MEXICO CITY — In this vibrant and busy city where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will build five new temples, President M. Russell Ballard looked across a congregation of faithful Latter-day Saints and expressed his own optimism.
“I do not have words to tell you how much the Lord loves you,” the 94-year-old leader told members of the Cuautitlán Mexico Stake— one of 227 stakes in Mexico, including five created this year.
Speaking on Sunday, Dec. 11, President Ballard addressed missionary, temple and family history work, celebrating the Savior this Christmas season and the great blessings the Lord has for Mexico.
“I think our Heavenly Father is so pleased to look on this congregation and see you, His sons and daughters, gathered together to worship His Beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,” said the Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. “My beloved brothers and sisters, how blessed are we to have The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in our lives.”
President Ballard’s remarks came at the end of a busy weekend ministry assignment, Dec. 8 through Dec. 11, in this metropolitan area of 22 million people. Accompanied by Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, President Ballard addressed members and missionaries, spoke to Church employees and participated in leadership training meetings in Mexico City — the largest city in North America.
Elder Stevenson called it “a choice blessing” to be in Mexico with President Ballard. There are now more stakes in Mexico than there were in the entire Church in 1928, the year President Ballard was born; the Church has grown from the intermountain west to countries across the globe in his lifetime.
“President Ballard has this deep measure of experience and insight and wisdom that comes as a result of his remarkable service, now nearly 47 years as a general authority,” said Elder Stevenson. “Anytime you can sit next to him, listen and see his wisdom and watch his connection to members and missionaries, it is the most wonderful experience.”
Paying tribute to the Latter-day Saints in Mexico, President Ballard said the Church is not a building or a place, but a people. “Having the opportunity to come back to Mexico, where I have been many times, and worship with them and visit with them has been a real delight,” he said. “They are as friendly a people as there are in the world. The Spirit of the Lord was with us.”
Temples to bring blessings
President Ballard’s visit to Mexico City followed President Russell M. Nelson’s historic announcement in October 2022 general conference that the Church will build four new temples in Mexico City’s large metropolitan area. Those temples, in Cuernavaca, Pachuca, Toluca and Tula, will be a great blessing, said Elder Stevenson. A fifth new temple near the Mexico MTC on the Church’s old Benemérito de las Americas school property, and a temple under construction in Puebla, located 65 miles (105 kilometers) away will also complement the existing Mexico City Mexico Temple, located northeast of the city’s center.
When all are complete, Mexico will have 24 temples.
Elder Sean Douglas, a General Authority Seventy and member of the Mexico Area Presidency, said one of the greatest challenges people face in Mexico City is the area’s congestion and heavy traffic, which, among other things, limits temple attendance.
Still, “we see that the Mexico City Temple is constantly full,” Elder Douglas said, noting that members — undaunted by the traffic — come by the busloads.
At the temple, “you see these buses pull up. And then they leave, and other buses replace them,” said Sister Ann Douglas, who moved to the city in August when Elder Douglas joined the Area Presidency. “And it is like that all the time, five days a week. The line to the baptistry is always out the door. I’ve never seen temple attendance like this in my life. … And they have traveled hours. It is really humbling.”
Elder Douglas added, “While congestion in Mexico City provides an opportunity to more freely share the light of the gospel with so many, it also poses logistical pressures to more freely access the temple. More temples in Mexico City will significantly improve access to all the blessings of the gospel for so many existing and new members, thus lightening for them the many burdens and pressures of this world.
Elder Carlos Torres, an Area Seventy, said it can take members up to three hours to get to the temple from some parts of the city. Getting to and from the temple takes all day, said Elder Torres, whose dream is to attend a temple session in the morning and then go to work.
Elder Stevenson said the new temples will have an immediate impact, with Latter-day Saints being able to increase their time in the temple, to complete work for their ancestors, and to nourish all the temples with the names that are needed for them to operate at the highest level.
“When I think of each of those things that members will be doing here, all of those will result in blessings and positive outcomes for every member of the Church here — including, maybe even especially, the rising generation.”
President Ballard expressed gratitude for the Church’s emphasis on temple building.
“The Lord is very gracious, and President Nelson is very gracious, to build temples closer to the members, so they can get there and do the things they can do only in the temple,” he said.
‘Keep the gospel simple’
While President Ballard participated in the special conference for the Cuautitlán Mexico Stake, Elder Stevenson at the same time addressed members of the Tultitlán Mexico Stake — each testifying of Jesus Christ during the month that many celebrate His birth. The pair also reminded leaders during a leadership conference to “keep the gospel simple” and focus on the rising generation.
