Elder Bednar addresses members at a stake conference in Puebla, Mexico, on Sunday, April 15, 2012.
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Mexico holds a special place in the history of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. The first Mormon missionaries to visit
Mexico in 1876 found a people ready to hear the gospel, and in 2004
Mexico became the first country outside the United States to reach a
membership of 1,000,000 Latter-day Saints.
Visiting Puebla, Mexico City, and Monterrey in April 2012, Elder
David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles counseled members,
leaders, and missionaries in various meetings.
In a priesthood leadership conference on April 14, Elder Bednar
reminded leaders that the doctrines of the Church are true, simple, and
unchanging. Teachings in the Church should always focus on the doctrine
of Jesus Christ, he exhorted. Elder Bednar emphasized that leaders have
received sacred keys and should minister to people, not simply
administer programs.
Earlier in the day, instructing missionaries in the Mexico Puebla
Mission, and later at a devotional with local young single adults in the
evening, Elder Bednar highlighted the need for members to exercise
their agency to act. “Acting in accordance with correct principles is an
important component of faith,” he said. “Faith in Christ leads to
righteous action, increasing our spiritual power and capacity to do
good.”
On Monday, April 16, Elder Bednar visited students attending the
Church-owned Benemérito de las Américas high school in Mexico City. More
than 2,000 students attending Benemérito gathered to take part in an
interactive question-and-answer session with Elder Bednar. Additional
students from the nearby Academia Juárez participated via video
broadcast.
In a priesthood leadership meeting in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Elder Bednar
invited local leaders to share their concerns and ask questions in order
to assist them in their leadership calling. He explained, “The Savior
used questions as one of His primary teaching tools. If we strive to ask
inspired and effective questions, as we ponder and pray, you and I can
subsequently engage in a learning process that enables us to receive
inspiration and find our own answers.”
On Sunday, April 22, Elder Bednar traveled to San Cristóbal, where he
held a stake conference with the San Cristobal Stake and the Chojolhó
Mexico District. Many of the members speak only Tzotzil, a Mayan
language. During this meeting, Elder Bednar called on a young man and a
young woman to bear their testimonies. He asked the young woman how she
knew that she had a testimony. She responded that she simply knew in her
heart that the gospel of Jesus Christ was true.
In his instruction, Elder Bednar encouraged the members to strengthen
their testimonies not only that the gospel is true, that the Book of
Mormon was translated by the power of God, and that Joseph Smith was the
Lord’s instrument in restoring the gospel to the earth, but to become
converted unto the Lord Jesus Christ. He explained, “Conversion is
described in the scriptures as ‘putting off the natural man’ (Mosiah 3:19) and becoming a 'new creature in Christ'” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Elder Bednar expanded the vision of the members to understand that in
this time—“the greatest season in the history of the Church”—the vision
Daniel had about the stone being cut out of the mountain without hands
rolling forth and filling the whole earth is being fulfilled (see Daniel 2:31–45; D&C 65:2).
After being instructed by an Apostle of the Lord, Puebla México
Mayorazgo Stake president Ranulfo Cervantes Soler affirmed: “We have
received revelation about how to conduct ourselves in our callings and
also in our families, to make some important changes and become
acquainted with new patterns or better patterns for teaching the members
the doctrines and the principles that are going to ensure that they can
reach the presence of our Heavenly Father.”
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