The LDS Church was forced to expand missionary work to Brazilians and Portuguese speakers when non-Portuguese languages were banned in public meetings in 1938.

During Howells's second presidency in the early 1950s, he instituted programs to genealogically screen Brazilians interested in the LDS Church or its members in Brazil.

In 1965, church president David O. McKay changed the policy in Brazil, requiring that all men be assumed qualified to receive the priesthood unless there was obvious evidence showing otherwise.

[13][14] The Zapfs met Augusta Kuhlmann Lippelt and her family, other LDS Church members who emigrated from Germany.

[13] Missionaries arrived in 1928, but due to the priesthood restriction, they were instructed to only work with German people living in the southern part of the country.

[18]: 333  At the time, the Brazilian Mission covered what is now modern Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.

[20]: 41 John Alden Bowers became mission president in 1938, and he oversaw the translation of missionary pamphlets and the Book of Mormon into Portuguese.

[17][21] Howells asked Mário Pedroso, a Brazilian native, to work on a translation of the Book of Mormon into Portuguese.

[18]: 369  On his way to Brazil, Howells stopped in Washington D.C. and met the Brazilian Ambassador to the United States, Maurício Nabuco.

Two of the governors of Brazil helped him register the LDS Church with the Brazilian government, as well as achieving tax exemption status.

[20]: 42 During the 1950s, in some areas in Brazil, up to 80% of the population was thought to have African ancestry, however this was difficult to prove due to inadequate recorded evidence.

Sometimes presentations urged members to avoid interracial marriage, but there was a lack of information about the church's policies and reasons behind them.

[16]: 30  In 1965, McKay changed policies in Brazil that required all male converts in to be assumed qualified to receive the priesthood unless there was hard evidence otherwise.

[17] William Grant Bangerter, president of the northern Brazil mission, sent missionaries into areas that were previously avoided due to race.

[26] Kimball had spent a lot of time visiting Brazil since 1959, and his experiences there made him aware of the doctrinal, administrative, and personal consequences related to priesthood restrictions.

[16]: 30–31  Starting in the 70s "lineage lessons" were added to determine that interested persons didn't have any Sub-Saharan African ancestry and thus deemed eligible for teaching.

[20]: 47  Furthermore, Brazil was so racially mixed, it would be difficult to determine the eligibility of members to enter the temple without chance of error.

[20]: 48  In March 1978, a change of policies allowed black males as a junior companion in home teaching, a position previously restricted to priesthood holders.

[31]: 298  After the 1978 Revelation on Priesthood, Marcus Martins, from Brazil, became the first missionary of African descent to be called after the announcement, postponing his marriage to serve his mission.

[15] On March 31, 1990, Brazilian native, Helvécio Martins, father of Marcus, became the LDS Church's first general authority of African descent.

[14] In 2002, the São Paulo Brazil Temple was closed and renovated; one of the most prominent additions was the gold angel Moroni statue on top of the spire.

[13] On March 31, 2018, Ulisses Soares, from São Paulo, became the first Latin American called as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

[36] One challenge to LDS missionary work in Brazil is related to the strong ties between Brazilian culture and Catholicism.

In Brazil, Catholicism is greatly tied to being Brazilian, meaning that changing religions is seen as rejecting family, history, and country.

For example, from 2000 to 2002, the LDS Church in Brazil had 66,000 baptisms, yet lost 190 congregations due to consolidation, representing the challenge that missionaries face in retaining Latin American converts.

[39] Additionally, in the 2000 census, 199,645 Brazilian residents identified with the LDS Church, whereas there were 700,000 people that had been baptized and listed in its membership rolls.

[40] As of October 2018, the LDS Church reported 1,383,799 members, 34 missions, 354 family history centers, 268 stakes, 2,089 congregations with 1,651 wards and 438 branches, and 6 functioning temples.