Pioneer Saints in Argentina Recall Huge Church Growth

This story appears here courtesy of TheChurchNews.com. It is not for use by other media.

By Mary Richards, Church News

In 1988, Rubén Morresi moved to Ushuaia — a city known as “the end of the world” in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina — and he became part of a small branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Between 15 and 20 people met in a rented house in Rio Grande, about 75 miles (120 km) away through mountain roads. 

The main challenges were due to the climate — it was very cold, Morresi told the Church News in a recent interview in Ushuaia. 

“Families had long distances to get to the chapel, and it wasn’t easy because they came with small children and had to walk through the snow,” he said. “But it was beautiful because it was a time of great spiritual growth. We were few families, but we became very strong.” 

He has witnessed the growth of the Church here. In 1990, the Tierra del Fuego district was created, and Morresi was the first district president. In June 2019, the Tierra del Fuego Stake was created, the Church’s most southernmost stake in the world. 

The roots of the gospel in Argentina begin in 1923, when two German immigrant families held Church meetings in their homes in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and began inviting their neighbors. Then in late 1925, Elder Melvin J. Ballard, an early 20th-century Apostle, offered a prayer in Buenos Aires dedicating South America for the preaching of the gospel. 

The following year, he prophesied the Church would grow “as an oak grows slowly from an acorn.” Latter-day Saints in South America are celebrating the 100th anniversary all year long. 

Today in Argentina, the latest statistics listed on ChurchofJesusChrist.org show more than 491,000 Latter-day Saints in 732 congregations. Many members represent the third and fourth generations of their families in the Church. 

Argentina has 14 missions and four dedicated temples — Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Salta and Mendoza — with Rosario and a second for Buenos Aires announced and the Bahia Blanca temple scheduled for dedication later this year. 

Buenos Aires native Elder Angel Abrea, who was called to the First Quorum of the Seventy in 1981, was the first General Authority from Latin America. Currently, four Argentinian General Authority Seventies are serving: Elder Rubén V. Alliaud, Elder Joaquin E. Costa, Elder Eduardo F. Ortega and Elder Alan R. Walker. Elder Costa and Elder Walker are in the South America South Area presidency. 

Sister Andrea Muñoz Spannaus, from Buenos Aires, currently serves in the Young Women general presidency. Buenos Aires native Cristina B. Franco served in the Primary general presidency from 2017-2021. 

Apostles and general authorities have come to visit Tierra del Fuego throughout the years, including Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in June. Morresi said every time they came, they spoke about the principles of the gospel. 

“Some people thought it was repetitive, but it was exactly what we needed,” he said. “The Lord knew we needed to be strengthened in the most basic and important things of the gospel so we could then continue to grow. And today, that’s still the most important thing — hope, faith, eternal life, covenants and the temple.” 

Most of the families who came to Ushuaia wanted to be away from big cities. The Morresis had five children and wanted to live somewhere quieter. Little by little, they all saw how the Lord was blessing them. 

He said sometimes, the members felt like they had to make more of an effort than they would have done if they lived in larger cities like Buenos Aires or Córdoba, “but the blessings were greater.” 

The future of the Church in Argentina “is wonderful,” he said, because the work doesn’t stop. 

”No matter what happens, it will grow. The Lord’s work will grow — with us, with our children and with our grandchildren. Surely, wonderful times are coming.” 

Besides Morresi, other Latter-day Saint pioneers shared their experiences with the Church News for a look back at the history of the Church in Argentina. 

Estela Mahr 

If Estela Mahr were to share every miracle of her life, her story would be very long indeed, she told the Church News. 

Missionaries came to a neighbor’s house in 1947, and Mahr’s mother came to know the missionaries through them. Her mother was baptized in 1948, when Mahr was 5 and a half years old. 

“I grew up studying the gospel in home Primary. And I remained faithful,” Mahr said, who is now a member of the Buenos Aires Argentina North Stake. 

In 1964, she married a young Latter-day Saint convert named Aldo Vicente Mahr. The following year they traveled to the Mesa Arizona Temple to be sealed, as it was the assigned temple for Argentina at the time and had the ordinances in Spanish. “Only in that temple could we be sealed,” she recalled. 

Getting to the house of the Lord so far away from home was a miracle, she said. They did not think they had the financial resources to make the trip, but the missionaries who taught them and who were back in the United States made it possible for them to have a place to stay. 

They were also able to attend general conference in Salt Lake City that year and see President David O. McKay, who was president of the Church. 

“It was another miracle, meeting the Lord’s Prophet and being in the Tabernacle for a conference,” Mahr said. 

Their son later served as a full-time missionary in Argentina, and grandchildren have served in Chile, Venezuela, Paraguay and Brazil. Mahr has served throughout her life in various callings in the Church — including as a temple worker in the Buenos Aires temple for 30 years after it was dedicated in 1986. Her husband was a sealer for 16 years. 

