SALT LAKE CITY —; The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced plans to construct new temples in Curitiba, Brazil, and Panama City, Panama. Local leaders of the Church in Panama and Brazil received letters from the First Presidency announcing the two new temples. Local leaders are sharing the news with Church members.
The Curitiba Brazil Temple will serve more than 42,000 Latter-day Saints in a temple district that will include 21 stakes from the Brazilian states of Parana and Santa Catarina. Nine stakes are located in the Curitiba metropolitan area. This will be the fifth Latter-day Saint temple in Brazil. Four temples have been dedicated in Sao Paulo, Campinas, Porto Alegre and Recife.
Members of the Church in Panama enthusiastically welcomed the news of the first temple to be built in their country. The Panama City Panama Temple will serve approximately 22,200 Latter-day Saints in the seven stakes and three districts of the Church in Panama.
Specific locations and groundbreaking dates for the two temples are yet to be announced.
Once construction is complete, the public will be invited to tour the temples during an open house. Each temple will be formally dedicated following the open house period.
For more than 11 million Latter-day Saints worldwide, temples are considered "houses of the Lord" where Christ's teachings are reaffirmed through marriage, baptism and other sacred ordinances that unite families for eternity.
Currently, there are 114 operating temples around the world. Earlier this month, President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated a new temple in The Hague, Netherlands, and he rededicated the Freiberg Germany Temple following substantial remodeling and expansion.