Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dedicated two new temples on Sunday in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Cleveland, Ohio.
Just four days after his 94th birthday, President Dallin H. Oaks dedicated the Belo Horizonte Brazil Temple — the 220th Latter-day Saint temple.
Also on Sunday, Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the Cleveland Ohio Temple — the church’s 221st temple — in northeastern Ohio.
Belo Horizonte Temple
Before dedicating the Belo Horizonte temple, President Oaks — accompanied by his wife, Sister Kristen M. Oaks — emphasized the Savior and the covenants and ordinance work taking place in the temples worldwide.
“The temple is a house of the Lord, a house built for the sacred work of the Lord God of Israel, our Savior and our Redeemer, to prepare us for exaltation in the celestial kingdom of God,” he said.
Underscoring that “we are living in a glorious season of temple building,” President Oaks listed some of the statistics regarding temples worldwide.
In addition to the church’s 221 dedicated temples, there are 164 temples under construction or in planning, making a total of 385 houses of the Lord worldwide that are dedicated, being built, or announced and in design.
And President Oaks was mindful of 12 additional temples being built in Brazil, a country with more than 1.57 million members and more than 2,000 wards and branches. This will bring the total number of temples in the South American nation to 24.
“We rejoice in the growth and maturity of the restored church in this great nation,” said President Oaks.
The purpose of temples
But more than numbers, President Oaks said he wants Latter-day Saints to remember and act upon the purpose of houses of the Lord.
“Temples are essential to our Heavenly Father’s plan for His children,” he said. “In these houses of the Lord, we are taught the most important things we can learn and do in mortality and in the life that follows.”
Service in temples centers on Jesus Christ, he added. All that is learned and done in temples relates to him, and all who go to the temple participate in his saving work and receiving his blessings.
Sunday’s dedication was the second done by President Oaks — following the Jan. 11 dedication of the Burley Idaho Temple — since being set apart and announced as president of the church on Oct. 14, 2025.
The Belo Horizonte temple dedication served as his first international temple dedication and his first international ministry as church president. But he has been to Belo Horizonte several times before — in ministries, conferences and trainings in past decades as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
In addition to Sunday’s dedication and the day-before walk-through of the temple, President Oaks conducted an interview Saturday afternoon with a reporter from Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão, a São Paulo-based TV network that is the second largest in the country.
Latter-day Saint missionaries began preaching in southern Brazil in 1928. By the time the São Paulo Brazil Temple was dedicated in 1978, membership in the country had reached 54,000.
Cleveland Ohio Temple
The Cleveland Ohio Temple is located about 25 miles southwest of historic Kirtland, Ohio, where early Latter-day Saints built the church’s first temple — the Kirtland Temple. That temple is operated as a historic site and is open for public tours.
In Doctrine and Covenants 110:10, the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery are told in a vision by the Savior in the Kirtland Temple that “the fame of this house shall spread to foreign lands.”
Before dedicating the new temple in Ohio, Elder Bednar said, “Now it comes back home.”
It’s “quite remarkable” to “see the connection between what was said about the worldwide influence of the Kirtland Temple and how now we are dedicating a house of the Lord in Cleveland,” he said in an interview prior to the dedication.
Elder Bednar — accompanied by his wife, Sister Susan Bednar — dedicated the Cleveland Ohio Temple in a single session Sunday morning that was broadcast to church meetinghouses throughout the temple district, comprising four stakes in northeastern Ohio — the Cleveland, Akron, Hiram and Kirtland stakes. It was rebroadcast later in the afternoon.
‘Intersection between heaven and earth’
It is in a dedicated house of the Lord where “we receive the sacred ordinances of the priesthood and can have access to the power of godliness in our lives,” Elder Bednar said, referring to Doctrine and Covenants 84:20.
“The opportunity to live closer to a house of the Lord, more frequently participate in the ordinances and be reminded of the covenants create a channel through which the power of godliness can come into our lives,” he said. “I cannot imagine a more important blessing than having greater access to the power of godliness through the ordinances of the temple.”
In many parts of the world and in the church’s history, Latter-day Saints have had to make significant sacrifices to attend the temple — with some only able to attend once in their lifetimes. As temples continue to be built around the world, those sacred structures are closer to the church members than ever before.
Now, once a temple is dedicated, “we have to be intentional and not let the ease of proximity become a barrier to receiving the blessings that we need in our lives,” he said.
Belo Horizonte temple facts
Address: Rua Professor José Vieira de Mendonça, 1485 — Engenho Nogueira, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais 31310-260
Announced: April 4, 2021, by President Russell M. Nelson
Groundbreaking: June 17, 2023, presided over by Elder Juan A. Uceda, a General Authority Seventy
Public open house: June 13-27, 2026, excluding Sundays
Dedicated: Aug. 16, 2026, by President Dallin H. Oaks, President of the Church
Property size: 2.44 hectares (6.03 acres)
Building size: 2,665 square meters (28,685 square feet)
Building height: 19 meters (62 feet) to the top of the tower
Cleveland temple facts
Address: 5997 Brecksville Road, Independence, Ohio 44131
Announced: April 3, 2022, by President Russell M. Nelson
Groundbreaking: June 1, 2024, presided over by Elder Vaiangina Sikahema, a General Authority Seventy
Public open house: June 18 through July 3, 2026, excluding Sundays
Dedicated: Aug. 16, 2026, by Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Property size: 11.04 acres
Building size: 9,950 square feet
Building height: 100 feet (including the spire)
Temple district: 4 stakes in northeastern Ohio
For more information and articles about the Belo Horizonte Brazil Temple and the Cleveland Ohio Temple or to find other Latter-day Saint temple news visit TheChurchNews.com.