Chapter 9
This Marvelous Day
In late 1965, Hélio da Rocha Camargo answered the telephone in his office in São Paulo, Brazil. Wayne Beck, the president of the Brazilian Mission, was on the other end of the line. He wanted to know if Hélio could leave work early and come to the mission office. Victor L. Brown, a counselor in the Presiding Bishopric of the Church, was visiting São Paulo, and he wanted to speak with Hélio before returning to Utah.
Hélio, who now worked for an automobile company, went immediately to the mission office. He and President Beck had recently discussed various mission-related matters with Bishop Brown, including the state of Church publications in Brazil, and Hélio assumed the bishop wanted to continue the conversation.
When Hélio arrived at the mission office, Bishop Brown told him a major change was coming to the Church in Brazil. There were now over twenty-three thousand Saints in the country, more than ten times as many as when Hélio was baptized eight years earlier. To accommodate this growth, the First Presidency wanted to establish a central editorial office to manage Church publications in Brazil.
Recently, the First Presidency had opened a similar office in Mexico City to oversee Church publications in Spanish-speaking nations. Since the Church was producing several new correlated handbooks and manuals, it made sense to funnel this work through central offices rather than expect the missions to handle the massive publishing task on their own. The new center in Brazil would translate all Church publications into Portuguese and then print and distribute them among the Saints.
“I want to invite you to be in charge of the work, making you a full-time employee of the Church,” Bishop Brown told Hélio.
“The only possible response is yes,” Hélio replied.
Soon after accepting the new position, Hélio and Nair sold their car so they could visit the United States and attend the Salt Lake Temple. During the month they were in Utah, they met often with the Saints, marveling at the size and strength of their wards and stakes. From what Hélio could tell, Relief Society, Primary, Sunday School, and priesthood quorum classes were full of Church members who were firm in the faith. He knew the Church in Brazil was still growing, and it would take time for it to operate as smoothly as it did in Utah. But he believed the Brazilian Saints were nearly ready for a stake.
“With the leadership we have now,” he thought, “we will soon be equaling our brethren of the United States, because our people are also good, and when they want to do something, they do it.”
Before leaving Utah, Hélio and Nair were endowed and sealed in the Salt Lake Temple and received their patriarchal blessings from Eldred G. Smith, the patriarch to the Church. Friends from the United States, including former mission presidents Asael Sorensen and Grant Bangerter, attended the sealing. Elder Spencer W. Kimball, who had a special place in the Camargos’ hearts after blessing their ill son, performed the ceremony.
Hélio and Nair returned to Brazil in mid-December 1965, and Hélio immediately began setting up the central editorial office while continuing his duties in the mission presidency. As he attended conferences around the mission, he tried to inspire the Saints with a vision of what the Church in Brazil would be once stakes were organized in their part of the world.
At a district conference just outside of São Paulo, he lamented that they had so little time to meet and learn together as Saints. “We must hold on as much as possible to everything we are taught,” he said. He urged members to help their branch presidents and be obedient to the principles of the gospel. A branch was like a race car, he explained. “The MIA, Primary, Relief Society, and Sunday School are the four tires,” he said. “The priesthood is the motor, and the driver is the branch president.” Each individual part had a role in making the car function.
He urged them to keep the commandments enthusiastically. “We must be obedient,” he declared, “if we want to be a stake.”
At the start of 1966, LaMar Williams still did not understand why the First Presidency had called him home from Nigeria. A few hours after receiving their telegram, he had caught a flight out of the country. His contacts in the Nigerian government did not want him to leave in the middle of their negotiations.
LaMar had hoped to get more clarity once he arrived in Salt Lake City. Shortly after his return, he had met with the First Presidency and expressed his confusion over his sudden call home. He told them about his promising meetings with government officials and the thousands of enthusiastic Nigerians who wanted to join the Church.
But the First Presidency had already voiced misgivings about the future of the mission. While LaMar had been in Nigeria, President McKay had called two additional counselors, apostle Joseph Fielding Smith and Thorpe B. Isaacson, to the First Presidency. President Isaacson, who had been an Assistant to the Twelve before his call, seemed particularly concerned about how Nigerian Saints would respond to the priesthood restriction.
