President Thomas S. Monson broke ground for the Rome Italy Temple on October 23, 2010. Announced two years earlier, the three-story, 40,000-square-foot (3,700 square meter) temple will be the twelfth in Europe and the first in Italy. When completed, it will serve members in Italy and neighboring countries. The 15-acre (6 ha) site will become a religious and cultural center that includes a multifunctional meetinghouse, a visitors’ center, a family history center, and patron housing.

Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles broke ground for a temple in Córdoba, Argentina, on October 30, 2010. The site was home to one of the Church’s earliest chapels in Argentina. “How wonderful that its final purpose will be to embrace the house of the Lord,” said Elder Andersen. The temple will be the second in Argentina. There is also a temple in Buenos Aires.

Elder Claudio R. M. Costa of the Presidency of the Seventy broke ground for the Gilbert Arizona Temple on November 13, 2010. The Gila Valley Arizona and Gilbert Arizona Temples, announced on April 26, 2008, were the first temples announced by President Thomas S. Monson after he became President of the Church. The Gilbert Arizona Temple will be Arizona’s fourth temple. A fifth, the Phoenix Arizona Temple, is still in the planning stages.