In the spring of 2024, Elder Martin P. Fernández and Elder Ulysse “Lee” G. McCann II entered the same hotel elevator and began a conversation that led to a profound discovery.
Initially, they realized they were both serving as Area Seventies in the Twelfth Quorum of the Seventy of the Utah Area of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
As their conversation progressed, Elder Fernández inquired, “Are you related to Lee McCann?”
“Yes,” Elder McCann said. “Lee McCann is my father.”
“Did your father serve in Argentina in 1961?” Elder Fernández said.
“Yes,” Elder McCann confirmed.
Elder Fernández bear-hugged Elder McCann. “Your father baptized my father,” he said.
A short time later, Elder Fernández, accompanied by his wife and daughter, visited the home of Lee and Barbara McCann in Highland, Utah, where they recounted the events leading to a 1961 baptismal service in Resistencia, Argentina. Elder Fernández expressed his personal love and appreciation to the missionary who brought the blessings of the gospel to his family more than 60 years ago.
“When we share the gospel, Heavenly Father can bless generations,” Elder Fernández said.
The heartfelt reunion took place on May 3 of this year, coinciding with the Church’s commemoration of its 100th anniversary in South America.
Getting started in Resistencia
Charles L. Snelgrove presided over the Argentine Mission in 1961 when full-time missionaries Lee McCann and Steven Ogden became companions in Resistencia, a city in the northeastern part of Argentina, near the border of Paraguay.
There were only 100 Church members in all of Argentina at that time, according to Elder Fernández.
In his journal, Ogden recorded that he and his previous companion baptized the man who became the first branch president, then McCann arrived.
“He was a workaholic, so we started tracting 10 hours a day instead of three, and within a month, we had almost more investigators than we could teach,” Ogden wrote.
McCann, who had been in the country about six months, said he and Ogden immediately tracted “every bit” of Resistencia but were unsuccessful in finding people to teach.
Unsure of what to do next, the missionaries devoted a weekend to fasting and prayer. They ventured out again the following Monday and were blessed to find three families, including Ana Fernández, Elder Fernández’s grandmother.
The missionaries’ first lesson appeared to have little impact on her.
“I don’t think she understood anything,” said McCann, who didn’t think there was much hope in returning. “But we didn’t have anything else to do, so we went back.”
With each subsequent lesson, Ana Fernández’s understanding increased, and she progressed towards baptism. She was also joined by others, including 12-year-old Amelia, 10-year-old Daniel — Elder Fernández’s aunt and uncle — as well as his father, Carlos, who was then 15 years old.
Testimony of the Book of Mormon
Elder Fernández heard his father tell the story of his conversion many times.
After returning home from a basketball practice, everyone was asleep when Carlos Fernández found a blue book with strange figure on the cover — “A man wearing a dress playing a trumpet over a ball,” Elder Fernández said, referring to an image of the Angel Moroni. “He started reading it, and he loved it.”
That night the young man read from 1 Nephi to near the end of Mosiah. He found a handwritten message from the missionaries next to the book that read, “If you want to know if this book is true, read Moroni 10:3-5, and ask God.” Carlos Fernández prayed and received an answer that night.
The next morning he asked his mother about the book. She told him two “gringos” brought it and would return soon.
A few days later, the missionaries invited the families they were teaching to a cottage meeting, an informal home gathering where food was served, and the missionaries showed a filmstrip about the Book of Mormon.
Toward the end of the lesson, Carlos Fernández raised his hand and asked if he could say something. McCann worried the young man might disrupt the lesson, but allowed him to speak.
“My father said, ‘I know what these elders are saying is true. I have read the Book of Mormon and it is true,’” Elder Fernández said.
Much to the missionaries’ astonishment, the teenager had read the entire book of scripture “cover-to-cover” in three days.
“I was ecstatic. I was grateful. I couldn’t believe it, how golden he was,” Lee McCann said.
The baptism and beyond
On a hot Saturday evening in the summer of 1961, four members of the Fernández family — Ana, Daniel, Amelia, and Carlos — were among the 13 people baptized by the missionaries in the Rio Negro, a river near Resistencia.