Furthermore, some of the apostles worried that proselytizing among Black populations in Nigeria would prompt civil rights groups in the United States to pressure the Church to rescind the restriction. Others worried that preaching the gospel in Nigeria would offend the segregationist apartheid officials in South Africa and possibly provoke them into restricting missionary work in their country.
LaMar had tried his best to ease the concerns of the presidency. “It might be a good thing for one or more of the general authorities to go to Nigeria and look the situation over before the final decision is made,” he suggested. The First Presidency, however, did not think such a course was the right one to take.
LaMar left the meeting discouraged. He believed that the Lord wanted him to establish the Church in Nigeria. The scriptures taught that the gospel message was for all people and that the Lord denied none that came unto Him—“black and white, bond and free, male and female.” If that was true, why had the First Presidency called him home?
Then, on January 15, 1966, two months after LaMar had returned to Utah, officers in the Nigerian army staged a military coup, orchestrating the murder of the prime minister and other government officials. Loyalist forces quickly put down the revolt, but the coup aggravated regional tensions and destabilized the country.
News of the conflict unsettled LaMar. Even if he had been able to set up a mission in Nigeria, the coup would have put an end to his work. He now believed the time had not been right to establish the Church there.
Yet he worried about his many friends in Nigeria. “I am sorry that the First Presidency called me home unexpectedly,” he told Charles Agu in a letter shortly after the coup. “Please let me know if I can be of any further service or encouragement to you in your desire to serve the Lord and those about you.”
“Charles, it would break my heart if you lost faith and courage to continue on the fine work that you have begun,” he wrote. “I have never doubted that the Lord’s work will eventually be established in your country. I feel it in my heart, and I am sure that the Spirit beareth record. How long it will take I do not know.”
Around this time, in Colonia Suiza, Uruguay, Delia Rochon was reading the Book of Mormon at home when she received a spiritual impression: “You need to leave.”
It was the most powerful prompting she had ever felt. She was only sixteen, and leaving home would disrupt life as she knew it. But she also knew that staying where she was would keep her from growing and developing as a follower of Christ.
Since Delia’s baptism, her mother had supported her and had sometimes even come to Church activities. But the family struggled financially, and there was tension between her stepfather and mother. Her father, meanwhile, lived far away and thought the Church was cutting her off from her family. When she stayed with him, she could not hold Primary or attend her meetings.
Fortunately, several times a year Delia could leave home to go to district conferences and mission activities in Montevideo and other cities. Delia loved attending these faraway meetings, especially MIA conferences where she could make friends with other Latter-day Saint youth—an opportunity she did not have in her own small branch. The testimony meeting at the end of every convention helped her faith grow even more.
Shortly after receiving her impression, Delia spoke to the branch president. President Solari knew Delia’s family and did not try to persuade her to stay. He mentioned a couple in town, the Pellegrinis. They were not members of the Church, but their daughter, Miryam, was.
“Let’s see if her family could take you in,” President Solari said.
The Pellegrinis were always willing to help someone in need, and they gladly invited Delia to live with them. Delia accepted their kind offer and agreed to assist with the house cleaning and to work for a few hours a day in the shop across the street. Although moving away from home was difficult, Delia thrived in her new surroundings. With the Pellegrinis, she found support and stability.
Still, her life was not entirely free of conflict. Uruguay was one of the most prosperous countries in South America, but its economy was in a slump. Some people were deeply suspicious of the United States, and they saw communism as an answer to their country’s financial woes. As other countries in South America experienced similar economic setbacks, anti-Americanism swept through the continent. Since the Church’s headquarters were in the United States, South American Saints sometimes encountered mistrust and hostility.
Many of Delia’s classmates talked about their support of communism. To avoid controversy, Delia revealed her Church membership and beliefs to only a few classmates. If she spoke too openly, she risked being mocked.
One evening, the missionaries stopped by Delia’s house. She was just leaving for MIA, so the missionaries joined her. It was pleasant outside, but as they approached the town plaza, Delia knew what was coming. Many of her peers liked to gather at the plaza. If they saw her with the North American missionaries, they would find out she was a Latter-day Saint.
Delia looked at the missionaries, and she decided she couldn’t act ashamed of them. “I know I am a Mormon,” she told herself, “but how much of a Mormon am I?”
Gathering her courage, she crossed the plaza alongside the missionaries. She knew she would face isolation at school, but she could not turn from her beliefs. Her testimony of the restored gospel was too strong.
