Chapter 37
Answers Will Come
“What do you think?”
The question hung in the air as Marco Villavicencio waited for his wife, Claudia, to respond. His employer, a telecommunications company in Machala, Ecuador, had just offered him a chance to open a new office in Puerto Francisco de Orellana, a small city in the Amazon rainforest of eastern Ecuador.
Marco was interested in the position, which included a promotion, but he did not want to decide without Claudia. The job would require the Villavicencios and their four-year-old son, Sair, to move more than four hundred miles away.
Claudia, like Marco, had grown up in a big city, so moving to a rainforest would be a major change. But she supported Marco and wanted him to advance in his career. She also liked the idea of moving to a rural area. She thought it would bring their family closer together.
Still, she and Marco had the same question about Puerto Francisco de Orellana: “Is the Church there?” They were both returned missionaries, and the Church was important to them. They wanted their son to grow up in a place where he could attend Primary, learn the gospel, and have spiritual experiences. Ecuador had nearly two hundred thousand Latter-day Saints, but most of them lived near major cities like Quito, the nation’s capital, and Guayaquil, where a house of the Lord was dedicated in 1999.
Puerto Francisco de Orellana, known locally as El Coca, was small by comparison, though it had grown rapidly after oil was discovered there some years earlier. Using the Meetinghouse Locator on the Church’s website, Claudia searched for a ward or branch near the city. The search produced no results, but a short time later, friends of Marco and Claudia told them about a few other Church members who had moved there for work.
Hearing this comforted Marco and Claudia. After praying about the offer, they decided to accept the job.
The Villavicencios arrived in El Coca in February 2009. The city was in the middle of dense jungle, but to the Villavicencios’ surprise, it didn’t feel disconnected from the rest of the world. Everywhere they looked, people were coming and going on business.
When their landlord learned they were members of the Church, he told them he knew where a group of members met to read the scriptures together. “I lent them the house,” he said.
The group had been getting together every Sunday morning at nine o’clock to sing hymns, read from the Liahona, and study the scriptures. They had also contacted Timothy Sloan, president of the Ecuador Quito Mission, who sent two missionaries to visit them. But the missionaries lived four hours away and could not come to El Coca very often.
Marco, Claudia, and Sair began attending Sunday meetings every week. At first, Sair missed Primary and wondered where the other children were. Marco and Claudia missed their old life too, but immersing themselves in the Lord’s service made them less homesick.
When the missionaries came to town, Marco enlisted their help to find more members. “Elders,” he said, “you must walk around the city.” He thought that if people recognized the missionaries, they would ask them where they could gather with other local members.
Little by little, Church members in the city found out about the meeting and joined the group. As the group grew, Marco became its leader. The missionaries began coming every week to teach people and find more Church members. Before long, the Saints in El Coca received permission to follow the Church’s basic unit program.
And with this permission came authority to administer the sacrament.
When Angela Peterson Fallentine learned that it would be extremely difficult for her and her husband to have biological children, she called her mother on the telephone. “I don’t know how to do this,” she said. “I don’t know anyone who has gone through this.” She was terrified.
Her mother listened and then asked if she remembered Ardeth Kapp, the former Young Women general president. “She and her husband were never blessed with children,” she reminded Angela, “but she has always been such an example of navigating infertility without letting it define her.”
“Don’t let this be a stumbling block for you,” her mother continued. “I get the sense that you’re going to need to sort out the doctrine of motherhood and family, because otherwise, it will be something that you’ll keep bumping up against for the rest of your life.”
She then said, “I don’t know why you and John have to go through this or how long it will last, but if you can hang on and try to understand what the Lord needs you to learn from it, answers will come.”
Angela could feel her mother’s love and support, and she kept these words close to her heart as she and John encountered more trials while exploring other paths to parenthood, like adoption and in vitro fertilization. When they looked into adoption through LDS Family Services and New Zealand’s national program, they learned that their chances of adopting were extremely low.
As Angela faced disappointment after disappointment, she leaned on prayer, fasting, and temple worship for support. She thought often about the Savior, confident He was helping her endure her trials. Yet she also found herself wishing He would simply take them away. At these times, John comforted her. He had faith that all would be well.
Angela’s eyes were still drawn to the family proclamation hanging on the wall. She had always loved its teachings. But after finding out about her infertility, she often felt a pang when she read its affirmation of “God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth.” She understood that she and John were not breaking any commandments, since they could not have children naturally. But even as they began treatments for their infertility, Angela wondered if they were doing enough.
