Tampico Mexico Mormon Temple
June 11, 2008 by admin
Filed under Temples in Mexico
The first Mormon temple in Mexico was built in Mexico City in 1983. By 2005, just twenty-two years later, the number increased to ten temples. The Tampico Tamaulipas Mexico temple was the 6th temple to be dedicated in Mexico.
The Tampico area has seen rapid growth with the number of Mormons in the area going from one stake (a group of congregations) to four stakes in just twenty-five years. Tampico itself has a population of about 212,000 and is located on the Gulf of Mexico. There are over 18,000 members in the city.
The new temple will make the members’ journey to the temple much easier. Previously the Saints had to cross the Sierra Madre mountain range to reach the temple in Mexico City, a difficult endeavor. Now they will have their own Mormon temple.
Elder Call presided over the groundbreaking ceremony, which about 930 people attended on 28 November 1998. During the ceremony Elder Call said, “Having a temple near will open doors to growth, and as we attend we will receive blessings that we can’t even begin to comprehend or understand at this time. Men and women will grow in their strength and power so that Satan will have less power over them.”1
President Thomas S. Monson, of the first presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said the dedicatory prayer for the Tampico Tamaulipas Mexico Temple on 20 May 2000. During the dedicatory prayer President Monson spoke of couples kneeling at sealing altars to establish eternal family relationships. The idea of eternal family relationships is one of the main reasons that Mormon temples are built. Mormons believe that marriages that are performed in temples have the potential to last forever. Marriages are performed both for the living, and by proxy for those who have died.
Only members who are “clean of body and mind and worthy to receive the blessings herein given,” 2 are allowed to enter the temple because of the sacred nature of the ordinances and covenants made within. Almost everything within the temple is symbolic. White is worn to symbolize purity, and the buildings, rooms, and ceremonies are all symbolic.
During the dedicatory prayer President Monson prayed “that there may emanate from this Thy house a spirit of love and peace, a spirit divine and holy, which will be felt in this great city.”3 Temples are places of peace and members carry that peace with them when they leave the temple.
Because of the peaceful nature of Mormon temples, they are places where members can receive direction from God. President Benson said, “When I have been weighed down by a problem or a difficulty, I have gone to the House of the Lord with a prayer in my heart for answers. These answers have come in clear and unmistakable ways.” 4
President Monson ended the prayer with a plea for the Saints in the area saying, “Lift the burdens of poverty from the backs of Thy children and prosper them as they serve Thee in righteousness, walking in obedience to Thy commandments.”
Physical Address:
AV. EJERCITO MEXICANO #74 CON 3A, AVENIDA
COL. LOMAS DEL GALLO
89480 CIUDAD MADERO TAMPS
MEXICO
Mailing address:
c/o Mexico Area Administration Office
POUCH
Mexico
Phone: (52) 833-216-9660
(1) “News of the Church,” Ensign, Mar. 1999, 75
(2) “Tampico dedicatory prayer: ‘Lift the burdens of poverty,’” Church News 27 May 2000, 25 Jun. 2005
(3) “Tampico dedicatory prayer: ‘Lift the burdens of poverty,’” Church News 27 May 2000, 25 Jun. 2005
(4) Ensign, August 1985, page 8