Like Joseph Smith, she knew it was true. She could not deny it.
In February 1966, Brazilian Mission president Wayne Beck submitted a proposal to Church leaders in Salt Lake City recommending the organization of a stake in São Paulo.
The city had three functioning districts, twenty branches, and roughly fifty-five hundred Saints, and President Beck and other local leaders had considered requesting more than one stake. There were no other stakes in South America, however, and they agreed that it would be best to first organize a central stake made up of the strongest units from each of the São Paulo districts. The Church could then create additional stakes in São Paulo and other Brazilian cities over the next few years.
“I think that we have just as fine leadership and as forward-looking people in this area as we have anywhere in the world,” President Beck stated in his proposal. “They are prepared, I believe, to accept the responsibilities and to do their part.”
The following month, Elder Spencer W. Kimball, the apostle who oversaw the Church’s seven South American missions, presented the proposal to the Quorum of the Twelve. Many of the apostles were enthusiastic about the idea. They had traveled throughout the Church and knew how much the Saints benefited from stake responsibilities. Under the prophet’s direction, several apostles had already created stakes outside of North America, and they testified of feeling the Spirit while doing this work.
After considering President Beck’s proposal, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles approved the creation of the stake. One week later, President McKay and his counselors sent President Beck a letter announcing the news.
“It was the unanimous sentiment of the council that a stake organization be created in Brazil with headquarters in São Paulo,” they informed him. “We are praying that the Lord will continue to bless you in your labors.”
In Palermo, Italy, Giuseppa Oliva continued to share the gospel with friends and neighbors. Among the people she taught was an eighteen-year-old named Salvatore Ferrante. He worked at the same factory as her brother Antonino, and he had been fascinated by the teachings of the Book of Mormon.
After giving Salvatore a copy of the book, Giuseppa wrote President Mabey asking for more materials. He agreed to send her another Book of Mormon, as well as a copy of the Doctrine and Covenants, which had recently been translated into Italian. President Mabey also mentioned that he had received a letter from Salvatore expressing interest in baptism.
“He will be baptized,” President Mabey promised Giuseppa. “Until then, please continue to teach him and prepare him for baptism.”
A few months later, Giuseppa met with President Mabey, Antonino, and Salvatore at Antonino’s house to gauge Salvatore’s readiness for baptism. They discussed the Word of Wisdom, tithing, and other gospel principles, using the Doctrine and Covenants as a reference. The discussion went well, despite the language barrier, but because Salvatore lived at home, President Mabey said he needed his parents’ permission to be baptized.
The group took a bus to Salvatore’s home. It was on a narrow street with clotheslines hanging from the buildings. Before long, they saw Salvatore’s father, Girolamo, rounding the corner of the street. President Mabey approached him and greeted him in German, the only language he knew other than English. Girolamo responded in German, explaining that he had spent two years as a prisoner of war in Vienna during the Second World War.
The moment Girolamo learned that President Mabey was there to baptize his son, he broke into rapid Italian, his displeasure evident in his tone and waving hands. Giuseppa and her brother shouted back, their overlapping voices echoing through the street.
“I want you to know,” President Mabey interjected in German, “that what your son wants to do is right and just.”
With those words, the tension dissolved. Girolamo invited the group up to his home, where Giuseppa pressed him to give his permission for the baptism. She bore her testimony and pleaded with him to honor his son’s righteous desire.
“Well, if you want to baptize him and if he wants to be baptized,” he finally said, “he has my permission on one condition—that I can watch.”
Salvatore was baptized later that day at the same beach where Antonino’s baptism had taken place six months earlier.
Shortly after Salvatore’s confirmation, the Saints gathered at Antonino’s house. President Mabey, with the help of Girolamo as translator, taught about priesthood authority and conferred the Aaronic Priesthood on Antonino and Salvatore. He then formally organized the Palermo Branch with Antonino as its leader. After the meeting, Salvatore’s father said, “This is a day that I’ll never forget.”
The following week, the branch met at Giuseppa’s home and partook of the sacrament. A short time later, she received word from President Mabey that the Church was organizing an Italian Mission. Soon missionaries would be arriving in Sicily.
“I am just as sure,” he wrote, “that your dream of a branch in Palermo as big as the one in Argentina will come true.”
