With its April 18 groundbreaking, the Teresina Brazil Temple is now the country’s sixth house of the Lord in its construction phase.
Presiding over the groundbreaking was Elder Ciro Schmeil, a General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the Church’s Brazil Area presidency. Elder Schmeil was born in Ponta Grossa, Brazil.
Once built, this will be the first house of the Lord in the state of Piauí, with Teresina being the capital. News about the groundbreaking was reported April 18 on the Church’s Brazil Newsroom.
Elder Schmeil noted in his remarks that temples are a demonstration of God’s love. “The role of the temple is to connect us with the Savior, Jesus Christ, because without Him we cannot return to live in the presence of our Heavenly Father.”
The temple is a place of learning, he continued, where Latter-day Saints can “find peace, receive divine guidance and strength to overcome the challenges of this life.”
In his dedicatory prayer on the site and construction process, Elder Schmeil expressed gratitude for those who sacrificed so much to make a temple in the city possible.
He added a blessing for the construction workers, that they would have the desire, determination and physical and mental strength to work in the best way possible. Elder Schmeil asked that “the spirit of unity and cooperation may prevail throughout the construction.”
About the Teresina temple and the Church in Brazil
The Teresina temple, as previously announced, will be approximately 25,420 square feet. It will be built on a 3.60-acre site at Avenida Cajuína and Rua Pedro Conde, Noivos, Teresina, Piauí, in northeastern Brazil.
On April 2, 2023, late Church President Russell M. Nelson announced a house of the Lord for Teresina, Brazil. It was one of 15 temple locations he identified at that general conference, alongside a house of the Lord for Natal, Brazil.
Brazil has 24 temples in various stages. Eleven of those have been dedicated: the Belém, Brasília, Campinas, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and São Paulo temples.
With Saturday’s groundbreaking, another six are in their construction phases: the Belo Horizonte, João Pessoa, Londrina, Natal, Ribeirão Preto and Teresina temples. Of note, the Belo Horizonte temple is scheduled for dedication Aug. 16.
That leaves seven in planning stages, for Campo Grande, Florianópolis, Goiânia, Maceió, Santos, São Paulo East 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.
On April 29, 1984, the Teresina Ward was created, and the Teresina Brazil Stake was organized in 1993.
Brazil Newsroom reported that the proposed temple district — covering the states of Piauí and Maranhão — has approximately 18,000 Church members, with more than 30 wards and branches in nine stakes and districts.
Brazil is home to more than 1.5 million Latter-day Saints, meeting in more than 2,000 wards and branches.
