Ground has been broken for the Londrina Brazil Temple, one 23 houses of the Lord dedicated, under construction or announced for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the South American nation.
Elder Ciro Schmeil, first counselor in the Brazil Area presidency, presided at the groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 17. He offered remarks to the congregation and a prayer to dedicate the site and construction process.
This will be the second house of the Lord in Brazil’s state of Paraná. Information and photos of the groundbreaking ceremony was published Aug. 19 on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
In his remarks to the local members and leaders in attendance, Elder Schmeil said, “It was the effort, faith and patience of many that allowed us to be here this morning to break ground on the Londrina Brazil Temple.”
In his dedicatory prayer on the site, he asked that the presence of the temple be a blessing to all in the region.
“May all members and nonmembers who reside in this temple district feel Thy love and mercy,” prayed Elder Schmeil, “and thus have the desire to draw closer to Thee through the sacred covenants made in the temples.”
Ground was broken for the Londrina temple the same day as the groundbreakings of the Austin Texas and Santiago West Chile temples.
About the house of the Lord in Londrina
President Russell M. Nelson announced a temple for Londrina on Oct. 2, 2022, during October 2022 general conference. It was one of 18 locations that he identified at the close of the Sunday afternoon session.
Less than two months later, a site for the house of the Lord was released Nov. 28, 2022. Planned as a single-story temple of approximately 32,000 square feet, the Londrina Brazil Temple will be built at Avenida Harry Prochet, S/N, Jardim São Jorge, Londrina.
An exterior rendering for the edifice was released earlier this year, on Jan. 8, along with the rendering of the Ribeirão Preto Brazil Temple.
About Londrina and temples in Brazil
Londrina, the second-largest city in southern Brazil’s state of Paraná, lies about 290 miles (466 kilometers) west of the nearby state’s capital of São Paulo. It was settled in the late 1920s to early 1930s with the arrival of German and Japanese settlers and a British coffee production company. Londrina is built around Lake Igapó, a group of four connected man-made lakes.
Nearly 1.5 million Latter-day Saints in more than 2,170 congregations reside in Brazil, with missionary work for the Church dating back to 1928. The first stake in South America was created in São Paulo in 1966. Twelve years later, the first temple in South America was also dedicated in São Paulo in 1978.
Brazil is home to 23 total temples dedicated, under construction or announced, the most recently dedicated being the Brasília Brazil Temple, dedicated Sept. 17, 2023. The Salvador Brazil Temple, scheduled for an Oct. 20 dedication, will be the Church’s 200th dedicated temple in operation.
Current dedicated and operating temples in Brazil are located in Belém, Brasília, Campinas, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
In addition to the Londrina temple, two other houses of the Lord are under construction in Brazil: Belo Horizonte and Ribeirão Preto.
A total of nine temples are in planning and design stages in Brazil: Florianópolis, Goiânia, João Pessoa, Maceió, Natal, Santos, São Paulo East, Teresina and Vitória.
Londrina is in the Curitiba Brazil Temple district, with the temple a direct distance of about 185 miles (298 kilometers) to the southeast requiring a drive of at least five hours.