On the day Hélio da Rocha Camargo and his staff officially opened the Church’s Brazilian central editorial office, they knelt together in prayer. No one there seemed to know exactly what to do, but this did not alarm Hélio. What alarmed him was that everyone there seemed to think that he knew what to do.
After returning from Salt Lake City, he had made a detailed inventory of all Church literature at the Brazilian and Brazilian South Mission offices. He rented space in an office building in São Paulo, set up a headquarters, and hired a small team to organize and translate the literature. Among the people he hired was Walter Guedes de Queiroz, who had left the Methodist seminary with him and joined the Church.
By the end of April 1966, after its first month of operation, the editorial office was handling the distribution of all Church literature in Brazil. Individual Saints and Church leaders in the country now ordered materials directly from the office rather than from the mission. Hélio also transferred the production of A Liahona, the Church’s Portuguese-language magazine for Brazilian Saints, from the mission to the editorial office.
On the afternoon of Tuesday, April 26, Elder Spencer W. Kimball arrived in São Paulo to organize a stake. Since he had a stake presidency to call, along with a stake high council and several bishoprics to fill, he hardly slept over the next few days as he interviewed potential candidates in the city. He did not speak Portuguese, so President Beck usually served as his translator.
In most interviews, Elder Kimball asked, “Are you happy in the Church?” The men responded with a sincerity that brought tears to his eyes. “It is my life,” some of them said. “I could never get along without it.” Others testified, “It is the greatest thing in the world” and “I never lived until I joined the Church.” Some men told Elder Kimball about how the gospel had changed their lives, helping them overcome alcohol, tobacco, or sexual immorality.
Hélio was one of the first people Elder Kimball interviewed, and many people believed he would make a good stake president. In fact, in interview after interview, Elder Kimball listened as people praised Hélio’s leadership and recommended him for the position. But after interviewing Hélio one more time, Elder Kimball believed the Lord had another work for him to do.
On Sunday, May 1, Hélio and Nair, their children, and more than fifteen hundred Saints crowded into a large São Paulo meetinghouse to witness the organization of the stake. To make room for more people, the curtains dividing the chapel from the cultural hall were opened. And after every seat was taken, some people set up chairs in the aisles while others sat outside, listening to the conference through a public address system.
President Beck was full of emotion as he opened the meeting. After welcoming the Saints, he turned the time over to Elder Kimball, who said, “It is a great joy for me to be here, on assignment from the First Presidency of the Church, on this marvelous day, to create the first stake of South America in the great land of São Paulo.”
He spoke briefly about the beginnings of the Church in South America. Elder Melvin J. Ballard, who dedicated South America for the preaching of the restored gospel in 1925, had prophesied that the Church in South America would grow slowly, like a tiny acorn becoming a mighty oak, and eventually be one of the strongest regions in the Church.
“We see how it is growing throughout South America,” Elder Kimball said, “in Argentina, in Uruguay, in Chile, in Peru, in Paraguay, and in great Brazil, with its gentle, sweet people, who accepted Christ’s call and have dedicated the best of their lives to the growth of His Church.”
Reading from a prepared statement in Portuguese, he then created the São Paulo Stake with seven new wards and one branch. He called Walter Spät, a furniture manufacturer, as stake president. Walter had joined the Church in 1950 and had been a branch and district president before serving as an assistant to the mission presidency.
After Elder Kimball organized the stake presidency and called other stake leaders, all of whom were local Saints, he announced the new bishoprics and branch presidency. Among them was Hélio, who was called to serve as the bishop of the São Paulo Second Ward.
The weight of the calling bore down on Hélio. Although he had a lot of leadership experience in the Church, he had never been a branch or district president, and the responsibility of serving a large congregation seemed enormous. Still, he knew the Lord blessed His servants and helped them succeed.
“Isaiah thought that he could not be a prophet, but he accepted the calling and went forth,” he had recently told a group of priesthood leaders. “When we are called to a work, we respond that we are not capable. If we think like that, we will never be capable. We must remember that it is the Lord who is calling us, and we must not deny it.”
After the conference, Elder Kimball shook hands with the Saints. Hélio stood nearby, smiling and greeting well-wishers. The following day, he would return to work at the central editorial office, and in the evening, he would hold a bishopric meeting, possibly the first of its kind on the continent.