The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the groundbreaking date for the Brazzaville Republic of the Congo Temple which, upon completion, will become the country’s first dedicated temple.
According to a press release, the temple’s groundbreaking services will be held Saturday, Aug. 23, and Elder Thierry K. Mutombo, a General Authority Seventy and president of the church’s Africa Central Area, will preside at the event.
Along with the temple’s groundbreaking date announcement, the church also released a rendering of the temple’s exterior and a map of the site on July 28.
To be a single-story structure of approximately 10,000 square feet, the Brazzaville temple will be constructed on a 1.5-acre site located at Avenue de la Republique (T-Ville), ex rue de Lamothe 103 et 109, Bacongo, Brazzaville. Also on the site will exist patron housing and arrival facilities for temple guests.
“I plead with you to counter worldly ways by focusing on the eternal blessings of the temple,” Church President Russell M. Nelson told church members just before announcing the Brazzaville temple in April 2022.
“Your time there brings blessings for eternity.”
The Church of Jesus Christ in the Republic of the Congo
The organization of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Republic of the Congo began in the 1980s, when Latter-day Saints who had been baptized abroad began returning to the country and gathering in Brazzaville, according to the release.
When President Russell M. Nelson, then of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the late Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles arrived in 1992 to dedicate the country for the preaching of the gospel, the first district of the church in the Republic of the Congo had already been organized.
Now, the country is home to roughly 14,000 church members in nearly 40 congregations.