Allen Christenson writes the following:
I was privileged to help in the translation of the temple ceremony into K'iche', a dialect of the Mayan Indians of Guatemala. In 1991, the Church brought up seven choice native Maya members of the Church to record the ceremony for the first time in their own language. Most had never traveled outside their own country. They arrived when we had a bad cold snap and snow storms last January. In a country where it never snows that was quite a shock. They wondered whether the flakes were volcanic ash, and bundled up with layer upon layer of clothing so that the snow would have no chance of touching their skin.
The Maya today are for the most part illiterate, particularly in their native tongue. It has only been in recent years that some members of the church have begun to learn to read and write in the Maya language, so that they can read the scriptures and other church publications. This is a great tragedy, because until about 500 years ago the Maya were the most literate people in the Americas, preserving their history and culture with a sophisticated hieroglyphic script in hundreds of folded screen books. The Spanish Conquest in the early sixteenth century was a devastating blow to Maya literacy in Mexico and Guatemala. Great numbers of hieroglyphic texts were burned in an attempt to eradicate "idolatrous paganism." Native scribes were singled out for persecution to such an extent that within one hundred years, the art of writing had nearly disappeared from among the Maya people. When I was a missionary in the Guatemala highlands, no one I knew could read in Maya. Because I opened most of the areas I worked in, the church was in its infancy and there were no members to prepare for the temple. The closest temple in fact was in Mesa, Arizona, and for a people who earned at best a dollar a day, a trip there was a goal which was simply impossible to even think about.
Today there is a temple in Guatemala City. The Maya who were brought up to record the temple ceremony for their people had all taken out their own endowments and considered it a great privilege to have a part in bringing the blessings of the endowment to their people in a language that they could understand.
For the first few days, the Maya were given time to read through their parts, review videotapes of the ceremony to practice their timing and voice inflections, and to prepare for the actual recording. It soon became apparent what an impossible thing we were asking them to do. Most of their homes had no electricity, and the rows of machines and blinking lights were frightening and intimidating. None could ready any better than at a grade school level, sounding out each word at a time. Just getting out the words was a frustrating and time-consuming task. We frankly didn't think that it would be possible for them to become proficient enough to read the text rapidly, much less instill in the words the spirit that such a sacred ceremony demands.
I will never forget the first day we started to record. We put these poor, humble people in a little glass booth, surrounded by technical gadgets, microphones, and earphones and asked them to relax and speak the words with naturalness and the proper spirit. They were so frightened that they could not speak more than a few words at a time, and those were unusable.
We all went back to our hotel rooms discouraged and felt that we were going to fail. They next day, I noticed a change in the Maya. They were unusually quiet and serious, but somehow they didn't seem to be as afraid as the day before. When the first brother, who was assigned to read the part of Elohim, was called on to record his part, he stepped into the recording booth without hesitation. The window was set so high in the booth that we could barely see him, being only 5'4" tall. He put on his earphones, closed his eyes and looked up momentarily, and then said quietly that he was ready. When I gave him his cue he began to speak in the most beautiful, flowing Maya that I had ever heard spoken. He read through three full pages without error before we had to stop him to check the sound level. When I cued him to stop, He asked if he had done something wrong and looked so apologetic that it broke my heart. I assured him that we just had to do some technical things and that he had done beautifully. The spirit was so strong that it was a physical presence that we all could feel. The emotion of it was overwhelming. The brother in charge of the recording instruments turned to me afterward and simply said, "We have just witnessed a miracle, one of the strongest manifestations of the gift of tongues that I have ever witnessed. His voice, inflection, and timing were as good as the best professional actors that we have in English, Spanish, or other of the more established languages." When I asked this Mayan brother what had happened since the day before, he smiled and said that he knew the enormous importance of the temple endowment for his people and knew that he couldn't do it on his own. He and the others had tried as hard as they could but that the words just didn't come. So he had prayed last night to his Father in Heaven and told him that he just couldn't do it without His help. He didn't want his people for generations to come to hear his voice and weakness, but the voice of Elohim. He asked if his Father in Heaven would please come to that sound booth with him and speak for himself. He felt assured and that morning he never doubted that God would be there with him. One by one, each of the other Maya read through their parts with similar power and faith. [Allen J. Christenson, "Account of the Recording of the Temple Ceremony into K'iche' Maya in 1991," Personal Communication to Alan C. Miner]
Note* Well did the Lord prophesy in person to the ancestors of these humble Mayan brothers and sisters on this American continent:
And it shall come to pass that I will establish my people, O house of Israel. And behold, this people will I establish in this land, unto the fulfilling of the covenant which I made with your father Jacob; and it shall be a New Jerusalem. And the powers of heaven shall be in the midst of this people; yea, even I will be in the midst of you." (3 Nephi 20:21-22).
[Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]
“The Powers of Heaven Shall Be in the Midst of This People”
In a journal note dated December 16, 1984, Patsy O'Donnal, daughter of president John O'Donnal of the Guatemala City Temple noted the following concerning the dedication ceremonies:
During the ninth session I had another spiritual experience that began as we and the choir from the Guatemala Las Victorias Stake who was to sing in the session were waiting to enter the temple. I was overcome as I looked at their faces and saw pure and delightsome youth entering there-also a fulfillment of prophecy. They sang beautifully throughout the session, but particularly the final "Hosanna Anthem" and when the congregation joined them in singing "The Spirit of God Like a Fire Is Burning." During the chorus when we sang, "We'll sing and we'll shout with the armies of heaven"-in Spanish it is translated "with the hosts of heaven"-I saw, directly above the choir, a heavenly choir, dressed in white, all with white hair; and I felt the "hosts" of heaven that filled the Celestial Room. The beauty and the volume of the singing was intensified by the heavenly choir. Never had that hymn had so much meaning. I was so filled with the Spirit and totally overcome with emotion that I could no longer sing. Even now, as I recall the experience, my emotions can not be controlled. This was an experience I will never forget. (p. 323).
President Hinckley said that he has participated in the dedication of many temples, perhaps more than any other man in the Church alive today, and he had felt the presence of the Spirit of the Lord in many places, but did not know that he had ever felt it so strongly as he had felt it here today. He said that while Daddy was speaking, a vision opened up to him of the history of he Book of Mormon and of all of Lehi's children; how they had been led away by the foolish traditions of their father and because of it had suffered greatly and lived in poverty and ignorance for generations, and had been refined in the fires of terrible adversity. He said the completion of a temple here in Guatemala is a culmination of hopes and dreams of thousands of years. It is the fulfillment of the promises made to Lehi and Nephi that their seed would not be utterly lost. He said he has been touched more deeply than he could explain, by Daddy's and Momma's words, and has come to realize "that they have been a part of the Lord's plan, instruments in the hand of God to assist in bringing about the redemption of His wayward children." All that has happened in Daddy's life and all that he has been able to accomplish here, he was chosen and foreordained to do, to bring to pass the fulfillment of the promises to Lehi's children. President Hinckley was also impressed that a vision of the temple in Guatemala was given to someone else, years before it was given to the prophet. (p. 322)
The person President Hinckley was referring to as having had a previous vision of the Guatemala Temple was John O'Donnal, a pioneer of the gospel in Guatemala and first president of the Guatemala City Temple there. He details the account of his vision as follows:
In 1956 there was a lot of pressure on me to be assigned elsewhere and leave Guatemala. I made preparations to go to Brazil, where my supervisors wanted me to trade with one who was working there. After arranging my passport and having the trip arranged, I started for the South Coast, where my family was. It was a very rainy afternoon, there was a detour on the highway, and I took the detour. I had to cross the railroad tracks and there I had an accident with the train. My life was saved; the car was destroyed. This was on May 12, 1956.
I was taken to the hospital at Tiquisate, and later I had to go to the hospital in Guatemala City for surgery. As I was recuperating, (and I have thought a lot about relating this, since it was a very personal experience; however, today and in the previous sessions we have heard many personal experiences), I had a very personal spiritual experience in which the Lord told me that He had saved my life because my work here was not finished but that my life was not my own. He told me that there was going to be a temple here in Guatemala City, and He showed me the temple in a vision.
These things, during the course of the revelation, I dictated to my wife and she wrote them down on May 18, 1956--9:45 a.m.
"My mind is very clear, I can hardly speak as my tongue feels like cotton, but it is a vision. . . . There will be a temple built here in Guatemala, a beautiful temple, so that the promises of the prophets will be fulfilled. Many poor, barefoot, dirty, ragged and dark-skinned will enter the temple; and as they come forth from the temple they will appear white and pure, happy to have covenanted with God. I felt my life has been spared, conditionally, that I must take good care of myself, for my life is not my own. My mission here is not finished, there is much left to do. . . . As you leave from 'La Aurora', on the right there are several hills whose foundation are of volcanic sand. But among them is one of solid rock, and there our temple will be erected! I can now see it with its imposing splendor, and to it will go the just and faithful, to receive their blessings and the Lord's commandments." (p. 95)
I have a confirmation of this [vision]. . . . The Lord told me that the temple was going to be built upon solid rock. In drilling a well here on this lot beside the temple, they had to drill through more than two hundred feet of solid rock. Yet in all the surrounding areas here in Vista Hermosa the subsoil is of pumice--volcanic sand. This temple, I am sure, has a special mission. . . . It was not a coincidence that in the vision I saw of the temple, the people I saw entering and leaving were pure Lamanites." [John O'Donnal, Pioneer in Guatemala: The Personal History of John Forres O'Donnal, Including the History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Guatemala, pp. 95, 318, 322, 323]
3 Nephi 20:22 The power of heaven shall be in the midst of this people ([Illustration)]: The Guatemala City Temple. Guatemala City Temple Presidency and Matrons 1984. (Front row L-R: Mae Flake, 2nd Assistant--Carmen O'Donnal, Matron--Ruth Skousen, 1st Assistant. (Back row L-R: President Conde, President O'Donnal and President Skousen. [John O'Donnal, Pioneer in Guatemala: The Personal History of John Forres O'Donnal, Including the History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Guatemala, pp. 335, 337]