The following biographical sketch is adapted from
the "News of the Church: Elder Horacio A. Tenorio of the Second Quorum
of the Seventy" published in the Ensign May 1989 on the occasion
of Elder Tenorio's call to the Second Quorum of the Seventy.
Horacio Tenorio laughed when his wife, Maria Teresa,
told him that she had made an appointment to meet with some missionaries
at her mother’s house and that he had to go there with her to help refute
their religious claims.
He went with her every day, for three and a half
months, to hear the doctrine they taught. But instead of opposing the Church,
his wife came to feel that she had found the truth. He kept studying the
gospel long after his wife knew she should join the Church. Then one night
as he read the scriptures, “I felt the Spirit of the Lord, and it told
me that everything the missionaries had taught was the truth.” He woke
his wife to say, “Let’s be baptized. I’m ready.”
On July 26, it will be twenty years since Elder Horacio
A. Tenorio of the new Second Quorum of the Seventy joined the Church with
his wife. During most of those years, he has been deeply involved in Church
service as branch president, bishop, counselor in a stake presidency, stake
president, Regional Representative over five regions, president of the
Mexico Torreon Mission, and—most recently—Regional Representative over
seven regions along Mexico’s west coast.
Elder Tenorio says the organization of the Second
Quorum of the Seventy is a historic event that will bring blessings to
Latter-day Saints throughout the world. This will be particularly beneficial
in Mexico, where growth of the Church has greatly increased the work load
of leaders.
Despite the rapid pace of Church growth in Mexico
in recent years, Elder Tenorio says, “I believe it’s barely beginning.”
In ten years, he points out, Mexico will have more than thirty thousand
returned missionaries to swell the Church’s leadership corps, and there
is the potential for Mexico’s ninety-six stakes to become two hundred or
more.
Part of his enthusiasm about Church growth in Mexico
stems from the enjoyment he finds in serving others. “He loves and respects
people, and it’s satisfying to me that he will have this opportunity to
serve,” says Sister Tenorio. Through the years of their membership, both
have grown through serving in Church callings. “Service has helped me always
to be closer to the Lord,” Maria Tenorio says.
Horacio Tenorio was born in Mexico’s capital city
on 6 March 1936, a son of Leopoldo Horacio Tenorio, a chemist, and Blanca
Otilia Tenorio, a journalist. When Horacio was ten, his parents moved the
family to Ciudad Obregon, in the state of
Sonora. There he grew up and met Maria. They were married on 25 July
1957, then moved to Mexico City. That is where their three daughters, Maria
Teresa, Monica, and Maria del Rocio, were born.
When the Tenorios were first married, Brother Tenorio
sold cars and trucks. He later became manager of purchasing and sales for
an electrical cable company. For ten years he was manager of purchasing,
then director of materials management for the Church in Mexico. After serving
as mission president from 1982 to 1985, he started a business distributing
ice-cream flavorings, then another distributing irrigation systems.
His daughter Maria Teresa (Mrs. Kent) Player, now
of South Carolina, recognizes her father’s many strengths. Even so, his
calling took her by surprise because there are so many fine leaders in
Mexico, she says. “You don’t think this kind of thing will happen. But
I’m very proud of him.”
Her father’s ability to work hard will help in his
calling, she explains. “When he sets his mind to do something, he does
it.”
The ability to work hard, coupled with a desire to
be firm in obedience, are two of the strengths he offers in his calling,
Elder Tenorio says. He has confidence that he can receive help when it
is needed. “I know that when I am serving the Lord, He will never leave
me alone.”
Elder Tenorio faithfully fulfilled his five-year call
to the Second Quorum of the Seventy and was honorably released October
1, 1994. He became a sealer in the Mexico City Mexico Temple while his wife also served as a Temple Ordinance worker and was called to teach the Gospel Doctrine Class in Sunday School.
The September 1, 2007 edition of the Church News announced that Elder Tenorio and his wife were called to three year terms as President and Matron of the Monterey Mexico Temple, their service to begin November 1 of the same year.
