PUEBLA, Mexico — Teaching how temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are centered on the Savior and how the blessings of covenants are coming closer to families and individuals with an increase of temples worldwide, Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the Puebla Mexico Temple on Sunday, May 19.
Drawing on the theme of the “Holiness to the Lord, the house of the Lord” inscription found on the front exterior of the Puebla temple, Elder Gong said, “I truly believe ‘holiness’ is both an invitation and a declaration.”
Temple worship and temple ordinances provide Latter-day Saints “the opportunity to make real the invitation and promises of ‘holiness to the Lord,’” said Elder Gong.
“We are to come, to learn, to be sanctified and to become more like our Father in Heaven and His Son,” he said. “It is a very real invitation to bring holiness into our lives through the Atonement of Christ and service to others.”
Purpose of the temple
Elder Gong sees the temple inscriptions as representative of the plan of salvation and the purpose of the house of the Lord. “It is where we make covenants and perform ordinances for ourselves and for the ones we love,” he said.
“The temple is inviting us to find holiness in the house of the Lord.”
The Puebla Mexico Temple becomes the 14th dedicated temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico. Eleven more houses of the Lord in the country are under construction or in planning and design.
To dedicate the Puebla Mexico Temple, Elder Gong was accompanied by his wife, Sister Susan Gong; Elder Hugo Montoya, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Mexico Area, and his wife, Sister Carmen Montoya; and Elder Kevin R. Duncan, General Authority Seventy and executive director of the Temple Department, and his wife, Sister Nancy Duncan.
‘Many prayers have been answered’
Standing on the temple grounds the day before Sunday’s dedication, Elder Montoya saluted the faithfulness and consecration of the members in the Puebla temple district, noting that the first baptisms date back to 1923. “People in this area have been waiting 100 years for the house of the Lord in their city,” he said. “Many prayers have been answered.”
Like other Latter-day Saints across Mexico, they first started making long, costly trips to the Mesa Arizona Temple when it began offering Spanish-language ordinances and instruction in 1945 and then attended the Mexico City Mexico Temple after it was dedicated in 1983.
“At the beginning, we had members with so many needs and poverty; however, they were saving money for their trips to Mesa,” Elder Montoya said. “Now the Lord has blessed the people who are faithful to their covenants, and we have hundreds of multigenerational, prosperous families — but over the same time, thousands of new converts.”
Elder Montoya acknowledged the multigenerational stability and the increasing membership grown as “a good balance for the Church’s strength in this area,” citing a line from the Book of Mormon parable of the lord of the vineyard — “and they did keep the root and the top thereof equal, according to the strength thereof” (Jacob 5:73).
Puebla stakes have long provided temple workers and temple leaders for the Mexico City temple, and some stakes from Nealtican, Puebla, have more than 100 temple workers each, he added. And soon, rather than driving two-plus hours and 125 kilometers (78 miles) to the Mexico City Mexico Temple, they’ll be serving in the temple more easily and more often.
A connection and a closeness
Members in Mexico have listened to Elder Gong pay tribute to the country’s well-used — and well-observed — invitation of hospitality, “Mi casa es su casa” (Spanish for “My house is your house”).
“In the spirit of the Spanish phrase, it is as if the Savior were inviting us to come to the house of the Lord as if it were our home, there to participate in ordinances for ourselves and our deceased ancestors,” he said.
The dedication weekend wasn’t Elder Gong’s first visit to Puebla. The Apostle had met with Latter-day Saints there in February 2023, attending a devotional titled “Pioneers and Temples” while in the area for leadership trainings and other meetings. He and Elder José A. Teixeira of the Presidency of the Seventy serve as first contacts at Church headquarters for the Mexico Area presidency.
Some attending the 2023 devotional were members whose ancestors had helped build the Church in the Puebla area for several generations over more than 100 years.
Returning for Sunday’s dedication, Elder and Sister Gong said they were moved by the opportunity to again meet many Saints in Puebla they had met earlier, making for many happy reunions.
