Elder Andersen Dedicates the Salvador Brazil Temple

Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the Salvador Brazil Temple, located on the eastern coast of Brazil, on Sunday, October 20, in two sessions.

The name of the city — Salvador — translates in English to “Savior.”

Elder Andersen said the significance of having a temple in a city named for the Savior is less important than having the temple dedicated in a place where “so many wonderful people have the Savior — ‘Salvador’ — written in their hearts.”

“Members of the Church here are full of love for God — their Father — and Jesus Christ and are willing to serve others in keeping the first and second commandments,” Elder Andersen said.

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The Salvador Brazil Temple is the 199th operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the 11th house of the Lord completed in Brazil. Another 12 temples are announced or under construction. Elder Andersen also dedicated the Brasília Brazil Temple in September 2023.

Elder Andersen was accompanied by his wife, Kathy; Elder Mathias Held, General Authority Seventy an assistant executive director in the Temple Department, and his wife, Irene; and Elder Ciro Schmeil, General Authority Seventy and First Counselor in the Brazil Area Presidency, and his wife, Alessandra.

Elder Andersen honored dedicated Latter-day Saints in Salvador who in the past sacrificed to attend the temple in São Paulo.

“We honor those Saints who traveled sometimes 12 hours per day for three days to worship in the temple or rode buses 36 hours straight to serve there,” Elder Andersen said.

“They have dreamed, they have hoped, they have prayed, they have traveled great distances,” Elder Andersen said. “Now, the house of the Lord is closer to 36 minutes away than 36 hours.”

Church News Salvador Brazil Temple dedicatory prayer: A desire ‘to remain faithful and true throughout all our lives’

Preparing for the Second Coming

Elder Andersen referred to faithful people in the scriptures who watched for the signs prophets had taught and promised prior to the Savior’s birth. “They looked, and saw, and could say, ‘He came,’” Elder Andersen said.

The Lord’s current prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, is teaching about those things that will happen and are happening prior to His Second Coming, Elder Andersen said. “In the very same way, we now look, and we will also say, ‘He came.’”

During the October 2024 general conference, President Nelson said that temples are central to helping prepare the world for the Second Coming. “President Nelson has taught that, ‘Every sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find Him in the temple,’ and I know that is true,” Elder Andersen said.

President Nelson first announced the Salvador Brazil Temple in October 2018. The sacred structure is 29,963 square feet in size and sits on 4.6 acres. The ground was broken for the temple on August 7, 2021. A public open house was held August 22 through September 7, 2024.

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Other functioning temples in Brazil include the Belém, Brasília, Campinas, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo temples. The Belo Horizonte and Ribeirão Preto temples are under construction, and the groundbreaking ceremony to begin construction on the Londrina Brazil Temple occurred August 17. Additional temples have been announced and are in the planning stages in Florianópolis, Goiânia, João Pessoa, Maceió, Natal, Santos, São Paulo East, Teresina and Vitória.

Brazil is home to close to 1.5 million Latter-day Saints spread throughout more than 2,100 congregations.

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Read more in this related Church News story ‘A beautiful experience’: Latter-day Saints tell tender stories of faith at the San Pedro Sula Honduras Temple dedication