Elder Octaviano Tenorio

Of the Seventy

Elder Octaviano Tenorio Domínguez knows that receiving the ordinances of the temple changes lives. It’s changed his, and he’s been in positions to see it change others’. “Stay close to the temple,” he urges.

Born on October 31, 1942, to Octaviano Tenorio and Flora Domínguez de Tenorio in Tilapan, Veracruz, Mexico, he joined the Church after his family moved to Rio Bravo in northern Mexico.

After earning a certificate in accounting and business, he met Rosa Elva Valenzuela González in Mexico City, where they now reside. They were sealed on January 4, 1974, in the Mesa Arizona Temple and are the parents of five children.

Early in his career, Elder Tenorio was approached about a position as manager of the Church’s Genealogical Service Center in Mexico. Doing well in his job in the publishing industry, he was not sure about taking the new position. But following a series of inspired events, he realized it was a job he was supposed to take.

“It changed my life’s course,” he says. It led to a life intertwined with family history and temple work.

After seven years in that job, during which time he served as stake president, he was called as the first recorder for the Mexico City Mexico Temple and as a sealer. He left the temple to preside over the Mexico Tuxtla Gutierrez Mission. He later managed the area’s Membership, Materials Management, and Welfare Services Departments, during which time he served as regional representative and later as Area Seventy.

Elder Tenorio later became the Mexico City Mexico Temple recorder again after his replacement retired.

“The temple has been a big part of my life,” he says, sad about the prospect of retiring, though he appreciates the service opportunities that his call to the First Quorum of the Seventy brings. “I believe it is through temple ordinances that we will find true happiness.”