They petitioned Church Headquarters to send missionaries, and Church leaders responded by sending an apostle, Elder Melvin J. Ballard, and a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Rulon S. Wells, in 1925. Just six days after their arrival, the first convert baptisms were performed in the Río de la Plata. Membership in Argentina has grown steadily ever since.⁴

The Córdoba Argentina Temple will be the second temple built in Argentina, following the Buenos Aires Argentina Temple (1986).