“We feel a connection and closeness because we love the people here,” he said.
Evidence of that connection and closeness came as members reported after the dedication of Elder and Sister Gong and other leaders going room by room throughout the temple to shake as many hands as possible and offer an extended “despedida” — Spanish for “farewell”— as Elder Gong and Elder Montoya said goodbye and shook more hands outside the temple Sunday afternoon following the second dedicatory session.
‘The deepest family relationships to be eternal’
As a repeat visitor to Puebla, Elder Gong is well aware of the twin volcanoes located between Puebla and the State of Mexico — the active Popocatépetl and dormant Iztaccihuatl. Both exceed 17,000 feet in elevation, more than 10,000 feet above Puebla.
In Aztec mythology, which Elder Gong said would be familiar to the people of the region, Iztaccihuatl was a princess who had fallen in love with Popocatépetl, one of her father’s warriors who was sent to war.
Falsely told that Popocatépetl had perished in battle, Iztaccihuatl died in grief, believing the news. When the warrior returned, he took her body and knelt by her resting place — there they were covered with snow and changed into mountains, with Popocatépetl becoming an active volcano and still raging at the loss of his beloved Iztaccihuatl.
For Elder Gong, the story of the twin, towering sentinels and their presence represents “that universal yearning,” he said, “a symbol of eternal love and a reminder that every heart yearns for the deepest family relationships to be eternal.”
What dedication attendees were saying
Ruben Mejía Mora and his wife, Arelia Rocío Cruz de Mejía, directors of the temple open house and dedication committee, spent Sunday morning greeting Latter-day Saints who arrived early on the warm, sunny Sunday for the first dedicatory session.
“We are very happy to be here and to be witnesses of the doors of the temple opening to welcome the Latter-day Saints to the dedication of the Puebla Mexico Temple,” Ruben Mejía said.
Arelia de Mejía added: “I am overcome to see the brothers and sisters who have come with great interest to be here in the house of the Lord, who will soon be able to make covenants with the Lord here.
“For many years, we traveled to Mesa, Arizona, to go to the temple. And now we have one almost at our doorsteps. It is very special.”
The Mejías received their endowments and were married in the Mesa Arizona Temple on Oct. 7, 1980 — three years before Mexico’s first temple, in Mexico City, was dedicated. Stakes and wards organized regular temple trips to Mesa before the December 1983 dedication of the Mexico City Mexico Temple.
“The temple excursions to Mesa were planned in advance for every six months, giving us the opportunity to save money in order to cover the costs,” said Ruben Mejía, listing passport, visa, transportation and food costs. “So, we had to make considerable savings in order to cover all these costs.”
The temple trips consisted of 48-hour bus rides from Puebla to Mesa, spending four days attending the house of the Lord there, and then another 48 hours for the return bus trip.
And how long does it take for the Mejías to get to the temple now, with the new Puebla Mexico Temple?
“Eight minutes,” said Arelia de Mejía with a smile. “Eight minutes walking.”
Alejandro Gómez Moreno, who served on the open house and dedication committee, said, “The people are overjoyed, humble and grateful to have a temple here.”
Saying he felt humbled to have the opportunity to participate in the ordinances and covenants in the now-nearby house of the Lord, Gomez said he and his wife have committed to attend the Puebla temple weekly, in addition to his work as a temple sealer. “And we have our first appointment to bring our grandchildren to do proxy baptisms here in the temple on June 4.”
Puebla Mexico Temple
Location: 15 de Mayo Avenue No. 719, Col. Los Vergeles 72130, Puebla, Mexico
Announced: Oct. 7, 2018, by President Russell M. Nelson
Groundbreaking: Nov. 30, 2019, presided over by Elder Arnulfo Valenzuela, a General Authority Seventy and then president of the Church’s Mexico Area
Dedicated: May 19, 2024, by Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Property Size: 6.81 acres
Building Size: 35,861 square feet
Building Height: 111 feet, including the spire and Moroni statue
