Mormon Church to Add 6 Temples

Mormon church President Gordon B. Hinckley has announced plans for the construction of six temples, three in the United States and three overseas.

Hinckley made the announcement during the church’s recent Annual General Conference.

“We shall go on in the process of bringing temples to the people,” Hinckley said of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the meeting in Salt Lake City.

The new U.S. temples will be in Lubbock, Texas; Snowflake, Ariz.; and “somewhere in the Tri-Cities area in the state of Washington,” he said.

Temples also are planned for Aba, Nigeria; Asuncion, Paraguay; and Helsinki, Finland.

The Mormon church has 77 temples in operation and is slated to dedicate a 78th, in Fresno, on Sunday. Another 32 temples are under construction. In addition to the six announced at the conference, five others have been previously announced but their construction has not yet begun.

Temples are not used for regular Sunday worship, but rather for special Mormon rites, such as marriages, which Mormons believe last for eternity. They also are used for baptisms of the dead.