Judging by the numbers, Mexico is a bastion of Church activity. The nation's 12 temples are more than every other country save the United States, and more than one million Latter-day Saints call Mexico home.
And yet, being an active Mormon in Mexico is no easy affair. Every day the faithful members of the Church have no choice but to navigate a treacherous social climate where menacing drug cartels brazenly intimidate law-abiding citizens via kidnappings and murders.
With the salvation of their souls and the fate of their families at stake, Latter-day Saints in Mexico are rededicating themselves to the Lord — and with great effect.
Spurred on by a challenge from their Area Presidency, Mexican members of the Church are attending and serving in the temple more often and increasing their focus on Book of Mormon study.
'One sure source'
On last Oct. 12, the Mexico Area Presidency sent a letter to local leaders for the purpose of subsequent dissemination to all members. It reads: "We are living in the dangerous times foretold by the prophets of old. Every day we face temptations and situations that put in danger our spiritual as well as our physical and financial well-being. We hear of, see and on occasions are victims of violence, robberies, assaults, abductions, extortions and threats. …
"All of this causes us anguish and concern. We desire to have security, peace and protection for ourselves and our families. We are aware that any government, or man or group of men cannot provide what we seek. They do not have the power to give what we seek. There is only one sure source of what we are seeking and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. He has the power and also the desire to grant what we are yearning to have."
Six simple steps
Attached to the letter is a two-page document outlining six specific steps the Mexican saints may take to invoke the Lord's choice blessings: increased temple attendance; reading and finishing the Book of Mormon by April-2010 general conference; more fervent prayer, both as individuals and families; special fasts; greater generosity with fast offerings and other charitable donations; and participating in missionary work by sharing the gospel with a new acquaintance and bringing a less-active member back to Church.
The accompanying document concludes with the following counsel and promise: "We all know that in order to ask and obtain the blessings that we so much desire to have, the Lord requires that we be an obedient and holy people. We testify that if we continue or start the process of repentance, obedience and sanctification, the blessings that we search for will be ours."
Blessings follow faith
The response to the Mexico Area Presidency's invitation to increase obedience and righteous living has definitely included tangible and quantifiable blessings, according to Area President Daniel L. Johnson of the Seventy.
"As a presidency, we are so pleased and excited about the willingness and even anxiousness of the members of the Church in Mexico to rededicate themselves to the Lord," Elder Johnson said. "[The letter] has been received with great enthusiasm and they have responded and are responding well to it. Temple attendance is rising, the members of the Church are reading the Book of Mormon, they are fasting and contributing more generously to fast offerings [and] the number of temple workers is increasing — as is the number of full-time missionaries."
Light dispelling darkness
Steven D. Bone will soon commence his fifth year as an assistant recorder at the Ciudad Juarez Mexico Temple. The collateral damage from two warring drug cartels has been staggering in Juarez, the most dangerous city in Mexico judging by the nearly 4,000 murders that have taken place there over the past two years. Brother Bone reports that the Mexican saints in the Ciudad Juarez Temple district (the temple district also includes two stakes from the United States) are turning to the temple with greater frequency than he's yet seen during his service as an assistant recorder at the temple.
"The Mexican members especially have increased their attendance," Brother Bone said. "The area president sent a letter to the various Mexican stakes in our temple district asking the members to increase their temple attendance as a means of protecting themselves from the dangers, and they have been very faithful.
"Just one indication of that — every year we have to send back to Salt Lake the records of the live ordinances, the endowments and sealings. We keep [those records] in a little folder. This year's folder that we're getting ready to send back is getting overfilled. It's fuller than I've noticed it in the last couple years. So [2009] has been a banner year for live ordinances in our temple."
The intersection of increased temple activity coinciding with the continued downward spiral of social conditions can only mean one thing: Church members of the Ciudad Juarez Temple district are actively joining Latter-day Saints all over Mexico in rededicating themselves to the Lord with a renewed sense of urgency and vigor.
Beyond borders
Not only are Mexico's 12 temples blessing Mexican Mormons, but the temples' reach is extending beyond international borders as well.
Two stakes from El Paso, Texas, are assigned to attend the Ciudad Juarez Mexico Temple — meaning that Latter-day Saints are faithfully leaving behind an extremely safe city in order to attend the temple in a much more perilous urban environment.
Congressional Quarterly recently named El Paso the second-safest city of its size in the United States — although more than 600,000 people call El Paso home, fewer than 30 murders have taken place there in the past two years. Conversely, Juarez is the most dangerous city in Mexico and one of the most treacherous in the world. According to a recent Associated Press story, over that same time frame as many as 4,000 of Juarez's 1.5 million inhabitants have been murdered.
Hundreds of Latter-day Saints cross the border from El Paso to Juarez every week. The El Paso Texas Mount Franklin Stake is assigned to provide temple patrons each Tuesday, while the El Paso Texas Stake fills a similar assignment on Thursdays.
"The instructions I give are that the Ciudad Juarez Mexico Temple is our temple," said Darwin R. Jensen, president of the El Paso Texas Mount Franklin Stake. "That's where we have our assignments. My counsel to [members of the stake] is that this is our opportunity and we have a responsibility to fulfill our assignment. If we do as we're instructed, if we go straight to the temple and we take care of our duties and assignments there and then we come straight home, everything will be fine."
