The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced a groundbreaking date for the Brazzaville Republic of the Congo Temple, to be the country’s first house of the Lord.
Elder Thierry K. Mutombo, a General Authority Seventy, will preside over the Aug. 23 groundbreaking. Currently the Africa Central Area president, he was born in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Ground will be broken the same day as the groundbreakings of the Vancouver Washington and Tampa Florida temples.
An exterior rendering and site map were also released with the groundbreaking information on ChurchofJesusChrist.org on July 28.
Planned as a one-story building of approximately 10,000 square feet, the Brazzaville temple will be built on Avenue de la Republique (T-Ville), ex rue de Lamothe 103 et 109, Bacongo, Brazzaville.
Patron housing and arrival facilities will also be built on the 1.5-acre site. The Republic of the Congo is located on the equator, in west-central Africa.
The closest temple to Brazzaville is currently the Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple, a distance of approximately 3 miles away across the Congo River. The trip must be done by boat and is expensive for many members.
The country’s first branch, the Makelekele Branch, was organized in Brazzaville on June 9, 1991. The government of the Republic of the Congo granted legal recognition to the Church just months later, on Dec. 23, 1991.
On Aug. 24, 1992, Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was the first general authority to visit the Republic of the Congo.
The Brazzaville Republic of the Congo Stake was created a decade later on Oct. 19, 2003. Jean Patrice Milembolo, the stake’s first president, had also been the first Makelekele Branch president.
Today, almost 14,000 Latter-day Saints reside in nearly 40 congregations in the Republic of the Congo.
