The first time Milo LeBaron read his mission call in 1978, he could barely contain his nerves. “My hands trembled so much that my mother worried as I used a large kitchen knife to cut open the envelope containing the call,” he said. The letter read: “You are hereby called to serve in the Peru Arequipa Mission.”
A few months later he stepped into the small, mountainous jungle town of Quillabamba, Peru. “We baptized in rivers, found families eager to learn of Christ and saw lives change,” he recalled.
After five months, transfers came — and, like most new missionaries, he left “never imagining I would one day return.”
Called again — to the same town
Forty-seven years passed. Milo LeBaron and his wife, Julie LeBaron, prepared for a senior mission.
“We noticed the Peru Cusco Mission — covering several of my former areas — listed among available opportunities and placed it as our first choice,” he wrote to the Church News. “On my birthday in July 2024, we opened our call and rejoiced to learn we would serve there.”
When they arrived, their assignment was announced: Quillabamba — the very place he had helped open as a young elder. The town that once had no organized branch now has three.
A temple trip for 155
The nearest house of the Lord, the Arequipa Peru Temple, is 15 hours by bus — a distance that felt as formidable as the cost. “We learned that very few had ever been,” Elder LeBaron said.
Elder and Sister LeBaron reflected on that, discussing what the most effective use of their time as missionaries would be to help local Church members.
Tearing up, Elder LeBaron told Church News, “We decided that helping them get to the temple and make those covenants and to become eternal families ... would hopefully jump-start, give energy, give the Spirit, give everything they need here to stay active, to grow, to reactivate, to get the energy and the Spirit they need to become a stake.”
After counseling with leaders, the couple began organizing a two-day trip to the Arequipa Peru Temple. Early estimates suggested 50 travelers; then temple preparation classes started, faith spread, and families got ready. “By the time we left, 155 members were on their way,” he said.
What followed were two days of firsts: five couples and three families were sealed, about 35 received their own endowment, and scores of youth and new members performed baptisms for the dead — many carrying family names from home.
Elder LeBaron collected experiences and testimonies from some of the Latter-day Saints that journeyed to the temple.
Mayra Huaman Alatrista, a 14-year-old young woman shared, “I am very happy and at peace having attended the temple. I know the temple is a place we can make many covenants with our Heavenly Father.”
Full-circle blessings
For Elder LeBaron, one moment stitched past to present. “In 1978, the first family I taught in Quillabamba was the Quillillis,” he said. “On this temple trip, I baptized their daughter Blady, again — now an adult — for her ancestors. Tears flowed as we stood together, this time in a font, in the temple of the Lord, not the river running near Quillabamba.”
For Blady Quillilli, the return to the temple was radiant. “It was such a beautiful and emotional experience that I had going to the Arequipa temple. I thank God for such a wonderful blessing. It’s been 47 years since my family was taught the true gospel of Jesus Christ and I was baptized. This has been the greatest experience I’ve had in my life. It has given me the greatest light I have received in my life.”
Delfina Layme Pacheco, who was sealed to her husband and three children, said: “I know the sacrifices we made are worth going to the temple. … I don’t have words to describe being sealed to my family. I have been waiting for years for that to happen.”
In the baptistry, Rossbell Quihui felt a personal witness. “When I entered the temple to do vicarious work for my ancestors, [the temple workers] came up to me and asked if I would baptize. I have never baptized anyone before. I sat in the waiting room, and the president of the temple entered. When he entered, the spirit spoke to me, to me. It said clearly that the Lord was in the temple. Christ lives, He is not dead.”
‘Peace, healing and renewed commitment’
When the buses returned home, the first Sunday back became a second chapter. “A young man announced he would now serve a mission after being sealed to his family,” Elder LeBaron said. “A sister who had been a member for decades testified she never thought she would see the inside of a temple.”
One of those newly sealed, Jared Cuno Layme, said: “When I sat in the temple I could hear in my head the song ‘Families Can Be Together Forever.’ I felt very happy to be sealed to my family. I am so happy to be an eternal family.”
For others, the visit sparked resolve. “This was my second time going to the temple, but it seemed like the first time; my eyes were opened, and I tell you that I will do whatever it takes to go again,” said Vidal Gamarra Orue. “I received so much strength in the temple to keep my covenants.”
And for Fidelia Jordan, the long-awaited moment carried quiet wonder: “I’ve always thought of the temple, I’ve prayed to attend, but there have always been obstacles. But this time, thanks to my Father in Heaven, it is a miracle I was able to go. I felt so at peace, and I felt the spirit stronger than ever before.”
As Elder LeBaron summarized that testimony-filled Sunday: “Peace, healing and renewed commitment” filled the chapel.
And looking ahead to a future house of the Lord that will be a drive of less than five hours away, he added: “Until the announced Cusco Peru Temple is completed, faithful members in places like Quillabamba will continue to make the journey — and be forever changed.”