Around this time, they moved to Tauranga, a large city on New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty, and Angela was called as the stake Young Women president. The new calling intimidated her. She was in her early thirties and felt too young to tell other leaders what to do. At the same time, she also worried about being too old to relate to the young women. She prayed to know how to guide them.
She soon found that she could relate to the girls in ways she hadn’t expected. She was younger than their parents, and many of the young women looked up to her and took her counsel to heart. She in turn could encourage and befriend them in a way their mothers couldn’t. Without children of her own, she found that she could give them the extra time and counsel they needed from a trusted adult.
The Fallentines also found joy in supporting other families in their ward and stake. They often hosted barbeques, outdoor movie nights, and home evenings. During general conferences, they would invite the young women over to eat crepes before going to the stake center for the general Young Women broadcast. Since it was hard to be so far from family at Christmastime, they held a party on Christmas Eve for some immigrants they knew from South Africa and the island of Niue. These activities always filled their home with children, and Angela and John loved spending time with them and their parents.
One day, while passing the framed family proclamation on her wall, Angela caught sight of its opening words: “We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim …”
“Do I really believe this?” she asked herself. “Do I really believe that these are prophets and apostles saying these words?” Her experiences had changed how she read and understood the family proclamation. Yet she knew that prophets and apostles bore special witness of Jesus Christ, and she believed their words.
She was beginning to see that there were many ways to mother, and she had faith that she and John would have the opportunity to become parents in the eternities. This knowledge helped her understand the importance of marriage and family in the plan of salvation.
She remembered how the family proclamation had inspired and impressed the mechanic and the Middle Eastern official she’d met in Washington, DC. The truths it taught were powerful and relevant to her life, and she trusted in them.
Back in El Coca, Ecuador, Marco Villavicencio had made quick work of opening a telecommunications office in the city, but managing it was a daily challenge. His employees were new to the industry and needed training before they could adequately meet clients’ needs. Then there was the matter of finding clients. Since the office was brand new, Marco and his team spent much of their time meeting people and promoting their business. They worked hard, though, and the office was growing.
As busy as Marco was, he made time for his family and the Church. With each passing month, more and more people came to sacrament meeting on Sunday mornings. The Spirit of the Lord had prepared many people for the restored gospel of Christ. They yearned to know about God and His love.
Missionaries now came to the city multiple times a week to teach people and invite them to church. Marco and Claudia wondered how long it would take before their group became a branch.
Seven months after the Villavicencios arrived in El Coca, mission president Timothy Sloan visited the city. Since Marco led the local Church group, President Sloan asked him to introduce him to the Saints while they toured El Coca.
For the rest of the morning and well into the afternoon, Marco took the mission president around the city. President Sloan was especially interested in meeting Melchizedek Priesthood holders, and he interviewed several of them. While traveling from place to place, he also asked Marco about his family, career, and experience in the Church.
At the end of the day, President Sloan told Marco that he wanted to talk. They went to the house where the Saints held their meetings and found an empty room. President Sloan then confided that he’d been praying to find a branch president in the city. “I had the feeling that you are that person,” he said. “Do you accept this call of the Lord?”
“Yes,” said Marco.
The next day, September 6, 2009, President Sloan organized the Orellana Branch and set Marco apart as its president. A week later, the Church’s area office in Quito sent chairs, blackboards, desks, and other items for the branch’s meeting place.
The branch had many new leaders, including Claudia, who served as the Young Women president. Most of the leaders had little experience in the Church, so Marco made training a top priority. He wanted branch leaders to be examples of Christlike love and service. He used every resource he had on hand—every Church manual and video—to help the new leaders learn their responsibilities. Since mobile phones were becoming more common in the city, he would call branch members or send text messages during the week to conduct branch business, plan activities, and meet the needs of his fellow Saints.
Among the items the branch received from the Church was a desktop computer with internet access. The Church had developed a computer program called Member and Leader Services to help local leaders and clerks record and report tithing, attendance, and other data accurately and securely. Marco was familiar with computers from his experience in the tech industry, and he quickly learned how to use the software. Computers were rare in El Coca, though, so he also had to show some of the new leaders how to use them. Fortunately, the Spirit guided them, and they were eager learners who readily adapted to the technology.
