Porto Alegre Brazil Temple Wiki

Description

Porto Alegre, which means “happy port” in Portuguese, lies on the eastern edge of an enormous freshwater lagoon formed by the convergence of five rivers. The temple has a view of one of these rivers and of the port. Porto Alegre, founded in 1769, is the capital and largest city of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state in Brazil. The city, most of whose 1.5 million residents are of European descent, received an influx of German, Polish and Italian immigrants in the late 1800s.

History

The 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, Latter-day Saints 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 in Brazil grew rapidly enough that President Spencer W. Kimball announced the building of a temple in São Paulo Brazil. The temple’s completion in 1978 sparked an awakening of the people in Brazil, and Church membership skyrocketed.

Announcement

On October 4, 1997, Church President Gordon B. Hinckley announced that a temple would be built in the city.

Groundbreaking

The Porto Alegre Brazil Temple is the third temple to be dedicated in the nation of Brazil. The temple’s location overlooks the city from the east toward a large river and port for which the city is named.

President Faust turned the ceremonial first shovelful of earth during the groundbreaking ceremony. After, he invited a young girl and boy to come help him with the digging. They not only came forward and assisted him, but the little girl also waited for him the next day at the Campinas regional conference to give him a hug of appreciation.

He emphasized the need to sacrifice for temple building and shared how members in Argentina found ways to donate during the construction of the São Paulo Brazil Temple. They gave the gold from their dental work to help pay for the temple. He said that he had purchased some of the gold fillings for more than the market price to share with congregations the nature of the sacrifice made by these members.^[1]Church News, 9 May 1998.

More than 3,500 people attended the groundbreaking ceremony and site dedication. President Faust, who had served a mission in Brazil as a young man, counseled those present to live worthily and to be ready to enter the temple when it was built. Temple worship is an important part of religious life for members of the Church, and members are expected to live according to certain standards of the faith before they enter one of these sacred structures.

Temple construction began on May 2, 1998.

Open House

Before this beautiful house of worship was dedicated, visitors were welcomed to tour the temple in a public open house, held from December 2 to December 8, 2000. More than 25,000 people came to see the new building. Yatyr Moreira Cesar, a local Church official, said of the open house, “The neighbors love the temple. Many came to the open house, expressing their gratitude and pleasure that this extraordinary edifice is part of their community.”^[2]1 Nestor Curbelo, “‘Glorious Event’ Completes Historic Year of Temples,” Church News, Dec. 23, 2000, http://www.ldschurchnewsarchive.com/articles/39082/Glorious-event-completes-historic-year-of-temples.html.

Cornerstone Ceremony

On December 17, 2000, Presidents Hinckley and Faust participated in the cornerstone ceremony that officially completed the temple while a youth choir sang.

Dedication

The temple was then dedicated in four sessions attended by 7,590 members of the Church. As he dedicated the building, President Hinckley prayed, “Help us to walk in Thy paths, to be found always as true disciples of Thy Beloved Son, even our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”^[3]Porto Alegre Brazil Temple dedicatory prayer, in Church News, Dec. 23, 2000, http://www.ldschurchnewsarchive.com/articles/39094/PORTO-ALEGRE-BRAZIL-This-temple-constructed-in-our-midst.html.

Dedication Order

The Porto Alegre Brazil Temple was the third temple built in Brazil. The Porto Alegre Brazil Temple is the 102nd operating temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Porto Alegre Temple was the last temple of the LDS Church to be dedicated in the 20th century. It was the last of 34 temples dedicated in the year 2000.

Presidents and Matrons

Temple President	Temple Matron	Years Served
Pedro Alberto Machado Da Silva	Clara Rosane Rodrigues Da Silva	2021–2021
João Roberto Grahl	Jussara Mara da Costa Grahl	2018–2021
Aldo Francesconi	Francily Parronchi Francesconi	2015–2018
John Merrill Warthen	Janice Kay Johnson Warthen	2012–2015
Lennis Morland Knighton	Peggy Lee Thayne Knighton	2009–2012
Pedro Brassanini	Betty Carol Norris Brassanini	2006–2009
Walter Guedes de Queiroz	Neide Satico Ito de Queiroz	2003–2006
Lynn Andrew Sorensen	Sara Broadbent Paulsen Sorensen	2000–2003

Details

Location

The temple sits on a hill in Porto Alegre ‘s Vila Jardim district. It overlooks the city from the east toward a large river and port for which the city is named. The two-acre grounds also include pathways lined with flowers, manicured bushes and palm trees.

Exterior

The exterior of the temple was constructed from cotton-white granite from Ceará, a state on the northeastern coast of Brazil. A single spire reaches heavenward, topped by a gold-leafed statue of the angel Moroni, a prophet from the Book of Mormon.

Interior

The temple has a total of 10,700 square feet (990 m ² ), two ordinance rooms, and two sealing rooms.

At 10,700 square feet, the Porto Alegre Brazil Temple uses one of the smallest floor plans created for Mormon temples. It was built during a period in which the Church was building many smaller temples throughout the world to make them more accessible to its members.