The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE. 

Many years of prayers were answered when President Russell M. Nelson announced 15 new temples at the end of the Sunday afternoon session of April 2025 general conference.

“We are so excited. We have been praying for years in every meeting,” Rapid City South Dakota Stake President M. Troy Nesbit wrote, reacting to the news in a text message to the Church News.

“We are so happy to have a temple near us and to be able to share this blessing with our community. Our reactions at the time of the announcement [were] first screams, then tears of joy.”

In Rivera, Uruguay, Jorge Leal said members rejoiced upon learning of the new temple. The Montevideo Uruguay Temple is nearly 400 miles and more than a six-hour drive away, and his family has only been able to attend two or three times annually. The new house of the Lord will be within an hour of their home.

“We are thrilled and inexpressibly excited for such a marvelous and beautiful blessing that has finally come after many years of praying and hoping,” he said in an email to the Church News. “We are seeing the promises of the Lord fulfilled for our community and our region.”

Outside the Conference Center, Eduardo Vale, a convert from Porto, Portugal, was amazed to know a temple had been announced for his hometown.

“It’s so inspiring,” said Vale, the only member in his family. He said he faced difficult challenges in coming to America to study at BYU. “I could have gone anywhere but I trusted the Lord, and here I am today, at general conference with the announcement of a temple in my hometown.”

To read the full article, CLICK HERE.