In branch council meetings, Marco and the other leaders freely shared their thoughts on how to help the people under their care. The council understood that everyone in the branch needed to develop a testimony of Jesus Christ. At branch meetings and activities, Marco and the other leaders spoke of Christ frequently, creating an environment where visitors and new members could feel His love and come unto Him.
One month after the organization of the branch, the Church broadcast its semiannual general conference over radio, television, satellite, and the internet. Although these channels reached most areas of the world, the branch in El Coca did not yet have access to satellite television or a strong enough internet connection to stream conference. Shortly after, though, the Church’s office in Quito sent the branch a Spanish-language recording of the conference on DVD.
Hoping to replicate the experience of watching conference live, Marco and other branch leaders decided to show the recording over the course of a weekend, dividing it up by session. They set up chairs, a television, and loudspeakers at the meetinghouse and sent out special invitations to each of the members. Claudia was in charge of welcoming people when they arrived.
The day of the first session, the Saints came dressed in Sunday clothes. Some were familiar with general conference, while others had no idea what to expect. The Spirit filled the room as everyone listened carefully to the speakers and enjoyed the music of the Tabernacle Choir.
Many of the newer members had assumed the Church was small and local. As they watched conference, though, they saw that they were part of a worldwide organization. Like them, millions of other Saints were working together to further the Lord’s work.
At the start of 2010, more than 170,000 Church members lived on the islands of the Caribbean. In the Dominican Republic, home to two-thirds of these Saints, there were eighteen stakes and three missions. In 1998, the Church established a Missionary Training Center in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, to prepare Caribbean missionaries for service. Two years later, in September 2000, President Hinckley came to the city to dedicate the Santo Domingo Temple, the first house of the Lord in the region.
When Latter-day Saint missionaries arrived in the Dominican Republic in 1978, around a dozen Church members—the only Saints in the country—met them at the airport. Among them were Rodolfo and Noemí Bodden. The Boddens and several of their children had joined the Church three months earlier through their friends John and Nancy Rappleye and Eddie and Mercedes Amparo. In the years that followed, Rodolfo and Noemí served faithfully in the Church.
The restored gospel spread to other Caribbean nations in similar ways. In Jamaica, an island west of the Dominican Republic, Latter-day Saint missionaries had preached the gospel as early as the 1850s. But the Church did not become established there until Jamaican-born converts Victor and Verna Nugent took an interest in the 1970s. One day, Victor and Verna received a Book of Mormon from an American coworker, Paul Schmeil. He also introduced them to the Church film Man’s Search for Happiness, and its message, together with Paul’s Christlike example, inspired Victor.
On January 20, 1974, the Nugent family was baptized. Four years later, after President Spencer W. Kimball’s revelation opened the doors for the Nugents and other people of Black African descent to receive the full blessings of the priesthood, the family was sealed in the Salt Lake Temple.
That same year, 1978, another American Latter-day Saint, Greg Young, baptized his friends John and June Naime in Barbados. A little over a year later, the first branch in Barbados was organized with John as branch president and June as Relief Society president. Later, Barbados served as the headquarters of the West Indies Mission, and the gospel spread from there to Grenada, Guadeloupe, Saint Lucia, Martinique, Saint Vincent, French Guiana, Sint Maarten, and other neighboring countries.
In Haiti, meanwhile, Chilean-born Haitian Alexandre Mourra learned about the Church from a relative who had obtained a copy of the Book of Mormon and other Church literature from missionaries in Florida. After reading the testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith, Alexandre sent for a Book of Mormon of his own and received a witness of its truth. Since the Church was not yet in Haiti, he flew to Florida, met with the mission president there, and was baptized in July 1977. He then returned to his home in Port-au-Prince and taught others the gospel. One year later, the mission president visited Haiti and officiated at the baptism of twenty-two of Alexandre’s friends.
The Church in Haiti continued to grow in the years that followed, despite the social and political unrest that often beset the country. By the end of 2009, there were some sixteen thousand Saints spread throughout two stakes and two districts. Their resilience was tested on January 12, 2010, when a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, leveling homes and killing more than two hundred thousand people, including forty-two Latter-day Saints.
When the earthquake struck, Soline Saintelus was meeting with her bishop at their Port-au-Prince meetinghouse. Her husband, Olghen, was working at a local hotel. They rushed home to their apartment building, where a babysitter was watching their three small children. The building was a heap of rubble.
