On Saturday, Aug. 1, ground was broken for the Santos Brazil Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s now one of six Brazil houses of the Lord in the construction phase.
Elder Ronald M. Barcellos, a General Authority Seventy, presided over the groundbreaking. Aug. 1 also marked when he began his service as a counselor in the Brazil Area presidency. Elder Barcellos was born in São Paulo, Brazil, about a 50-mile drive from Santos.
Also speaking at the ceremony was Elder Claudio R.M. Costa, an emeritus General Authority Seventy who was born in Santos. He concluded his service as a general authority in 2019.
Information and photos of the groundbreaking, which was also livestreamed, were published Aug. 1 on the Church’s Brazil Newsroom.
In his remarks, Elder Barcellos said this house of the Lord will bring “glorious blessings” to thousands. “The construction and dedication of a temple in the city of Santos stand as powerful evidence and an expression of God’s love for His children in this region.”
As local Latter-day Saints attend the temple, they will become more converted disciples of Jesus Christ, he said, with a greater capacity to reflect the Light of Christ to those around them. “For this reason, the construction of a temple blesses not only members of the Church but also the entire surrounding community and society.”
In his dedicatory prayer on the site, Elder Barcellos pleaded with Heavenly Father that His blessings, protection and guidance be present throughout the entire construction process.
“As we dedicate this site, we renew our promise to dedicate and consecrate ourselves — our thoughts, words and actions — even more fully to Thee and to Thy Beloved Son, Jesus Christ.”
Elder Costa referenced the late President Russell M. Nelson’s October 1996 general conference talk, “The Atonement,” which he gave as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. In those remarks, President Nelson said the purposes of the Creation, the Fall and the Atonement all converge on sacred work done in temples through the restored sealing power.
Added Elder Costa: “I have a testimony that this celestial marriage — which I live with my wife — will continue beyond this life. Even if one of us dies first, the other waits for the reunion with our ancestors; it is very special. Families are the center of Christ’s gospel.”
This was the first of six temple groundbreakings in August. It was also the third temple groundbreaking in Brazil this year — following those of the João Pessoa temple on Jan. 24 and the Teresina temple on April 18.
About the Santos temple and Church in Brazil
The Santos temple is planned as a two-story building of approximately 23,000 square feet. It will be built at Avenida Doutor Waldemar Leão, 305, Jabaquara, Santos, in the state of São Paulo.
On April 3, 2022, then-Church President Nelson announced this temple for Santos. It was one of 17 temple locations he identified in that general conference, including another for Brazil, in Maceió.
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.
Home now to more than 1.5 million Latter-day Saints in over 2,000 wards and branches, Brazil has 24 temples in various stages of operation, construction or planning.
The country’s 11 operating temples are the São Paulo (dedicated in 1978), Recife (2000), Porto Alegre (2000), Campinas (2002), Curitiba (2008), Manaus (2012), Fortaleza (2019), Rio de Janeiro (2022), Belém (2022), Brasília (2023) and Salvador (2024) temples.
The Belo Horizonte temple will soon join the list after its Aug. 16 dedication.
The Santos temple is now one of six Brazil houses of the Lord in the construction phase, alongside the Ribeirão Preto (2024), Londrina (2024), Natal (2025), João Pessoa (January 2026) and Teresina (April 2026) temples.
That leaves six temples in planning and design stages, for São Paulo East (announced 2020), Vitória (2021), Maceió (2022), Goiânia (2023), Florianópolis (2024) and Campo Grande (2025).
