MANAUS, Brazil — The open house for the new Manaus Brazil Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints begins this week, with a special media tour on Wednesday and two weeks of tours for the general public beginning on Saturday.
The open house will continue daily, except Sundays, through Saturday, June 2. No tickets are required for the open house.
The temple is located near the banks of the Rio Negro, about 11 miles north of its confluence with the Amazon River. It will be formally dedicated on Sunday, June 10, during three dedicatory sessions that will be broadcast to LDS congregations within the temple district.
The evening before the dedication, Brazilian culture will be celebrated through music and dance during a special performance presented by LDS Church members from around northern Brazil. The cultural celebration will also be broadcast to area congregations.
The new temple in Manaus is Brazil's sixth, joining similar sacred structures in Campinas, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Recife and Sao Paulo. A seventh temple, in Fortaleza, Brazil, is scheduled for completion in 2014.
Once the new temple is dedicated, it will no longer be open to the public, but will be available to members of the LDS Church who are recommended by their local ecclesiastical leaders to perform special religious rites and sacraments that they believe will endure throughout eternity. Included among those sacraments are marriage and proxy baptism for the dead.