Mexico City Mexico Temple

Overview[]

The Mexico City Mexico Temple is the 26th operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and the 1st of 14 temples completed in Mexico. Noted for its highly ornamented Mayan-inspired exterior, this temple is an acclaimed landmark in northeastern Mexico City, located near Bosque de Aragón—one of the city's principal parks. The temple grounds are park-like themselves, featuring beautiful gardens and an enchanting water feature. Several other Church buildings share the "Manzana del Templo" (Temple Square) including a missionary training center, stake center, patron housing facility, and an informative visitors' center—free to the public. The visitors' center's centerpiece is a supernal reproduction of Thorvaldsen's Christus statue. During Christmas, the grounds are decorated with hundreds of thousands of lights in a festive display of the season.

History[]

The Mexico City Mexico Temple was the first temple built in Mexico. The Mexico City Mexico Temple was the second temple built in a Spanish-speaking country, following the Santiago Chile Temple (1983). The Mexico City Mexico Temple is the largest temple outside of the United States.

The Mexico City Mexico Temple is one of five temples featuring an angel Moroni statue holding the gold plates. (The other four temples are the Los Angeles California Temple, Washington D.C. Temple, Jordan River Utah Temple, and Seattle Washington Temple.)

Even since endowments were first given in Spanish in 1945 in the Mesa Arizona Temple, faithful Mexican Saints looked forward with anticipation to the time when they might be blessed with a temple in their own country.

When Church architect Emil B. Fetzer received the assignment to design the Mexico City Mexico Temple, he turned to a book on Mayan architecture, which Heber Grant Taylor and his wife felt inspired to give him 18 years earlier from the library of his grandfather President Heber J. Grant.

An incredible 9,000 attended the one-hour groundbreaking ceremony of the Mexico City Mexico Temple. Elder Boyd K. Packer offered the prayer dedicating the site in Spanish. During its 10-day open house, more than 110,000 visitors toured the Mexico City Mexico Temple including thousands of government, business, and civic leaders. Mission presidents estimated 2,900 requested visits as a direct result of the open house.

At the dedication of the Mexico City Mexico Temple, Elder Ezra Taft Benson received the distinct impression that God was not pleased with Church members' neglect of the Book of Mormon. Stressing the importance of the Book of Mormon would later become one of the hallmarks of his presidency.

Following its completion, the Mexico City Mexico Temple received an international award for artistic use of precast concrete.

The Mexico City Mexico Temple has received favorable attention from the school of architecture at the University of Mexico, becoming the subject of much study.

District[]

The Mexico City Mexico Temple serves members from 88 stakes and 6 districts headquartered in Estado de Mexico, Distrito Federal, Puebla, Hidalgo, Morelos, Guerrero, Michoacán, Queretaro, San Luis Potosí, Tlaxcala, and Guanajuato:

Estado de Mexico[]

Distrito Federal[]

Puebla[]

Hidalgo[]

Morelos[]

Guerrero[]

Michoacán[]

Queretaro[]

San Luis Potosí[]

Tlaxcala[]

Guanajuato[]

Celaya Mexico Stake
Guanajuato Mexico District

Presidents[]

Marco A. Cárdenas 2019–
Lester F. Johnson 2016–2019
Manuel González Calvo 2012–2016
Santiago Mejía Mora 2009–2012
Ned B. Rouech 2005–2009
Jerald L. Taylor 2002–2005
Roy H. King Jr. 1999–2002
Ted E. Brewerton 1997–1999
Agricol L. Herrera 1993–1997
Waldo P. Call 1990–1993
Erasmo Flores de Imbert 1987–1990
Harold Brown 1983–1987