- Puebla-Mexico-Temple-Dedication
- Puebla-Mexico-Temple-Dedication
- Puebla-Mexico-Temple-Dedication
- Puebla-Mexico-Temple-Dedication
- Puebla-Mexico-Temple-Dedication
- Puebla-Mexico-Temple-Dedication
- Puebla-Mexico-Temple-Dedication
- Puebla-Mexico-Temple-Dedication
- Puebla-Mexico-Temple-Dedication
- Puebla-Mexico-Temple-Dedication
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the Puebla Mexico Temple on Sunday, May 19, 2024.
“A temple is a beacon of light in a community,” said Elder Gong, “and it lifts us and draws us to God our Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.”
Elder Gong was accompanied by his wife, Susan; Elder Kevin R. Duncan, General Authority Seventy and Executive Director in the Temple Department, and his wife, Nancy; and Elder Hugo Montoya, General Authority Seventy and President of the Mexico Area, and his wife, Maria.
Puebla-Mexico-Temple-Dedication
Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Susan, center; Elder Kevin R. Duncan, General Authority Seventy and Executive Director in the Temple Department, and his wife, Nancy, left; and Elder Hugo Montoya, General Authority Seventy and President of the Mexico Area, and his wife, Carmen, right, stand in front of the Puebla Mexico Temple on the day it was dedicated, Sunday, May 19, 2024.The Puebla Mexico Temple is one of a dozen new temple locations across the country, including six in and around the Mexico City metro area, that President Russell M. Nelson has announced in the past years. Eleven others are under construction or in planning and design stages.
“It is wonderful that a Prophet is bringing temples across the country,” he said.
Mexico — with the 10th largest population and the 11th largest economy — is an important country in the Church and the world, Elder Gong noted.
“Mexico is blessed multiple generations of covenant-keepers,” he said. “There is so much goodness and faith among the people of Mexico.
Referring to the “Holiness to the Lord, the house of the Lord” inscribed on the front exterior of the Puebla temple, Elder Gong said, “I truly believe ‘holiness’ is both an invitation and a declaration.”
Through temple worship and temple ordinances, Latter-day Saints have “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’s a very real invitation to bring holiness into our lives through the Atonement of Christ and service to others.”
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.”
Standing on the temple grounds the day before Sunday’s dedication, Elder Hugo Montoya, General Authority Seventy and President of the Mexico Area, paid tribute to the faithfulness and consecration of Church members in the Puebla temple district. “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.”
He said the stability of multigenerational member families and the increasing membership grown were “a good balance for the Church’s strength in this area.”
