Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Groundbreaking Ceremony

On September 14, 2011, Elder Rafael E. Pino, president of the South America Northwest Area, presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for the Trujillo Peru Temple. He was accompanied by his wife and his two counselors, Elder Juan A. Uceda and Elder W. Christopher Waddell, and their wives.

Temple Site

The Trujillo Peru Temple is located on a large parcel of ground adjacent to the beautiful Campo Eterno cemetery on the highway to Huanchaco, just east of the famous ruins of Chan Chan—the largest Pre-Columbian city in South America (20 square miles), designated a World Heritage Site in 1986. An accommodation center will share the temple site, providing a place for traveling patrons and workers to freshen up before entering the temple and to stay overnight. Land has also been set aside for a future meetinghouse. Before the Campo Eterno site was acquired, the temple was originally to be constructed on the site of the Trujillo Peru Primavera Stake Center.

Temple Announcement

The First Presidency announcement stated, "We are confident that this will be a blessing to the many faithful Saints in this and surrounding areas who have had to travel long distances to enjoy the blessings of the temple. We commend the Saints for their devotion and faithfulness, and are thankful for the blessings that will come to them through the construction of this new temple." The temple will serve more than 88,000 members in the region.¹

Peru's only operating temple, which currently serves 116 stakes and districts, was dedicated in Lima by President Gordon B. Hinckley in January 1986. Members in Trujillo currently travel 9–10 hours by bus to attend the temple, which is exceptionally busy on Saturdays. Buses arrive from all over the country full of patrons, who contentedly wait outside the temple—sometimes for hours—for their turn to get inside to participate in sacred ordinance work.²

Temple Facts

The Trujillo Peru Temple was the second temple built in Peru, following the Lima Peru Temple (1986).