IPOMEIA, Brazil — Recent convert Alessandra Neri Custodio, 23, always had members of the Church at her side during special moments of her life. First when she was 8, she and her parents listened to the message of the missionaries. Her family didn't accept it, but she never forgot about the "Mormons." At age 15, she had a dream in which Jesus Christ, seated on a rock, taught that "all had a mission here on Earth."
At 17, in high school, she had an LDS teacher. "He really was different from the other teachers I had," she said, reflecting on the significance he had in her life.
At 19, she married and had a child, who passed away soon after the birth. In the same nursery, there was an LDS mother who comforted her greatly. In 2003, as she was walking past a door which led to the LDS chapel in Joinville, Santa Catarina, she seemed to hear a voice telling her strongly that she would one day enter there. In June of the same year, a neighboring family caught her attention with the loving way they treated each other. Soon she became friends with that family, and they invited her to attend church with them. How surprised she was when she saw that it was the same chapel she had been passing and felt impressed she would someday enter.
The Relief Society lesson that day explained that each person had a mission here on earth, and upon being presented with a copy of the Liahona, she was shocked to see that on the cover was a painting of the Savior, just as she had seen in her dream 16 years earlier. This confirmed her certainty that this is the true Church, and that she should become a member. Sister Custodio was baptized in August of 2003.
She is now one of more than 880,000 members in 186 stakes, 52 districts and more than 1,500 wards and branches in Brazil. And from one first mission have come 26 missions in which approximately 5,000 missionaries are serving. The Church in Brazil is expected to reach a million members within another two years or so.
Experiences such as those of Sister Custodio have changed lives since the first LDS German families immigrated to Brazil. The Max Richard Zapf family arrived in 1913. The Lippelt family, father Robert, mother Auguste and their seven children, were living in Germany after World War I, when their fourth child became gravely ill. One day, says descendant and family historian, Henrique Blind, this fourth child who was dying, looked at his sister who was 12 years his senior and said, "Here in this room. . . just a bit ago were our grandparents, who said to me that next Thursday, at this hour, they will come get me and I will be dying. . . And on the Sunday after my death, when you are going to church, a woman will invite you to attend her church with her. And this other church is the one to which our grandparents want you to belong."
Exactly as he had said, on the specified day and at the specified hour, he died. On the following Sunday, the Lippelt children were going to their Protestant church, when on the road they encountered a Sister Demmel, who invited them to accompany her to the church of which she was a member, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They remembered the words of their deceased brother, and on July 20, 1920, the mother and the children who were old enough were baptized members of the Church. They immigrated to Brazil in 1923, where they were later joined by the Zapf family, forming the first permanent presence of the Church here. Three years later, the immigrated to Brazil and settled in Ipomeia.
And it all began in Ipomeia. Ipomeia, or Morning Glory, is a plant, whose flowers are in the form of a trumpet.
"It was my grandmother who wrote to President Heber J. Grant, asking that he send missionaries here," said Henrique Joo Blind. President Grant asked her to contact the president of the South American Mission, in Argentina, Elder Reinhold Stoof, who the family had previously known in Germany. Soon, President Stoof visited the Lippelt family in Ipomeia and held the first sacrament meeting in 1927. From there, other pioneer families were discovered, such as the Zapf family, or were baptized, such as the Blinds, the Bauers, the Hacks and the Kirstens, all of whom had come from Germany.
In that year, 1927, Elder Stoof and Elder Waldo Stoddard arrived in Joinville, where they contacted more than 100 people and spoke about the Church. The following year, two missionaries began hard work, teaching practically in the German language, holding Sunday School and Primary meetings in the homes of investigators. They succeeded in teaching even more discussions showing "Utah and Its People," in a theater in the city, which up to 400 people attended. In three months of work, they had 70 people attending the Sunday meetings.
The Sell family was the first to be baptized in Joinville, on April 14, 1929. Acilda Sell was three years old when her family was baptized. "I loved going to Primary. I went to Church in a white dress bordered with bluebirds on the front and back. We also participated often in skits," she said.
Many others joined the Church, such as Carlos Otto and his wife, Martha Kaster Otto. Their granddaughter, Norma Halter, today 63 years old, told how her Portestant grandparents were invited by the Sell family to attend Church meetings. Their ecclesiastical leader declared that "This church, of the American spies (as they often called the missionaries), will not grow here in Joinville."
Two years later, on Oct. 25, President Stoof dedicated in Joinville the first chapel in South America. Six missionaries and 98 members and investigators were present.
Sister Halter remembers the growth of the Church in the region, together with the growth of the city itself. "Only my mother and my siblings were members of the Church. My father, Francisco Halter, wanted us to attend even though he was not a member. Twenty-five years later, he was baptized and seemed to want to make up for lost time. He became one of the greatest missionaries that I have ever seen. He spoke about the Church to everyone, whether it was on the street or in our home. Because of this, many joined the Church. Half of the Boa Vista Ward here in Joinville, in fact, were invited by him to hear the gospel of Christ."
