SANTIAGO, Chile — With joy and gratitude, thousands of Latter-day Saints and their friends celebrated the 100th anniversary of the official beginning of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South America.
Around 4,000 people filled an arena in Santiago, Chile, on Saturday, June 14, to watch the program full of music, dances and messages, while around 10,000 others watched online from throughout the country.
Bringing the greetings and love of the First Presidency with him, Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles paid tribute to pioneers of the Church in Chile and invited all to rejoice in the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“I testify that priesthood keys have been restored in this dispensation,” he said. “I bear witness of Jesus Christ, I bear testimony that He is the Son of the Living God, the Savior of the world.”
This year marks 100 years since South America was dedicated for the preaching of the gospel. In late 1925, Elder Melvin J. Ballard offered a prayer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, blessing the continent. Then in 1926, he prophesied that the Church would grow “as an oak grows slowly from an acorn” — small and slow at first, but increasing in size and strength.
“Thousands will join the Church here,” Elder Ballard said then.
Today, almost 4.4 million members of the Church live in South America, in nearly 5,600 congregations.
Each country in the Church’s South America South Area — Chile, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay — is holding events to commemorate the 100th anniversary, such as large cultural celebrations, service activities and 100 humanitarian donations throughout the year.
At the Saturday event in the National Stadium Park of the Ñuñoa commune in Santiago, Elder Stevenson invited Chilean pioneers of the Church and those who were among the first missionaries from the country to stand. Children of some of the first members in the country also stood to loud applause.
“We love you and are grateful for the legacy of your families,” Elder Stevenson told them. “We recognize each and every one of you.”
A video highlighted the growth of the Church in South America. Elder Stevenson said in Chile specifically: “Your vineyard has grown to over 600,000 members and 570 congregations. … All of this began one member at a time, and it continues in the same way.”
Elder Stevenson was joined by his wife, Sister Lesa Stevenson, and Elder Joaquin E. Costa, General Authority Seventy and president of the South America South Area.
Sister Stevenson told the audience how grateful she was to be with them. “It is a dream come true for us. We have been waiting many months to come be with you and to help you celebrate this 100 years.”
Yannina Loyola from the Valparaiso Chile Stake said the event was exciting. She is from a pioneer family in Isla de Maipo and said how grateful she is that her ancestors joined the Church.
“This very historic moment makes us deeply grateful for the love of our Heavenly Father, to be able to think about these lands and also to have the opportunity to celebrate with Elder Stevenson. It is a privilege to be close to an Apostle on this important occasion,” she said.
Lo Cañas Ward Bishop Washington F. Calquin, in the Santiago Chile La Florida Stake, called the centennial event “spectacular.” He said his family has been in the Church for five generations.
“My life is fulfilled thanks to the Savior’s doctrine. This religion is a way of life; it’s about making you happy on earth and in heaven,” he said.
‘Ye shall know them by their fruits’
Elder Costa told the Church News some of his thoughts about the 100th anniversary.
“The Savior said that ‘ye shall know them by their fruits’ (Matthew 7:16). The growth of the Church in the area is a testimony of a good seed that is making good fruits,” Elder Costa said.
Not that long ago members had to travel to the United States or to Brazil to seal families for eternity. The São Paulo Brazil Temple, dedicated in 1978, was the first on the South American continent. The Santiago Chile Temple was dedicated in 1983.
With the Antofagasta Chile Temple dedication Sunday, June 15, South America has 30 dedicated temples, with 31 more under construction or in planning stages. The continent has 104 missions.
Elder Costa said the centennial events provide opportunities to invite friends of the Church, honor missionaries who served from the area, invite members back to the covenant path and speak to government and community leaders.
“The centennial celebration is an opportunity to help the Lord hasten His work,” Elder Costa said.
South America historian and author Mark L. Grover wrote to the Church News that one of the two most important missionary events of the Church was the sending of Apostle missionaries to Great Britain in the 1840s and 1850s.
“The second event is the evolution of the Church in Latin America beginning in Mexico in the 1870s but later the beginning in Argentina in 1925. The growth was slow, but after 1975/1980, the expansion was so great that the growth in Latin America changed the Church,” Grover said.
Grover said the two American continents represent 80% of the baptized membership of the Church. “For that reason I believe that 1925 is a watershed event in Church history not for what happened in that year but what occurred many years afterward.”
As Elder Stevenson spoke to different groups in Uruguay, Argentina and Chile during June, he testified to them that the Lord is hastening His work. And he quoted President Russell M. Nelson, who said, “The best is yet to come.”
Omner Pratt’s memorial
Part of the history of the Church in South America involves another Apostle’s journey — and his trial and sacrifice.
On Thursday, June 12, Elder Stevenson visited the Dissidents Cemetery in the hills of Valparaíso, Chile, where Elder Parley P. Pratt’s infant son Omner is buried.
