Construction of the João Pessoa Brazil Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will begin with a groundbreaking ceremony held Saturday, Jan. 24, according to a recent announcement from the church’s First Presidency.
Presiding over this groundbreaking ceremony will be Elder Joni L. Koch, president of the church’s Brazil Area. And as it now stands, the João Pessoa temple, alongside the Jacksonville Florida Temple — which is set to break ground the same day, will be the first two temples to break ground in 2026.
“The temple is a place of revelation,” said the late church President Russell M. Nelson, just prior to announcing the João Pessoa temple and 19 others in October 2023.
“There you are shown how to progress toward a celestial life,” he taught. “There you are drawn closer to the Savior and given greater access to his power. There you are guided in solving the problems in your life, even your most perplexing problems.”
The João Pessoa Brazil Temple is one of 24 temples that are currently in operation, under construction, or in planning and design stages in Brazil.
As the 22nd of these temples announced, the João Pessoa temple will help serve the more than 1.5 million Latter-day Saints in around 2,100 congregations that call Brazil home.
It will have an area of approximately 18,850 square feet and will be built on a 3.9-acre site in the Cabo Branco neighborhood of João Pessoa, a port city located about a half a mile away from the Atlantic Ocean.
Once built and dedicated, the João Pessoa temple will join the church’s 11 other operating temples in Brazil. These include the São Paulo, Recife, Porto Alegre, Campinas, Curitiba, Manaus, Fortaleza, Rio de Janeiro, Belém, Brasília and Salvador temples.
