In the Saturday morning session of the 178th SemiAnnual General Conference, President Thomas S. Monson announced the building of 5 more temples in the coming months and years:
1. Calgary, Alberta, Canada
2. Cordoba, Argentina
3. “the greater Kansas City area”
4. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
5. Rome, Italy
After announcing those 5 places, there was a huge gasp of surprise and excitement which shot through the crowd, which caused President Monson to pause and chuckle a little at the reaction. There are two surprising things about this announcement.
First, there are currently 11 Mormon temples in Europe, but none are in the Mediterranean region. This will be the first temple in Italy. Also, in May, the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy issued an order to Catholic dioceses worldwide to withhold any member registries from the Latter-day Saints in order to prevent proxy baptisms for the dead.
Second, with regards to the Kansas City area, this is basically the area declared by Joseph Smith to be the New Jerusalem, and the center of Zion. Maybe there is a reason why President Monson didn’t specifically say Kansas City, Missouri, but rather “the greater Kansas City area” which encompasses at least 5 different counties: Wyandotte and Johnson in Kansas, while Platte, Clay, and Jackson counties are in Missouri.
It would be interesting if it was Independence, Missouri is in Jackson county, which is the same site where Joseph Smith prophesied a temple would be built, in which Christ would come during His Second Coming.
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There is an update for the Kansas City temple coming from the Church website: “For the temple serving the greater Kansas City area, the site will be in Clay County, Missouri, on residential land within the Kansas City limits that is already being developed by the Church. The development is known as Shoal Creek.”