Later they were senior missionaries together in Córdoba, where Aldo Mahr was called to be the branch president of the Dean Funes Branch in the Punilla Argentina District at the time. 

In their missionary service, they had many miracles and experiences, she said. “We saw the hand of the Lord in giving us physical and spiritual strength.” 

She has seen Elder Ballard’s prophecy come to pass in her country and testified that the gathering of Israel is taking place. 

“As President Russell M. Nelson has said, ‘The best is yet to come.’ I know that God lives and this is His kingdom.” 

Betty Muni 

Betty Muni, who lives in the Buenos Aires Argentina Liniers Stake, was baptized with her family in 1963. 

“We got our testimony the first day the missionaries knocked on the door of our home,” she said. “We knew it that day.” 

They went to church the following Sunday, and within the week they were baptized. 

“I believe it was the Lord who touched our hearts quickly,” she said in a series of messages with the Church News. 

The members met in a rented home until a chapel was built. 

The first day she attended sacrament meeting, she saw a young man named Guillermo Muni blessing the sacrament. His family had been baptized in 1944 and 1945. After several years, he became her husband, and “we formed a beautiful family.” 

The Munis had to save, wait and travel to be sealed in the São Paulo Brazil Temple after it was dedicated in 1978. “It was a bus trip lasting many hours,” she said. 

Now the country has four dedicated houses of the Lord, and Muni is eagerly awaiting a second one to be built in Buenos Aires. 

From her baptism in 1963 until now, she has seen the Church grow in her country, as Elder Ballard said, “just as an oak grows slowly from an acorn.” 

Now the Church is “big and strong” in Argentina, Muni said. 

“What I want to be known about Argentina is that Elder Ballard’s prophecy is being fulfilled step by step. We worked hard to have a chapel, then to have our stake center, later to have the Brazil temple, then to have our own temple.” 

Everything took time and a lot of sacrifice, she said, but to see the growth of the work here was wonderful. 

“We can see that the work of the Lord does not stop.” 

Church history in Argentina 

Here is a brief timeline of some historic dates of the Church in Argentina from ChurchofJesusChrist.org: 

1923–25: The Friedrichs and Hoppe families, converts from Germany, moved to Buenos Aires and began holding meetings in their homes and inviting their neighbors. 

December 1925: The Liniers Branch, the first branch in Argentina, was created in Buenos Aires. Six new members were the first to be baptized in Argentina. 

December 25, 1925: In a Buenos Aires park, Elder Melvin J. Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated all of South America for the preaching of the gospel. 

June 15, 1926: Eladia Cifuentes, the first Spanish-speaking convert, was baptized. 

July 15, 1926: Reinhold Stoof was made president of the newly established South American Mission. 

1938: The Bony and Oguey families, Swiss immigrants, brought the Church to the Córdoba area. 

April 19, 1939: Luís Costantini was called as a missionary in Bahía Blanca. He was the first of many members who were called to preach in their local areas. 

1944: Cecile S. Young, Relief Society president for the Argentine Mission, organized the Relief Society throughout the country. 

February 3, 1954: President David O. McKay visited members in Argentina, authorized the construction of meetinghouses throughout the country, and met with Juan Perón, president of Argentina. 

November 20, 1966: The Buenos Aires Argentina Stake, the first Spanish-speaking stake in South America, was organized, with Ángel Abrea as stake president. 

March 7–9, 1975: President Spencer W. Kimball presided at an area conference for members living in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. 

October 30, 1978: Following the dedication of the São Paulo Brazil Temple, Saints in Argentina began organizing bus trips to attend the temple. 

April 4, 1981: Argentina native Ángel Abrea was called to the First Quorum of the Seventy, the first General Authority from South America. 

January 17–19, 1986: The Buenos Aires Argentina Temple was dedicated by President Thomas S. Monson of the First Presidency. Ángel Abrea was called as temple president. 

February 25, 1996: The Bariloche Argentina Stake, the 50th in Argentina, was organized. 

November 11, 1996: President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke to a gathering of nearly 50,000 Latter-day Saints at the Estadio de Velez Sarsfield soccer stadium in Buenos Aires. 

June 2000: Saints throughout South America celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Church on the continent. 

September 9, 2012: The Buenos Aires temple was rededicated by President Henry B. Eyring, then First Counselor in the First Presidency, after a renovation to increase its size. 

February 21, 2014: Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles returned to the park where his grandfather dedicated South America, and he offered a prayer of dedication specifically for Argentina. 

May 17, 2015: The Córdoba Argentina Temple was dedicated by then-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the First Presidency. 

June 16, 2024: The Salta Argentina Temple was dedicated by Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles 

September 22, 2024: The Mendoza Argentina Temple was dedicated by Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles 

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