1995
A Conversation with the Central America Area Presidency
January 1995


“A Conversation with the Central America Area Presidency,” Ensign, Jan. 1995, 78–79

A Conversation with the Central America Area Presidency

The approaching fiftieth anniversary of the Church in Central America finds Church membership in the area growing in both numbers and faithfulness. To find out about the Church’s progress in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, the Ensign talked with Elder Carlos H. Amado of the Seventy, president of the Central America Area, and with his counselors, Elders Robert E. Wells and Joseph C. Muren, also of the Seventy.

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Elder Robert E. Wells
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Elder Carlos H. Amado
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Elder Joseph C. Muren

The Central America Area presidency: Center, Elder Carlos H. Amado, president; left, Elder Robert E. Wells, first counselor; right, Elder Joseph C. Muren, second counselor. All are members of the Seventy.

Question: How would you characterize the Church in Central America forty-eight years after the arrival of the first missionaries?

Answer: There is a definite spiritual maturing taking place among our members. There is a growing understanding of Christ, the Atonement, and the basic fundamentals of the restored gospel. We think there is a significant change in the kinds of sermons we are hearing in stake conference and in sacrament meetings. Former local missionaries are serving as leaders, and members are using the Book of Mormon more and are following the prophets. The attitude of local leaders is good despite political, economic, and social problems in the area. This is a believing people.

Q: How does that belief manifest itself?

A: While membership is increasing about 8 percent per year, tithing faithfulness has increased significantly over last year and very significantly over the past four years. Fast offerings for the care of the poor and needy are up 17 percent. The number of local missionaries called has increased 10 percent this year over last year. The number of adult males ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood is double this year over the number ordained last year. Temple attendance has increased, and church attendance is also up. These are all signs of a believing people.

Q: How large is the Church in Central America?

A: We have approximately 325,000 members, 53 stakes, 44 districts, and 11 missions. Between 40 percent and 45 percent of our members live in Guatemala. In the past year, we have opened 106 branches and wards in the Central America Area. We are able to cooperate and lead in our community more than in the past because of members in community leadership and professional positions. There is significant progress.

Q: Why are most of Central America’s Latter-day Saints found in Guatemala?

A: Guatemala is the most populated country, and Church growth has accelerated there since completion of the Guatemala City Temple in 1984. When the temple was dedicated, we had only ten stakes in the whole country; now we have twenty-four. It has been a blessing that Guatemala, even with its challenges, has not had the missionaries pulled out as has happened in some of the other countries of Central America. Many Guatemalans are descendants of father Lehi. We believe the temple was built in Guatemala because of the promises Heavenly Father made to Lehi. We have had all sorts of political instability in Guatemala, but our members have maintained their religious stability.

Q: How is the temple blessing the lives of Central American members?

A: The temple has had a tremendous impact. For example, when one group of Mayan members came to the temple two years ago, they were quite shy and quiet like many of the Indian members from rural areas. They had been to a session before in Spanish, and they had listened closely to what they were learning. But it was not like hearing a session in their primary language. On this visit, the temple president brought them earphones so they could listen in their language of Kekchi. They were so excited that their faces lighted up with surprise. Since then, this group has been coming often and has been spreading the word to members in their area that the endowment has been translated into their language.

The Guatemala City Temple is what we might call an excursion temple. It attracts members from all over Central America. Some members must fly or take bus rides from two to five days long in order to get there, and then they stay for a few days after they arrive. While there, groups stay at the recently dedicated Missionary Training Center (MTC) located half a block from the temple.

Q: What are the advantages of having a local MTC?

A: We are now able to prepare all of our locally called missionaries. We receive about fifty new missionaries monthly, although they may not always be assigned to the countries in our area. Slightly more than half of all the missionaries serving in our area are from Central America, and the MTC is helping us reach toward our next goal of having 60 percent local full-time missionaries.

Many of our bishoprics and stake presidencies are local returned missionaries. Missionary work provides excellent training for leadership. It is a rare exception to find a full-time missionary in a branch or ward leadership position instead of a local, qualified member. Our hope is in the youth who are finishing their missions and returning to their countries. We are emphasizing missionary service because that gives young men two years under the influence of the Spirit and is the best way to learn the principles of the gospel.

Q: Can you tell us how the Church is progressing in the other nations of Central America?

A: We are experiencing a lot of growth. In Honduras, we have ten stakes and two missions. Soon we hope to increase the number of stakes to thirteen. We have a great number of young leaders and faithful members.

A drought has limited the generation of hydroelectric power, but the lack of electricity has not stopped people from coming to their meetings. They are working very hard, as are members in neighboring Belize, which is part of the Honduras Tegucigalpa Mission.

One man called into a stake presidency in Honduras decided to sell his bus because of the work atmosphere. The hours of work required, the swearing, and the corruption associated with selling tickets and with owning and driving his bus was terrible, he felt. He is twenty-six, has a wife and new baby. He told us, “We have prayed to the Lord, and I am going to go out and work as a laborer instead. I will find a way.” He sold his bus and now he is making less money. When we asked him about tithing, he replied, “To live here without water and not pay your tithing would be foolish.” The members love the Lord. They still put up with a lot of adversity and persecution, yet we believe that adversity has strengthened them.

The situation is similar in Nicaragua. Economically, Nicaragua is having even more difficult times and the people are suffering various kinds of adversity. They may not always have shoes or ties, but they attend church. They strive to be faithful despite their circumstances. Because of the war, we met in home-based Church meetings for a decade. But now we have begun meeting in branches again. For ten years, we had no outside missionaries, just local leaders. But now we have fourteen thousand members and a mission president born and raised in Nicaragua. The work is going ahead, though many members still carry with them physical and spiritual wounds from the war.

Q: And in El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama?

A: El Salvador is the second-fastest nation for Church growth in Central America. We have ten stakes, two missions, a vigorous priesthood, and tremendous leadership. The end of the civil war there has made a big change in the political and economic picture. The country’s last three mission presidents were from El Salvador, and missionaries are operating in all corners of the country. Many people, including members, who went to the United States during the war are returning. Even if they were less active while in the United States, members are being activated as soon as they return. They enjoy seeing how the Church has progressed in their absence.

We are also happy with the progress of members in Costa Rica and Panama, especially our youth. Because of the emphasis leaders are putting on youth and youth activities, we have more missionaries than ever coming from Costa Rica. Family ties are strong, and the people have strong desires to live worthily, to attend the temple when possible, and to do what is necessary to merit gospel blessings. The members face challenges similar to those in other Central American countries, but they are moving forward in faith and responding to the challenges.

Our main focus in Central America is on emphasizing that every young man serve a mission, that every family head be ordained an elder in preparation to taking his family to the temple, and that every member live worthy of a temple recommend. Members are responding. We are excited about what is happening and about what we expect to see in the future.

More than half of the missionaries serving in Central America are from the area.