President of Portugal Visits the Lisbon Portugal Temple Open House
Contributed By Spencer Williams, Church News staff writer
The president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, accompanied by several Church leaders, tours the Lisbon Portugal Temple grounds on August 29, 2019.
Article Highlights
- The president of Portugal toured the Lisbon temple and received a gift of his family history.
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The president of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, toured the Lisbon Portugal Temple on August 29 during the temple open house.
The president also received as a gift his documented family history from Elder José A. Teixeira of the Presidency of the Seventy at the occasion—a framed four-generation chart and a book of his ancestry.
“My grandfather went to Brazil when he was very young,” Rebelo de Sousa said in a Newsroom release. “Then he went to Angola. He became a very well-known trader. These kinds of stories are so important. And I know that your Church is very much pro family, as I am. [The family] is the foundation of society.”
Rebelo de Sousa was also joined in his tour of the temple by Elder Gary B. Sabin, a General Authority Seventy and President of the Church’s Europe Area, and Elder Joaquim Moreira, an Area Seventy responsible for the temple open house.
In addition to the building’s 49-foot height, the temple has a 134-foot gold-leafed spire with a statue of the angel Moroni on top, according to a Church News article. With gold, blue, ocher, and lavender colors featured inside the temple, the exterior is made of Portuguese Moleanos limestone. The exterior and interior glass has been carved in traditional Portuguese patterns and highlighted with gold leaf.
Elder Gary B. Sabin, President of the Europe Area of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gives a replica of the Christus statue to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, president of Portugal, during his visit to the Lisbon Portugal Temple.
“I want people to come and see the temple,” Elder Teixeira said. “More than just being beautiful, it’s full of meaning, full of meaning for life and what life means to us as families. What we’re doing in the temple is not secret, it is special and sacred.”
The temple was announced by President Thomas S. Monson, who also dedicated Portugal for the preaching of the gospel in 1947, during the October 2010 general conference. Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will dedicate the temple on September 15, making it the Church’s 166th temple in operation worldwide.
Read the full release on Newsroom.
Just before entering the Lisbon Portugal Temple for a guided tour, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, president of Portugal, stops for a photo with the youth that help with the Lisbon Portugal Temple public open house.
The president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, is greeted by Elder José A. Teixeira of the Presidency of the Seventy; Elder Gary B. Sabin, President of the Europe Area of the Church; and Elder Joaquim Moreira, an Area Seventy, upon his arrival at the Lisbon Portugal Temple complex on August 29, 2019.
The president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, along with several Church leaders, greets members and visitors on the Lisbon Portugal Temple grounds on August 29, 2019.
The president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, speaks to Church members and leaders at the meetinghouse of the Lisbon Portugal temple complex.
The president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, poses with missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in front of the Lisbon Portugal Temple.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who is the president of Portugal, and Church leaders address the media gathered in front of the Lisbon Portugal Temple on August 29, 2019.
