The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [L.D.S.] has announced the location of the new Pago Pago Temple in the American territory as well as a tentative rendering of the building.

Details of the Pago Pago Temple, the construction of which was announced in April last year by the L.D.S. President Russell M. Nelson, were released in a 14 August, 2020 statement out of New Zealand.

“The Pago Pago American Samoa Temple, which was also announced in April 2019 by President Nelson, will be located on Ottoville Road on the site of the Pago Pago Samoa Central Stake Center in Tafuna, American Samoa. Plans call for a single-story temple of nearly 17,000 square feet,” the statement says.

The temple construction will also include housing for the temple president and missionaries and a distribution center. 

“This temple will be the first in American Samoa. More than 16,000 Latter-day Saints live in this U.S. territory,” the Church said.

The news comes as project leaders begin the process of working with the various municipalities relating to the temple’s design in preparation for the eventual groundbreaking and beginning of construction at each site.

Detailed design plans for the American Samoa temple is still in the process.

A groundbreaking date has not been set.

In the same statement, the Church also released the location and rendering of the Neiafu Tonga Temple, the second temple for the island kingdom.

The Tonga temple will be built on Tu’i Road at the site of the Church-owned Saineha High School in Neiafu, Vava’u, Tonga.

Plans call for a single-story temple of nearly 17,000 square feet.

Housing for the temple president and missionaries and a distribution center will also be constructed on the site.

No school buildings will be impacted by the construction of the new temple.

It will be the second temple in Tonga where more than 66,000 L.D.S. faithful reside.

The L.D.S. consider temples to be “The House of the Lord” and the most sacred places of worship on earth.