Seminarian

As a Roman Catholic priest, Felix Sequi served at the Vatican and in his native Spain. However, he became disenchanted with religion, “because of the lack of answers,” and left the church to accept a position in Panama teaching philosophy.

Nothing could change his determination to avoid religion while he taught in Panama and later in Puerto Rico. In 1972 he moved to the Dominican Republic, where he met and married Lubian A. Amaro, also a teacher.

But in 1980 the Sequis met the LDS missionaries at a welfare demonstration and invited them home to discuss health care. After two weeks of friendship, the missionaries brought up religion.

“And they didn’t stop for three months,” says Felix. “Every single day, a set of missionaries would give us a discussion—one day elders, the next day sisters.” Although Lubian was soon converted, Felix remained “philosophically defensive,” even though he had come to genuinely enjoy hearing their testimonies.

One day a new lady missionary arrived, “a greenie convert from Wisconsin named Joann Bush, whose Spanish I could hardly understand,” recalls Felix, “but who said to me, ‘I want to share my testimony with you.’” As she spoke, Felix began weeping and said, “I finally see the light.” The Sequis were baptized that same week.

From that point, Felix began an extensive study of Church doctrine. Through this, he said, “I gained a determination to give my all to the Church.”

He was given the opportunity to do so when in January 1983 he became the Church Educational System coordinator for the island of Hispaniola and later for the Santo Domingo Region. In this capacity he and his wife bless the lives of thousands of students as they bear their testimonies and teach them to study the gospel.—Elizabeth VanDenBerghe, Salt Lake City, Utah