Three temple dedication dates have been announced — two in Central America and one in South America — by the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Open houses have also been announced for the three houses of the Lord: the Belo Horizonte Brazil Temple, Miraflores Guatemala City Guatemala Temple and Managua Nicaragua Temple.
All three will feature a 10 a.m. dedicatory session, broadcast to all units in the temple district and rebroadcast at 2 p.m.
First published April 13 on ChurchofJesusChrist.org, the dates are the following:
Dedication, open house dates
Belo Horizonte Brazil: The Belo Horizonte temple will be dedicated Aug. 16, with the presiding authority to be announced later.
An open house is planned for June 13 to June 27, excluding Sundays, following a June 10 media day and June 11-12 tours for invited guests.
Miraflores Guatemala: The Miraflores Guatemala City temple will be dedicated Oct. 11 by Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
The public is invited to tour the sacred edifice Aug. 27 to Sept. 12, excluding Sundays. A media day will also be held Aug. 24, and invited guests will be welcomed Aug. 25-26.
Managua Nicaragua: The Managua temple will be dedicated Oct. 18 by Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
The month before, a public open house will run Sept. 10 to Sept. 26, excluding Sundays. This temple’s media day is scheduled for Sept. 7, with invited-guest tours to be held Sept. 8-9.
Read more below about the history of these temples and the Church in Brazil, Guatemala and Nicaragua.
The Church in Brazil
On April 4, 2021, then-Church President Russell M. Nelson announced a house of the Lord for Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
On June 17, 2023, Elder Juan A. Uceda — then a General Authority Seventy and second counselor in the Church’s Brazil Area presidency — presided over the temple’s groundbreaking. “May the light of the gospel shine throughout this region,” he said when dedicating the site.
Brazil has 24 temples in various stages. Eleven have been dedicated: the Belém, Brasília, Campinas, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and São Paulo temples.
Another five are in their construction phase: the Belo Horizonte, João Pessoa, Londrina, Natal and Ribeirão Preto temples.
That leaves eight in planning stages, for Campo Grande, Florianópolis, Goiânia, Maceió, Santos, São Paulo East, Teresina and Vitória.
Latter-day Saint missionaries began preaching in southern Brazil in 1928. By the time the São Paulo Brazil Temple — the first in South America — was dedicated in 1978, membership in the country had reached 54,000.
Today, Brazil is home to more than 1.5 million Latter-day Saints, meeting in more than 2,000 wards and branches.
The Church in Guatemala
On Oct. 4, 2020, President Nelson announced a temple for the greater Guatemala City area, later renamed the Miraflores Guatemala City Guatemala Temple.
Ground was broken for this house of the Lord on Dec. 3, 2022, with Elder Patricio M. Giuffra presiding and offering the dedicatory prayer on the site.
“May the neighbors and all who pass by this sacred ground feel the influence of Thy Spirit flowing from this place so that they have the desire to know about this sacred edifice,” prayed Elder Giuffra, a General Authority Seventy and then second counselor in the Central America Area presidency.
Three temples are operating in Guatemala: in Guatemala City, Quetzaltenango and Cobán. Another two are under construction — the Miraflores Guatemala City and Huehuetenango temples — and a final is in planning stages in Retalhuleu.
The first Latter-day Saint missionaries arrived in Guatemala in 1947. Not many years later, the Central American Mission was created in 1952, with headquarters in Guatemala City.
More than 297,000 members of the Church now live in Guatemala, across nearly 440 wards and branches.
The Church in Nicaragua
President Nelson announced a house of the Lord for Managua, Nicaragua, on April 1, 2018, during his first general conference as President of the Church.
On Nov. 26, 2022, Elder Taylor G. Godoy — a General Authority Seventy and then first counselor in the Central America Area presidency — presided over the temple’s groundbreaking ceremony.
In his dedicatory prayer on the site, Elder Godoy said, “Bless the members of the Church in this wonderful country so that at the same time that the temple is built, they can build and strengthen their testimonies of the Savior, Jesus Christ, with the resolution to be His disciples forever.”
Managua’s temple will be the first house of the Lord in Nicaragua, currently the only one that’s been announced for the country.
Missionary work first began in Nicaragua in December 1953, and its first branch — the Managua Branch — was created in November 1954. The Nicaraguan District was organized in 1959, and the Managua Stake was organized in March 1981.
When the Nicaragua Managua Mission was created in October 1989, Church membership in the country was 3,453.
Around 107,000 Latter-day Saints now live in Nicaragua, in just over 100 wards and branches.
