The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
“Members of the Church here are full of love for God — their Father — and Jesus Christ and are willing to serve others in keeping the first and second commandments,” Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said of the Latter-day Saints in Salvador on the day of the dedication of house of the Lord in this Brazilian city.
Elder Andersen was accompanied at the Sunday, Oct. 20, dedication by his wife, Sister Kathy Andersen. Elder Mathias Held, a General Authority Seventy who serves as an assistant executive director in the Temple Department, attended the dedication with his wife, Sister Irene Held. Elder Ciro Schmeil, a General Authority Seventy and new first counselor in the Brazil Area presidency, was joined by his wife, Sister Alessandra Schmeil.
This is Brazil’s 11th dedicated house of the Lord, with another 12 announced or under construction. Elder Andersen also dedicated the last temple to be dedicated in the country — the Brasília Brazil Temple in September 2023. Temples are under construction in Belo Horizonte, Ribeirão Preto and Londrina.
While visiting the temple grounds the day before its dedication, Elder Andersen said that Church members will be endowed with power in the new house of the Lord. He added that “the city will prosper, and all those in [the state of] Bahia will be blessed because the temple is here.”
Sister Andersen spoke about the feelings she experiences in the temple.
“When I come to the temple, I feel peace and the love of Heavenly Father,” she said. “It is a beautiful blessing.”
The temple is also the 199th operating temple of the Church in this dispensation, including eight dedicated temples closed for extensive renovations. The Church’s 200th house of the Lord is scheduled to be dedicated Nov. 10 in Tooele, Utah. The Deseret Peak Utah Temple will be dedicated in a single session at 4 p.m., with a rebroadcast at 7 p.m. for those in the temple district.
Different forms of sacrifice
When Elder and Sister Andersen were first married and living in Florida, they sacrificed to travel to the nearest temple in Atlanta, Georgia. The two attended the dedication of that temple in 1983, more than 40 years ago. In that same year, it took Latter-day Saints in Salvador 36 hours to travel to São Paulo.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.