Eyewitness Account of the Campinas Brazil Temple Dedication
by Geoffrey Biddulph

When the Campinas, Brazil temple was dedicated on May 17, I was there in the Celestial Room. This article will describe some details of the event and also try to answer the question: why were we all blubbering like babies?

President Gordon Hinckley and President James Faust were there for the temple dedication, the fourth opening of a temple in Brazil. Several thousands of Latter-day Saints from Brazil attended, and tens of thousands of people toured the facility before it was dedicated.


Campinas Brazil Temple Early AM
All Photos used Permission of Intellectual Reserve
Copyright 2002 Intellectual Reserve

The temple itself is truly an impressive structure, white and gleaming on a rise overlooking Campinas. The edifice is visible from most parts of the city and is especially impressive when it is lit up at night. Everybody in Campinas knows where it is and all the non-members I talked to were proud that it was built in their city and impressed with the materials with which it was constructed. I talked to one prominent businessman in town who has built several huge structures and he could not contain his awe at the quality of the building and the effort involved in its manufacture.

Campinas is an especially propitious site for the new temple: it is a growing business-oriented city of about 1 million people 60 miles from Sao Paulo, the biggest city in Brazil. Church members are especially active in the Campinas area and are certain to keep the temple filled.


Campinas Brazil Temple in Day Light

The dedicatory ceremony started with the laying of the cornerstone. President Hinckley, dressed in a white suit, asked several people, including some children in the audience, to help him place the “mud” (cement) around the cornerstone while a translator relayed his comments in Portuguese to the observing multitude. A nicely arrayed choir sang a few hymns in Portuguese.

It was when the prophet first left the temple that I noticed the crying phenomenon. He and a dozen other people in white suits walked out of the temple toward the cornerstone, and a hush came over the crowd. I looked around me and saw tears on the faces of several people, and I was surprised to find myself getting teary-eyed as well.


Campinas Brazil Temple Entry and Foyer

I was struck by the magnitude of the event. I had read many times about the Kirtland temple dedication and the miracles described by people who had participated. It suddenly hit me that I was participating in a similar history-making occurrence.

But there was something more at work here than a simple recognition of being part of an important event. There was a special force and emotion that is difficult to describe but as prevalent as a thick fog.


Campinas Brazil Temple Ordinance Room

This spirit followed us into the Celestial Room, where we went for the second session. The event was about an hour-and-a-half with talks by the new temple president, his wife, President Faust and his grandson and several hymns by a marvelous choir. There were perhaps 60 of us in the Celestial Room, including many mission presidents and their wives and general authorities from Brazil. The event was filmed and relayed to other rooms in the temple where several hundred other people watched.


Campinas Brazil Temple Celestial Room

As soon as President Hinckley walked into the room, the choir director started weeping. A huge man sitting in front of me kept on wiping tears from his face, and his teenage son to his right had eyes that were red and shiny. The man who was translating for President Hinckley had a trembling chin and a voice that cracked as he tried to perform his job while being overwhelmed by the spirit in the room.

The climax of the event was a short talk by President Hinckley, the Hosanna shout and the singing of “The Spirit of God” in Portuguese. The prophet started the talk by challenging those of us who are converts to the church to recognize how much our lives had been enriched and improved since our baptisms. In Brazil, the vast majority are converts, and this certainly hit home for them.

I found myself thinking about the strange road that had led me from religious skeptic to firm believer in the space of four years. I thought of all of the miracles that had taken place so that I could humble myself enough to ask for direction from a Creator I had not really known existed. I thought about how, by all standards, my life is immeasurably better now than it was four years before: I am a nicer person, I am more successful in my job, I am a better father and husband, I have a lot more patience. In addition, I have blessings of health and better relationships with my family and friends. I have found a new level of joy I never would have thought possible.

It hit me that four years ago I would have found completely absurd the idea of attending such an event as a temple dedication. In those days, sporting events and a trip to the local bar were certainly much more pressing.

The truth of President Hinckley’s statement hit me like a strong wave. It suddenly was clear to me that his words were coming directly from a higher source, a source that knows me well and had observed my progress. And it was clear to me that this source was immensely pleased with the course I have taken with my life.

As if he were reading my mind, the prophet commented on what a marvelous thing it was that we get down on our knees to pray to God on a daily basis. He said God is so pleased that we do this. It is difficult to describe the sudden certainty that I had that these words were coming directly from our creator.


Campinas Brazil Temple Sealing Room

The prophet reminded his audience of the importance of temple marriages. He pointed to his wife and said with an uncommon surety that he knows they will live together forever because they were married in the temple. He challenged those of us in the audience who had not yet done so to be sealed to our spouses eternally.

The prophet then led us in the Hosanna Shout, and the choir sang “The Spirit of God.” The room filled with the sound of people singing, a rising, immense chorus that filled us and lifted us up. The sound felt as loud as an airplane engine. I looked around and noticed that many people, myself included, were crying too much to sing. Who was filling that chamber with so much noise? I don’t know. I do know that there was not a dry eye in the house.

What are we to make of a man who brings people to tears just by entering a room? I found myself wondering whether the prophet causes people to weep when he goes shopping for Christmas presents at a mall in Salt Lake City, but my instincts tell me that there was something special about this particular event that caused the spirit to infuse us all with euphoria and a sense of our greater purpose.

I have met well-known actors and presidents of countries, business leaders of incredible charisma and charm. President Hinckley certainly has some of that presence, but there is something greater at work here.

Skeptics will say that all of us had built ourselves up to such a state of anticipation that we were overcome by a natural feeling of emotion upon seeing the great man we admire so much. The skeptics will point out that entire audiences are often driven to frenzies of passion by rock stars and silver-tongued evangelists.


Campinas Brazil Temple Exterior Entrance by Night

In my particular case, I think I am pretty much immune to being manipulated by what the world considers “celebrity.” I have met enough well known people to have something of a jaundiced view about their special properties. And while I have heard only good things about the prophet, my feelings of awe have much more to do with the God he represents than the man himself. I have to admit that before I went to the temple dedication my primary feeling was that I was fulfilling an obligation, not completing a growing desire to be near a living prophet.

So, how do I explain the fact that I was reduced to a puddle of tears at the temple dedication? How do I account for the feeling of complete elation I felt for days afterwards? How can I begin to understand the forces that still cause me to tear up as I think about the Spirit at work in that room?

I think the history of the church holds many of those answers. What would cause thousands of sober upright citizens to leave their farms, businesses and jobs and follow an uneducated man across frontier America in the 1830s and 1840s? What would cause them to sacrifice all of their time and energy and money to build the Nauvoo Temple, the biggest and most magnificent structure along the western frontier in the 1840s? What would cause them to stick with the church when mobs raged? They could have had peace simply by renouncing their beliefs, but most did not. Why?


Campinas Brazil Temple by Night

I believe they must have felt something similar to what I felt as I sat four rows away from a living prophet during a temple dedication. They must have felt they were part of something much bigger than themselves and that once they had a taste of the sweetness of that movement, they could never turn back, no matter what. That is what kept them from abandoning the barren Salt Lake Valley for the riches of the California gold fields. That is what kept them focused on doing what was right.

So, take it from a former skeptic who is unyieldingly wary of being manipulated: there are greater forces at work here. They are especially present during temple dedications. I have seen it with my own eyes.

 

2002Meridian Magazine.  All Rights Reserved.