PORTO ALEGRE, BRAZIL - Mormon Temple
At the dedicatory prayer of the Porto Alegre Brazil Mormon Temple in December 2000, President Gordon B. Hinckley declared the following: "Here we will serve Thee. Here we will be privileged to receive those precious ordinances which are timeless…and which seal us to one another as families, including the generations who have gone before us, all according to Thy plan for the salvation and exaltation of Thy children. May the ordinances revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and administered here in Thy house, become an eternal covenant between Thee and Thy faithful children."1
The Mormon Church first made its presence in Brazil in 1927 with President Stoof and Elder Stoddard investigating the possibility of bringing missionaries to the country. In 1928, they returned with two missionaries, and the first baptism took place in April 1929. However, Mormon missionaries did not begin officially teaching the gospel until 1933. By 1960 there were fewer than 500 members.
During the next fifteen years, the membership of the Church exploded in so much that, President Spencer W. Kimball announced the building of a Mormon Temple in Sao Paulo Brazil. Its completion in 1978 sparked an awakening of the people in Brazil, and the Church membership skyrocketed. With the completion of the Sao Paulo Temple, members took a sincere interest in temple work and renewed their efforts in living the gospel principles, so that hopefully, they would one day have a temple in their midst.
The announcement to build a Mormon Temple in Porto Alegre came in 1997. At the completion of the Temple in 2000, it would be the last Mormon Temple dedicated in the 20th century for the Mormon Church and the third temple in the country of Brazil. At the dedication of the temple President Hinckley remarked on how much joy the Porto Alegre Temple has brought to the members in southern Brazil. "Now, with the faith and determination of the members, the kingdom of God is extending with greater power to bless the lives of the people of Brazil."1
This picturesque Temple overlooks the city from the east toward a large river and port for which the city is named. It sits as a landmark for the citizens of Porto Alegre with its exterior of white granite and single spire reaching towards the beautiful skies of Brazil.
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