In 1851, Elder Pratt sailed with his wife, Phoebe, to Chile, where she gave birth to Omner. The baby died after only 38 days of life. The cemetery record lists the cause of death as “weakness.”
Elder Stevenson viewed the memorial plaque on the wall and the official record from 1852 containing Omner and Elder Pratt’s names on the page.
The cemetery director invited Elder Stevenson to leave a message in a book, in which Elder Stevenson wrote how thankful he was for the care, honor and respect the cemetery and caretaker’s family have had over the generations.
“We are humbled by their great sacrifice and for the charitable watchcare and allowance to place a plaque to memorialize the short life of Omner Pratt,” wrote Elder Stevenson, signing it, “With warmest gratitude.”
Later, Elder Stevenson said the opportunity to see the memorial and the book was touching.
“This caused my heart to swell inside as I thought about the sacrifice that Elder and Sister Pratt made, leaving their infant son behind as they returned back to their work in Salt Lake City,” he said.
Trials and sacrifices like these have been made over the years by many members of the Church, Elder Stevenson said. “We truly stand on the shoulders of so many who endured so much to bring the Lord’s work to its worldwide presence today.”
Les Eclaireurs lighthouse
Before coming to Chile, Elder Stevenson was in Ushuaia, Argentina, which is in Tierra del Fuego at the southern end of Argentina and known as the city “at the end of the world.” Antarctica is approximately 680 miles away.
On Wednesday, June 11, Elder Stevenson took a boat from Ushuaia to the Les Eclaireurs lighthouse, which was built in 1920.
There he observed that as the lighthouse has successfully guided sailors for over 100 years, the gospel of Jesus Christ has served as a lighthouse in the lives of Latter-day Saints for the past 100 years in South America — and continues to do so.
With the lighthouse behind him, he read Alma 26:37: “We see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth.”
Pablo and Valeria Acosta of the Tierra del Fuego Argentina Stake attended Elder Stevenson’s devotional in Ushuaia on Tuesday, June 10, with their three children.
Pablo Acosta said the Lord is mindful of their young stake, which was created in 2019 and is the Church’s southernmost stake in the world.
“We are celebrating these 100 years just as it was announced in the dedicatory blessing — that growth would start slowly and then become exponential. And we trust what was taught in the last conference, that the next 100 years will be even better, as President Nelson said. And we believe that Tierra del Fuego will be part of that.”
As they wait and pray for a temple to be built closer to them, they take to heart Elder Stevenson’s teachings that families are key.
“Let’s strengthen families, and the rest will come. That is the promise,” Pablo Acosta said.
Valeria Acosta said she felt happy and blessed to have an Apostle of the Lord visit. “I liked that I felt instruction as a mother, to be able to improve our home, our family.”
Elder Crew Harrop from Layton, Utah, serving in the Argentina Comodoro Rivadavia Mission, learned, “We can have the temple within our homes and have the blessings from the temple even being so far away.”
His companion, Elder Hemaloto Katoa from Lehi, Utah, said he felt impressed to think about what specific actions he can do to make his home a little closer to a temple.
And Elder Cristiano Silva from Campo Grande, Brazil, said, “I feel in my heart the desire to grow in my home, my faith and my testimony in Jesus Christ.”
Inviting others to come unto Christ
Other missionaries in Chile reflected on the 100th anniversary and what they have been learning from Elder Stevenson — including one senior missionary in the Chile Santiago North Mission named Sister Debbie Hales Stuetz, who served with Elder Stevenson when they were both young full-time missionaries in the Japan Fukuoka Mission.
Sister Stuetz and Elder Stevenson had a warm reunion on Saturday, June 14, in Santiago, when Elder Stevenson spoke to the Chile Santiago North Mission. Sister Stuetz told the Church News that Elder Stevenson was her zone leader and remembered many details of those days and her life. Meeting again in a different place was a beautiful surprise — and a blessing from heaven, she said.
Sister Stuetz also said the 100th anniversary is an exciting time, and missionaries have been able to talk about it with friends of the Church.
Elder Diogo Evaristo from São Paulo, Brazil, serving in the Chile Viña del Mar Mission, said for him, the gospel means liberty or freedom.
“Normally people think the gospel is just rules that will restrain them. But the gospel helped me with things that were restraining me. So I think the gospel does not restrain people but sets them free,” he said.
His companion, Elder Elijah Pool from Springfield, Missouri, said missionaries are not just there to baptize people, “We’re here to make lifelong members.”
Nearby, Sister Sofia Delgado from Bucaramanga, Colombia, added how she learned that Elder Stevenson has the same missionary purpose as them. “That’s the whole point of everything — to bring others to Christ, invite people to come unto Christ, and for me it was amazing to see how an Apostle also does that work.”
