1975
President Spencer W. Kimball Visits Mexico
March 1975


“President Spencer W. Kimball Visits Mexico,” Ensign, Mar. 1975, 73–74

President Spencer W. Kimball Visits Mexico

Alfredo Meneses, president of the Puebla Sixth Branch, expressed the feelings of many Mexican Saints about the recent visit of President Spencer W. Kimball to their country when he said, “This was a very spiritual conference. I felt something very special that I had never felt before.”

The occasion for President Spencer W. Kimball’s visit was the dedication of a chapel and two missionary conferences, but he also took the opportunity to counsel the Saints. His schedule included a meeting with the stake presidents of the Mexico City area, two conferences with the fulltime missionaries of two missions, a youth conference, a meeting with 18,000 members and investigators in Mexico City’s Autitorio National Bosque Chapultepec, and a chapel dedication and address.

In his speech to members and investigators in the Autitorio, President Kimball spoke of the importance of discipline. Discipline is important for adults, he counseled, but he also stressed the need to discipline children “so they have a defined way to go.” He explained that discipline demonstrates to a child that he is loved; growing up without discipline is like “playing a game on an unmarked field,” he said. President Kimball stressed the importance of hobbies, goals, and love of parents in a child’s life, and explained that those children have the most success in life who had parents who directed and disciplined them as they grew.

Only members who were accompanied by a nonmember were issued tickets to the Autitorio meeting, and the Saints responded with enthusiasm. One couple brought 63 investigators to the meeting. A bishop, chartering a bus and arranging other transportation, brought a total of 124 nonmembers to hear the prophet of the Lord.

The response to the Puebla chapel dedication was just as exciting. Some members came from distances as far as the Yucatan Peninsula, 1,200 miles away. The Xolitzintla Branch arranged for a bus, and 100 percent of its members attended the dedication.

When all had arrived, the chapel was overflowing with more than 1,000 people. An additional 5,000 members were placed in classrooms, in the Junior Sunday School room, and outside on the basketball court.

Despite the crowded conditions, those in attendance were richly rewarded by hearing a prophet’s words. His central theme was missionary work.

He said that the United States should not have to send missionaries to Mexico, but that Mexican youth should be preaching the gospel in Mexico and American youth could then be sent to other areas of the world. “It is your responsibility to teach the gospel to your people. A mother should look at her infant son and say that someday he will be a great missionary,” he said. President Kimball also indicated that if missionary work were discontinued, the Church would wither and die. Missionary work is the lifeblood of the Church, adding new people and power to the Church, he said.

The prophet’s emphasis on missionary work was also evident in the youth conference. Speaking to 1,218 Aaronic Priesthood youth, he told them that spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ is more important than gaining an education. “But you young people are chosen,” he said, “because you can have an education and be missionaries also.”

He said every boy should want to and has the responsibility to fill a mission, and that he doesn’t have to wait for the bishop or stake president to call him on a mission. A worthy young man can go to his leaders and tell them he is ready.

In the missionary conferences, President Kimball discussed the important role the fulltime missionary has in the over-all plan of spreading the gospel. He reminded the missionaries about the power of faith and told them the Lord is the one who can do anything for them. He cited the example of God helping the children of Israel cross the Red Sea and said, “Now, if he can do that, he can open doors so you can reach the hearts of the people.” But he added that success depends on individual effort. “The children of Israel didn’t stay back home in comfortable quarters and say that when the waters were parted and the ground was dry they would go,” he illustrated. The same principle applies to missionary work, he said. Missionaries must work hard and recognize the will of the Father in all things, being willing to do whatever he requires of them.

President Kimball made a further analogy by explaining that the Lord didn’t tell Lehi to have his sons try to get the plates; they were commanded to get them. “It’s the same with you missionaries here. We don’t say ‘go and ask a few,’ but ‘go and get baptisms.’” The prophet then reminded them that the Lord would never command a person to do something without first opening the way for it to be accomplished.

He further admonished the missionaries to “bring in converts, not just members.” He indicated that one need not be well-versed to be converted; one can be converted without reading the entire volume of scriptures, but one cannot be converted without knowing that “revelation is real, prophets through the centuries have represented the Lord well; baptism is essential, and this Church has the Holy Ghost.”

Church News photographs

President Kimball speaks to Mexican Saints through an interpreter.

President and Sister Kimball on recent trip to Mexico.