According to Elder Fernández, from those four baptisms have come:
- 23 missionaries who have served all over the world, including Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Chile, Argentina and the United States.
- A host of Relief Society presidents, Young Women presidents and Primary presidents at ward and stake levels.
- 10 bishops and branch presidents.
- Five stake presidents.
- Four Area Seventies.
- Three mission presidents.
- One temple president.
- One stake patriarch.
One of the main pillars in this family legacy was Carlos Fernández. Years after his baptism, as a young Church leader in Resistencia, he traveled by bus to Cordoba, Argentina, to attend training meetings. That’s where he met his wife, Beatriz Ogayar, who was a mission secretary for Argentina North Mission President Richard G. Scott, later called as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
The couple married and was later sealed in the Los Angeles California Temple.
After joining the Church, Carlos served as a branch president, district president, stake president, regional representative, counselor in Montevideo Uruguay Temple presidency, president of the Argentina Cordoba Mission, Area Seventy, president of the Buenos Aires Argentina Temple and stake patriarch. He died on Feb. 24, 2024, at the age of 78.
Gospel connections
Over the years, unexpected reunions involving the Fernández, McCann and Ogden families have taken place.
Richard McCann, Lee’s son, was serving as a missionary in Resistencia when Carlos Fernández, a local Church leader, noticed his name tag at a meeting. Elder McCann was soon wrapped in a bear hug.
When Carlos Fernández came to the United States to be set apart as an Area Seventy by Elder Scott, he stayed at Lee McCann’s house and invited him to attend the setting-apart.
“That was really special,” Lee McCann said.
This past April, when Elder Martin Fernández was participating in the organization of the Orem Utah Mountain View Spanish Stake, he met Heath Ogden, son of Steven Ogden.
“You can imagine my joy when I realized he was the son of one of the missionaries who baptized my father,” Elder Fernández said.
Missions and sharing the gospel
Lee McCann was satisfied all his life knowing about the faithfulness of those original converts. Learning the rest of the story filled his heart with true joy.
“I was really impressed. To find out how that family has contributed to the leadership of Resistencia, Argentina, for so long ... you never know when something like that is going to happen,” he said. “A missionary may only baptize one person, but you never know how far reaching that one baptism is going to be. In this case, it was pretty far reaching.”
His son, Elder Ulysse G. McCann II, said it was a “full circle moment” few missionaries get to experience.
“It’s neat to see the fruit of my father’s service as a missionary 60 years later, and to see this family blossom in Argentina and be part of the foundation of the Church in Resistencia,” he said.
Many years after his mission, Ogden and his wife, Toni, returned as leaders of the Argentina Cordoba Mission. Ogden died on Nov. 7, 2023, at the age of 81.
Chad and Trent Ogden, Steven Ogden’s sons, described their father’s decision to serve a mission as a turning point in his life. He had an opportunity to play major college football but felt a spiritual impression that doing so might lead him away from the faith. After discussing his feelings with his bishop, he received a mission call to Argentina.
Ogden recorded in his journal: “In Resistencia, I gained a great testimony of Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith. ... We were teaching more people and baptizing more in Resistencia than anywhere in the mission. We were blessed and we worked hard. It was hard to leave Resistencia because of the many people that I had learned to love after being there 13 months.”
Chad Ogden said his father’s choice to serve a mission “changed everything.”
“He almost did not get on a mission,” he said. “Because he made that choice, it affected our family in a lot of different ways. Now we are learning that his choice not only affected our family, but thousands of others.”
Added Trent Ogden: “Serving missions has become part of our family culture, and I think Dad’s example of doing that when he was young is an important part of that.”
For Elder Martin Fernández, this is a “goosebump” story. He especially loves sharing the part about his father finding the Book of Mormon and reading all night. It reminds him of Alma 37:6, which says that “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.”
“The Lord works by small and simple means, then great things come to pass, like two missionaries knocking on a door and leaving a Book of Mormon,” he said. “Doing that blessed my father, his children and grandchildren — generations are blessed when we share the gospel."