“Heavenly Father,” Olghen prayed, “if it be Thy will, if there could be just one of my children alive, please, please help us.”
For ten hours, rescuers dug through the wreckage. At one point, they heard the oldest child, five-year-old Gancci, singing “I Am a Child of God,” his favorite song. His voice led the workers to rescue him, his siblings, and their babysitter.
Over the next few weeks, the Church assisted local leaders and humanitarian organizations in providing doctors, tents, food, wheelchairs, medical supplies, and other necessities. It also opened meetinghouses to provide shelter and refuge for many of the people left homeless by the disaster. Later, the Church helped people find employment and start new businesses.
After being rescued, Gancci Saintelus was taken to Florida for treatment of serious injuries. There, local Church members came to the Saintelus family’s aid, bringing them toys, food, diapers, and other supplies. Their kindness brought tears to Olghen’s eyes.
“I’m so grateful to my church,” he said.
In September 2010, the residents of Luputa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, were nearly finished laying pipe for their Church-sponsored clean water pipeline. Speaking with a journalist, district president Willy Binene stressed the pipeline’s importance.
“Man can live without power,” he said. “But the lack of clean water is a burden almost too difficult to bear.”
Whether the reporter realized it or not, Willy was speaking from a lifetime of experience. As an electrical engineering student, he had never aspired to live in Luputa, a city without electricity. His plans had changed, and he’d managed fine—even thrived—without power. But he and his family, and every family in the area, had suffered the painful effects of waterborne diseases. To protect themselves at church, they had even sacrificed to purchase clean bottled water for the sacrament.
Now, with a little more work, life in Luputa was about to change. From the start of the project, every neighborhood in and around the city had been assigned days to work on the pipeline. On those days, trucks from ADIR, the organization managing the project, arrived in the neighborhood early to pick up volunteers and transport them to the worksite.
As the district president, Willy wanted to be a model leader. On the days his neighborhood was assigned to labor, he had set his nursing work aside and started digging. Between Luputa and the clean water source were miles of hills and valleys. Since the pipeline was powered by gravity, the volunteers had to dig the trench and bury pipe just right to make sure the water flowed properly.
Willy and the volunteers dug everything by hand. The trench had to be eighteen inches across and three feet deep. In some places, the ground was sandy, and the work went quickly. In other places, it was a snarl of tree roots and rocks, making for backbreaking work. Volunteers could only pray that brushfires and nests of biting insects did not slow their progress. On a good day, they could dig nearly five hundred feet of trench.
The Saints in the Luputa District worked special shifts in addition to their normal neighborhood assignments. On those days, the men of the Church joined the regular volunteers in digging the trench while women from the Relief Society prepared meals for the workers.
The Saints’ commitment to the project helped others learn more about their faith. People in the area saw the Church as an institution that looked out not only for its own members but also for the broader community.
When construction on the pipeline ended in November 2010, many people came to Luputa to witness the water’s arrival. Massive cisterns, perched atop high stilts, had been built in the city to store the water from the pipes. Yet some people wondered if the pipeline could really bring enough water to fill the tanks. Willy himself had his doubts.
Then the floodgates opened, and everyone could hear the roar of water pouring into the cisterns. Immense joy swept through the crowd. Dozens of small concrete water stations, each equipped with multiple spigots, could now dispense clean water throughout Luputa.
To mark the occasion, the city held a celebration. The festivities drew fifteen thousand people from Luputa and its neighboring villages. Among the honored guests were government and tribal dignitaries, ADIR officials, and a member of the Church’s Africa Southeast Area presidency. On one of the water tanks hung a large banner with bright blue letters:
THANK YOU TO THE CHURCH
THANK YOU TO ADIR
FOR POTABLE WATER
As the guests arrived and took seats beneath specially constructed gazebos, a choir of young Latter-day Saints sang hymns.
Once everyone was in place, and the buzz of the crowd quieted down, Willy raised a microphone to his mouth and addressed the audience as a local representative of the Church. “Just as Jesus performed many miracles,” he said, “today it is a miracle that the water came to Luputa.” He told the crowd that the Church had sponsored the pipeline for the whole community, and he urged everyone to make good use of it.
And to anyone who wondered why the Church had taken such an interest in a place like Luputa, he gave a simple reply.
“We are all children of our Heavenly Father,” he said. “We must do good to everyone.”