Temples in South America Articles
That a new Mormon temple would be built in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was announced by Prophet Thomas S. Monson at the 183rd annual general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 April 2013. There are nearly 2 million Latter-day Saints in Brazil. There are already Mormon temples in Fortaleza, Recife, Manaus, Curitiba, Campinas, Porto Alegre, and Sao Paulo. With the Rio Temple, Brazil will have eight.
The Church of Jesus Christ has been building many smaller temples for the last several years, with the goal of enabling access to all members of the Church. Now, 85% of the membership can get to a Mormon temple in three hours.
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Honduras is about to host a public open house and cultural celebration surrounding the first temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often mistakenly called the Mormon Church) built in the country.
The temple has been met with gusto from the Honduran LDS church members as they prepare to worship and commune with God in the newly constructed place of worship.
Nelson Enamorado, a resident of the capital who serves in the presidency of the Tegucigalpa Honduras Guaymuras Stake (like a diocese) said regarding this:
“Everyone, especially the youth, are so excited to have a temple. We know that this is a special opportunity to serve.”
Almost six years have passed since the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ announced that a Mormon temple would be built in Honduras. The local LDS members have actively waited for the opening of the temple. Many have prepared to be ready and worthy to attend the temple once it opens.
LDS... Read the rest of this article »
A new temple is being added in Arequipa, Peru, by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) or Mormon Church. The LDS church has a rich history in South American country of Peru and the Arequipa Temple will be its third.
Missionary work from the Church officially began in Peru in 1956. Arequipa is Peru’s second most populous city and the church members there must attend temple services almost 500 miles away in Lima.
Latter Day-saint Members have a great history of sacrificing to build and worship in temples. President Thomas S. Monson was reminisced about this when he said in the April 2011 General Conference:
“Many years ago I read of a group of over a hundred members who left Manaus, located in the heart of the Amazon rain forest, to travel to what was then the closest temple, located in São Paulo, Brazil—nearly 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from Manaus.
Those faithful Saints journeyed by boat for four days on the Amazon... Read the rest of this article »
At the October 2009 general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes inadvertently called the “Mormon Church”) it was announced that a Mormon temple would be built in Fortaleza Brazil. There are 13 stakes near Fortaleza and several more in outlying areas. Members currently travel nearly 500 miles to attend the Recife Brazil Temple. The Fortaleza Temple will be the seventh Mormon temple in Brazil, where there are nearly 1.2 million Latter-day Saints.
The Fortaleza Brazil Temple will be built in the coastal neighborhood of Dunas on a site located across from the esteemed FANOR, an institute of higher education. The exact location is Avenida Santos Dumont esq Rua Mal. Mascarenhas Morais, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil.
The design for the Fortaleza is a classical colonial design with two spires. An accommodation Building, a meetinghouse, and maintenance buildings will also be constructed on the site.
The groundbreaking... Read the rest of this article »
In October 2011 at the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Prophet Thomas S. Monson announced the construction of a second temple in Colombia. The first is in Bogota. The new temple will be in Barranquilla, Colombia, which is located in northern Colombia, near the Caribbean Sea. Located on the delta of the Magdalena River, the city serves as a port for river and maritime transportation within Colombia.
The first LDS Missionaries arrived in Colombia in 1966. Five years later, 27 congregations were established in 10 cities. Today, Church membership is nearly nineteen times that of 20 years ago. Colombia has 172,534 members of the Church in 272 congregations, and four missions.
LDS.org has a separate website for Colombia (in Spanish), which you can access by clicking here.
For information and Mormon news about the other temples that have just been announced visit the newsroom of The Church of Jesus Christ of... Read the rest of this article »
On 13 December 2008 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) announced that it will build a temple in Trujillo, Peru. The temple will be located at Teodoro Valcárcel, Urbanización Primavera, Trujillo, La Libertad, Peru. This location already has a stake center on the site. The site is located near the prominent Campo Eterno cemetery, on the highway to Huanchaco. This will be the second LDS temple in Peru.
Members in the Trujillo area must travel 9-10 hours to reach the existing temple in Lima. Some days, the Lima Temple is so busy, that patrons patiently wait for hours before being able to enter.
Elder Rafael E. Pino of the Seventy conducted groundbreaking ceremonies for the new Trujillo Peru Temple, on Saturday, September 17, 2011. The second LDS temple in Peru (the Lima Peru Temple was dedicated in 1986), it will serve more than 88,000 LDS Church members in the area.
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On 4 October 2008 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) announced the construction of a new temple in Córdoba, Argentina. The new temple will be located in Villa Belgrano next to the Church mission home, and will be Argentina’s second temple.
Members in the Córdoba area currently travel some 400 miles to participate in temple ordinances in the Buenos Aires Argentina Temple, which serves 60 stakes and 30 districts throughout Argentina.
Membership of the Church in Argentina has grown steadily since the 1920’s. The first members were European immigrants who requested missionaries. There were 356, 000 Mormons in Argentina in 2006.
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The Manaus Brazil Mormon Temple is located at Estrada da Ponta Negra, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, on the banks of the Negro River. The temple was announced on 23 May 2007, and the groundbreaking took place on 20 June 2008. The Manaus Brazil Mormon Temple is the 138th operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Manaus Brazil Mormon Temple serves the Latter-day Saint membership in northern Brazil, and is the sixth temple to be built in the country. Four temples are located in the heavily populated south, and one is located on the east coast at Recife. Manaus is in northwestern Brazil in the Amazon region. There were over 1 million Latter-day Saints in Brazil in 2011. This temple will serve 40,000 Latter-day Saints in 80 congregations throughout the region.
An interesting fact about the temple is that it has a port entry for those traveling to worship there by way of the river. The Negro River joins the Amazon about... Read the rest of this article »
“What a beautiful building it is – the workmanship is superb. I have never seen any (stonework) finer, anywhere. It is beautiful, a fitting monument to the good people of Colombia,” stated President Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Mormon Church, at the dedication of the Bogota Colombia Mormon Temple on April 24, 1999.1
From the time the announcement of the Mormon Temple was made, until the dedication in 1999, fifteen years had passed. Troubles with location and property for the Temple did not stifle the faith of the members, just the opposite. When a particular difficulty was faced, a special focus of fasting and prayer would produce miracles.2
Ten miles from downtown Bogota in the Niza section, sits the Bogota Colombia Mormon Temple. Combined with tall stained glass windows and silver-gray Brazilian granite on the exterior and marble finishes and motifs that are in the likeness of ancient Incan designs, the Mormon Temple creates an atmosphere... Read the rest of this article »
In November of 1966 the beautiful land of Venezuela was dedicated for the preaching of the Gospel, and within weeks four Mormon missionaries arrived in Venezuela. They arrived in a land that Christopher Columbus called the “Land of Grace; where the geography varies from rain forests to high mountain peaks to balmy beaches, and where the temperature is nearly seventy degrees at all times.1
The Mormon missionaries found a people who were ready to accept the Gospel, such as the Manuel and Luisa Vargas family. When Manuel and Luisa were married in 1969, they wanted a lot of children, but were concerned about the influences of the world. Six months later, when Luisa was pregnant with their first child, the missionaries knocked on their door to bring them the Gospel of Jesus Christ – within a few weeks they were baptized. When Luis was born, he became the first of a new generation of Venezuelans born and raised in the Mormon Church. This family with six... Read the rest of this article »
