Desideria Quintanar de Yanez was the first woman baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico. She was born in 1814 and a direct descendant of Cuauhtemoc, one of the last Aztec emperors in the late 1500s. Her life was that of a typical Mexican woman at the time – focused on helping to provide for her family by raising maize and vegetables, making endless numbers of tortillas, and tending to her children. Her town, Nopala, was burned when Maximilian invaded Mexico in the 1860s.

Early in 1880 when she was about sixty-six years old, Desideria had a dream. The central image of the dream was a pamphlet called La voz de amonestacion {A Voice of Warning} which she learned in her dream would aid her spiritually. She also saw that the pamphlet was being published by men in Mexico City. Because her health was too poor to travel the seventy-five miles from Nopala to Mexico City she sent her son, Jose Maria Yanez to find these men and that pamphlet in early February. Through a series of inquiries Jose was finally able to find missionary James Z. Stewart. Elder Stewart noted in his journal on February 17 that he was correcting the printer’s proofs of thepamphlet when he “had a very interesting conversation with Senor Jose M. Yanez, Nopala de Estado de Hidalgo.”

Even though the pamphlet was not published yet and it would be another month until final copies were made available it was astonishing to the missionaries that a Mexican woman of great faith had received a dream about their work. Jose traveled back to his mother with the news that missionaries would come as soon as the pamphlet was printed. She, Jose and his daughter, were all baptized on April 22, 1880. Later Desideria would be the first person to receive a copy of the Book of Mormon in Spanish. Though she lived far away from other members of the church she remained true to her faith.

What I love about this story is Desideria ACTED upon her dream. She wasn’t content to wait and see if the pamphlet in her dream would come into her life but rather sought it out in the best way she could. I also love that her son knew his mother and trusted and loved her enough that he was willing to travel so far to seek out what she knew she needed in her life. What an amazing mother she must have been!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has now grown to include over 1 million members in Mexico with 12 temples and 26 missions. I love the Mexican heritage my own grandparents have passed on to me. Maybe I’ll tell their story another day.

Desideria was the first person to receive a copy of the Book of Mormon in Spanish. Now the Book of Mormon is in its entirety in 81 non-English languages, with selections of it published in another 25 languages. What a wonderful age we live in where the truths of the gospel are available to so many in their own native tongues!

You can read Desideria’s account in Spanish here.