The little branch that was run by missionaries has now become seven wards and a stake, with approximately 3,000 members, according to the stake executive secretary, Jose Carlos Jakti. Joni Rieper, a fourth-generation descendant of the Ottos and son of Norma Halter and John Rieper, is a bishop and his son is serving a mission in Belem. "My grandson baptized one evangelical person a short time ago and at his baptismal service there were more than 40 investigators. Imagine how this work is expanding. It is a miracle," Sister Halter affirms.
It was not in vain that when prophesying about the restoration of the gospel, the Lord began "a marvelous work and a wonder" (2 Nephi 27:26). Joinville became the fastest growing district in the South American Mission, along with being the foundation of powerful and great leaders of the Church.
Elder Spencer W. Kimball, who dedicated the first Church-built chapel in Brazil in Ipomeia, made a statement that has been the directive for the growth of the Church in the almost 80 years in Brazil. He referred to the crucial role of the mothers in Zion and of concern for the futures of the children and youth: "The hand that rocks the cradle governs the world."
It truly was the women who were the great pioneers and protagonists of this progress. According to the first records kept by John D. Peterson in the South American Mission, which included Brazil and Argentina, at the end of 1934 there were 57 men (only one of whom had been ordained an elder) and 132 women, as well as 52 children affiliated with the Church in Brazil. Relief Society and Primary were the strongest auxiliary organizations of the era. "In Primary we learned to do needlework, attach buttons and draw," remembers Gisela Halter, 70, daughter of Toni Barsch, who was the first Relief Society president in Brazil. In the first women's meeting in 1933, there were 24 sisters present.
"The importance of the old manuals, holding family home evening, family prayer, all of this was fundamental in helping the Church to arrive where it did and much of that is due to the mothers. I owe so much to my own mother, who persevered alone in the beginning, paying tithing hidden from my father," remembers Norma Halter, referring to her mother, Hedwig Elvira Otto.
In 1935, with the creation of the first mission in Brazil, the first meeting in Sao Paulo was held in the home of Sister Liselotte Schumm, with three members, two friends and President Howells, the new mission president, and his wife. After the second world war, membership practically tripled in the South American Mission. The previously sluggish growth exploded, thanks also to the Portuguese translation of the Book of Mormon and the teaching of discussions in the native language. Soon the work began to extend across Brazil, arriving in the metropolitan centers and interior cities of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Parana, Pernambuco and Amazonas.
Angelo Bueno Perillo was baptized in Belo Horizonte in 1960, along with his wife, Ruth. At the time, the branch president was a missionary. Brother Perillo became part of the first branch presidency in that place. Because of his profession, he relocated several times and became an instrument in the hands of the Lord by aiding in the creation and strengthening of the Church in various locations, such as Niteroi, Sete Lagoas and Brasilia, where he served as branch president and as district president. "In Sete Lagoas, I was called by Elder James E. Faust to help strengthen the branch. I would take the missionaries to visit every person I met. From April to December of that year, they baptized 77 people," Brother Perillo said.
Another remarkable experience was with the work in the Brasilia District. At the time, during the 1970s, the district included all of the Federal District (Brasilia), along with Goiania, Anapolis, Uberlandia and Uberaba. Brother Perillo, as president, attended all of these units. Many times he had to leave Brasilia, traveling eight to ten hours before reaching Uberlandia and Uberaba. The cities, next to each other, were located in another state, Minas Gerais. In the morning he would visit one unit and in the afternoon he would visit the other. At night, he would begin his journey home. "Today, almost all of these cities have their own stakes: Sete Lagoas, Belo Horizonte, Niteroi, Anapolis, Goiania, Uberlandia and Brasilia," said Brother Perillo, almost 80 and patriarch of the Belo Horizonte Brazil Stake.
In 1966, the first stake of South America was created in Sao Paulo. Osiris Cabral, son of Osiris Cabral Tavares, counselor in the newly created stake, remembers that it was a busy time. "We didn't have a great knowledge of the doctrine," he said. "We were more involved in cultural events: theater and choirs, among others. But this all served as the foundation for the strengthening of the Church and greater knowledge of the doctrine, which came principally by way of institute and seminary."
Antonio Carlos Cavalcanti, bishop of the Bandeirantes Ward in Belo Horizonte, was the first missionary from Salvador. His father, Evilasio Cavalcanti, became acquainted with the Church in Maceio and eight years later, in 1978, became the first president of the Salvador Branch. At the time, there were only two families. "It took two years before the branch had 40 people regularly attending," said Brother Cavalcanti. "Today, Salvador has three stakes."
And in Belo Horizonte, which also has three stakes, in Bishop Cavalcanti's ward eight more people were baptized. Among them were the couple Lidio and Edite and half of their children. The joy of the entire family was visible after the confirmations. "I feel so happy, at peace, and I hope that my other children will also follow this gospel," said Edite.
E-mail to oliveiraACS@ldschurch.org
In early 2005, the Church News will publish a second article about the growth of the Church in Brazil.