Elder Torres and his wife, Sister Marisol Torres, are part of a Latter-day Saint pioneering family that spans back three generations.
When Sister Torres was 10 years old, her father, Edilberto Peynado, served as the branch president in Cuautitlán, where President Ballard addressed members of what today is a stake.
Elder Torres’ father, Guillermo Torres — with his wife, Socorro Saunders — would serve as a mission president and president of the Church’s Mexico MTC.
President Ballard and Elder Stevenson helped the members see the potential of all that Mexico can become in the Church, said Elder Torres. Members understand that they have to “keep the gospel simple” — sharing gospel truths and caring for one another.
“The Church is going to move forward in Mexico as it has never done before,” he said.
Elder Douglas referenced a talk in which Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles declared, “This is the time for Mexico.”
His message — coupled with the inspired visits of President Ballard and Elder Stevenson — “has really lifted the vision of the Mexico Saints to recognize that the Lord is doing a marvelous work and wonder in Mexico,” he said.
Elder Douglas said the blessings the Lord has in store for Mexico also come with great responsibility. Quoting Doctrine and Covenants 127:4, he read, “Let the work of my temple, and all the works which I have appointed unto you, be continued on and not cease; and let your diligence, and your perseverance, and patience, and your works be redoubled.”
Elder Douglas spoke of the blessings of President Ballard’s and Elder Stevenson’s visit.
“And as I see double — not one but two of the Twelve Apostles here — the feeling that I had today was that the Lord is blessing us with double and he is expecting double. And so, we redouble our diligence in preparing the hearts of the Saints for the temples that are here and that will come, and we redouble our efforts to ‘love, share and invite’ to bring more souls under Christ. We redouble our efforts to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the country.”
The Church will grow in Mexico
The Church’s first branch was organized in Mexico City in 1879, after portions of the Book of Mormon were translated into Spanish. A stake was not created in the area until 1961. The country now has 32 missions.
President Ballard, Elder Stevenson and Elder and Sister Douglas visited the Church’s Mexico City Missionary Training Center and addressed missionaries from the Mexico City North and Mexico City Northwest missions.
President Ballard called it “absolutely thrilling” to meet with the missionaries “and to see the future leadership of the Church. The Church is only going to go one way — and that is to get better and better and better.”
He added that missionary work will continue to strengthen the Church in Mexico, as people “get exposed to the gospel and have open to them who they really are — children of God on an eternal journey.”
Elder Stevenson reminded the groups that they were being taught by “one of the great missionaries of the dispensation.” As a young man, President Ballard served as a counselor to two mission presidents in the British Isles.
Elder Stevenson promised the missionaries that they could work through the hard times of their missions, which will be filled with many more good times. “In the midst of those hard times, you can be so deeply blessed,” he said. “You are where the Lord wants you to be. You will bless the [lives of those you teach] and they will bless your life.”
Recalling a time during his own mission in England when he felt discouraged, President Ballard said that every soul is precious.
After a long discouraging day in 1948, Elder Ballard walked along the Trent River in Nottingham, England. “I didn’t see a vision. I didn’t hear a voice. But as a 20-year-old boy, I knew that the Lord knew me.” In the years since, he said, “I have tried to do what He wanted me to do.”
Christmas season
During a devotional held with Church employees in Mexico City, Elder Stevenson spoke of his father’s youth, located in a rural area that was once occupied by Native Americans in North America. One weekend, Elder Stevenson’s father, then 5 years old, participated in an activity in which Church member searched the landscape for Native American arrowheads. At the end of several hours of searching, the members took an inventory of what had been found. Elder Stevenson’s father reported that he had not found an arrowhead but had found a rock “shaped like a Christmas tree.”
“The real thing was in his pocket. But he didn’t know it,” said Elder Stevenson.
The same was true for people of the Savior’s day — who did not know He was the Redeemer — and today.
As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “we know and understand what many don’t,” said Elder Stevenson. “We understand that without Christ, there would be no Christmas. …
“I witness of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which blesses us and allows us to glorify our Father by returning to His presence.”
President Ballard called the Christmas season a time when “hearts are filled with love for the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The “greatest gift offered in history” was given “when the Beloved Lord Jesus Christ stepped forward to become the Redeemer of all mankind.”
Christmastime ought to be “very, very special,” he added, as individuals celebrate the occasion with “our love for the Lord Jesus Christ. I leave my witness that our beloved Savior is our Redeemer and that He loves us.”
