Mormon Temples

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL - Mormon Temple

          
In 1975 at an area conference in Brazil, then President of the Mormon Church, Spencer W. Kimball, announced that a Temple would be built in Sao Paulo. The members rejoiced and weep; but above all they were ready to sacrifice, work, and prepare for the Mormon Temple in their midst.

Since part of the cost of the building of the Temple is borne by the general membership of the Mormon Church, South American members were given an assignment to earn money towards the Temple fund, in addition to paying tithes and offerings. Each ward or branch was assigned an amount of money to raise. ‘The members were given a dollar quota, not a peso quota, which meant that despite inflation of the peso, they paid a standard amount converted to the United States dollar. South American inflation [in 1974] ranged from forty percent in one country to 600 percent in another.’1 Many of the members did not have money to contribute to the temple fund.  Members offering their wedding rings, bracelets, gold medals, diamond rings, graduation rings and other objects of gold, silver and precious stones.2 The principal amount was raised in Brazil to build the Temple, and each ward that was assigned an amount of money, either met or surpassed the goal.
           
Twelve months after the announcement of the temple, construction began. Hundreds of members gathered to clear the site, which included removing brush, weeds, and banana trees. Sacrifice continued with eight hundred members donating their time to produce fifty thousand blocks of cast stone composed of quartz, marble chips, and white concrete for the exterior of the Temple.
           
The Sao Paulo Temple was the first Mormon Temple to be built in South America. At the time of Temple’s dedication in November 1978, there were more than 242,000 members of the Church living there, with 54,000 in Brazil. There are now [2006] a total of thirteen Mormon Temples in South America.
           
Twenty-five years after the opening of the Temple, a gold-leafed statue of the angel Moroni was added to the Temple during an extensive renovation project, after which President Gordon B. Hinckley rededicated the Temple. "…We are so deeply grateful for this Thy Temple…how glorious is Thy work, how wondrous Thy ‘great plan of happiness’, as revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Under this plan we lived with Thee in a pre-mortal state. Thou hast given us the opportunity of mortality where we may prove our faithfulness. Death is a part of this divine plan, not to be feared, but to be regarded as a forward step on our immortal journey to everlasting life again in Thy presence,"3 stated President Hinckley on the dedicatory prayer.

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Mormon Temples