Temple Announcement

Now, we have a new and wonderful announcement to make to you and the people of South America.

Yesterday afternoon we met some of the stake presidents, mission presidents, and others of the leaders of this people of South America. We presented to them the possibility of building a temple in South America. We are very happy to announce to you and all the world that, subject to the conditions that exist and your total cooperation, we will build the seventeenth temple of the Lord in this country of South America, and it will be located in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

We know you will be very happy with this. It will mean that instead of going to North America for your temple endowments, for your sacred marriages, and for all the important things for your families you can come to Sao Paulo.

Some of the prophets of years gone by have said that there would be many, many temples in the world. There are billions of people who have lived on the earth, most of whom have never heard the name of Jesus Christ, most of whom have never heard the true gospel, most of whom have never heard of the temple program. So it will be possible, after we have completed this temple here in this city, that the young people of South America may come here for their temple marriages, and new converts of the Church may bring their families for their sealing work.

This will mean a great deal of cooperation on the part of the people. It will be necessary that the people of South America raise some part of the money that it will take to build this temple. Your proportion will be somewhere near the amount that you have given in the building of your chapels, and we hope that every boy and girl, every youth of the Church, every family will begin to save their money and present it to the local committees who will transmit it to the general committee and the building of the temple, we hope, will move forward. This notice will be given to the newspapers and will be published all over the world at noon today. We do not expect you will tell very many people outside until after this meeting, but the whole world will be very happy to learn that the date has come when a temple can be built in this country.

On Tuesday we met in the Brigham Young University at Provo. There we met with several hundred South American students. They were from Brazil, and from Argentina, and other places in South America. They all wanted to be remembered to you. And they asked us, "Then, are you going to announce a temple for South America?" We could not answer them because it was not ready to be given out to the public. But I did say to them, "There is no reason why you couldn't still hope and even pray for it."

We are indebted to many individuals and committees who have spent long hours in preparing for this conference. It is not possible for us to name everyone who has participated in the planning, but we convey to each and every one of you and to all who have helped and supported this conference, our deep appreciation. We should like to especially mention the work of Brother Antonio de Camargo, Regional Representative of the Twelve, who has served as a general representative and general coordinator in arranging for the many details of this conference and for this magnificent building. We express a sincere thanks for the hand of fellowship which has been extended to us by the faithful leaders and members residing in this area.