The groundbreaking for the Salta Argentina Temple, the third temple for the South American country, has been postponed until November, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Sept. 17.
Originally scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 15, and then moved to Friday, Oct. 9, the groundbreaking was again postponed due to COVID-19 concerns.
Elder Benjamín De Hoyos, president of the Church’s South America South Area, will preside at the event as announced.
The event will follow local social distancing guidelines and attendance and will be by invitation only. The groundbreaking ceremony will also be broadcast to meetinghouses within the temple district.
The recent Layton Utah Temple groundbreaking ceremony was one of the recent smaller-scale groundbreaking events held during the pandemic and to follow social distancing guidelines.
President Russell M. Nelson announced the Salta Argentina Temple in April 2018. Six months later, in October 2018, a fourth temple for the nation — the Mendoza Argentina Temple — was announced.
The Salta temple, located in the country's northwest area, will serve some of the 470,000 Latter-day Saints in Argentina, joining the Buenos Aires Argentina Temple, dedicated in 1986, and the Córdoba Argentina Temple, dedicated in 2015.
