Discovering Another Pioneer Latter-Day Saint

Earlier this year, President Bryan Willets of the Philippines Quezon City Mission contacted the Philippines Area Presidency to inform them about a woman who claimed to be one of the first Filipino members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, after the commencement of missionary work in June 1961. The Area presidency in turn relayed the information to the Church History Department.

The woman, Mildred Rivera Wilcken, was based in the United States but was then visiting the Philippines with members of her family.

Sister Melanie Gapiz, the local Church History manager, was intrigued because the available historical information she possessed had never mentioned this woman. But after checking Church membership records, she discovered that Sister Wilcken was baptized on August 5, 1961—exactly two months after the first four Latter-day Saint missionaries arrived in Manila to begin proselyting work.

An appointment with Sister Wilcken was set at the hotel where she was staying, to find out more about her. During the meeting, Sister Wilcken, already 83, proceeded to share a wonderful and inspiring story, assisted by her daughter Cathy Ford, also a Church member.

Mildred Coloma Rivera was born on April 17, 1941, and grew up in rural San Manuel, Tarlac. She came from a large family, with her parents engaged in tedious farm work. “We were a poor family,” she recalls, “and we struggled economically, so I looked for opportunities to earn.”

In 1961, Mildred started working for an American family at Clark Air Base in Pampanga. The Apel family were Latter- day Saints and Mildred was intrigued by the family’s faith. She told the family head, Charles Apel, that she wanted to come to Church with them on Sunday, to which Brother Apel replied positively.

Mildred liked what she saw and felt. “I knew right away the Church was true,” she affirms, “and I was interested in the Church because of the friendliness of the Apel family and also the members.” She was taught gospel principles by members of the small Church unit in Clark, as there were no missionaries available in that area.

Mildred soon gained a testimony. “I want to be baptized,” she excitedly told the Apels. The Church was so new in the Philippines that the pioneering missionaries—who had been given authority to baptize converts—were too far away in Manila to know about Mildred and her request. Thus, unit leaders in Clark had to get special permission from Church headquarters in Salt Lake City to baptize her.

Mildred waited patiently and prayed for a positive response. Her prayers were answered when permission was granted to hold a baptismal service, which took place on August 5, 1961. On that day, Mildred Coloma Rivera was baptized by Brother Paul Sharp, becoming one of the very first members of the Church in the Philippines.

“I felt so elated that I kept thanking God for being baptized,” Mildred joyfully remembers. Sister Rivera became one of the pioneer members of the Angeles Branch and grew in her testimony of the restored gospel as she prayed, read the scriptures, and attended Church services.

By 1968, she was holding another job at Clark Air Base when she met another American military officer and Latter-day Saint, Willis Lane Wilcken. “When he shook hands with me, he wouldn’t let go of it,” Mildred humorously recalls. Brother Wilcken proposed to her and the two were married in a Church ceremony at Clark in November of the same year.

A few months after their marriage, Brother and Sister Wilcken left for the United States. The couple were later sealed in the Idaho Falls Temple and raised a family of seven children. Brother Wilcken managed a luxury vehicle service business until his death in 2012.

Sister Wilcken raised all her sons and daughters in the Church, sometimes hoping that those who would serve missions would be assigned to the land of her birth. While her wish did not come true immediately, she was happy when one son was called to serve in Hawaii, which had a large population of Filipino descent, and even more happy when her youngest son and two of her grandchildren were assigned to the Philippines. Also, another grandson recently completed a Tagalog-speaking mission in Alberta, Canada.

From the early days of her membership, Sister Mildred Rivera Wilcken continues to be strong in her testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. “The only thing that I can ever give you is my testimony,” she affirms as her eyes turn moist. “The Church is true, and I forever cherish those days when I found out about the Church and developed my testimony.”