President Hinckley’s 1997 Travels

Some time after he was sustained as President of the Church, Gordon B. Hinckley said: “I am determined that while I have strength I will get out among the people at home and abroad to express my appreciation, to give encouragement, to build faith, to teach, to add my testimony to theirs and at the same time to draw strength from them. … I intend to keep moving with energy for as long as I can” (“This Glorious Easter Morn,” Ensign, May 1996, 65–66).

The year 1997 represented another busy year as President Hinckley traveled to locations on three continents and several isles of the sea. Following are chronological highlights of visits outside of Utah:

January—Jacksonville, Florida; Panama City, Panama; San José, Costa Rica; Managua, Nicaragua; San Pedro Sula, Honduras; San Salvador, El Salvador; Guatemala City, Guatemala

February—Palm Springs, California

March—Glendale, California; Knoxville, Tennessee; Santa Clara, California

April—Nauvoo, Illinois; Omaha, Nebraska; Elko, Nevada; College Park, Maryland

May—Sun Ranch, Wyoming; Hamilton, New Zealand; Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, and Brisbane, Australia

June—Colonia Juárez, Mexico

July—Simpson’s Hollow, Wyoming

August—Montevideo, Uruguay; Asunción, Paraguay; Guayaquil and Quito, Ecuador; Valencia, Venezuela

September—Denver, Colorado; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Window Rock and Mesa, Arizona; Evanston, Wyoming

October—Laie, Hawaii; Savaii and Apia, Samoa; Pago Pago, American Samoa; Nuku‘alofa and Vava‘u, Tonga; Suva, Fiji; Papeete, Tahiti

November—Mexico City, Puebla, Oaxaca, Villahermosa, and Mérida, Mexico; Belize City, Belize; Cancún, Mexico; Atlanta, Georgia

December—No visits outside Utah

President Hinckley in the Pacific. (Photo by Gerry Avant, Church News.)