Uruguay Primary President Finds Her Primary Children and Early Converts 60 Years Later

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

By Kaitlyn Bancroft, Church News

Nine people huddle together in the black-and-white photo. The women wear skirts or long coats; the men are dressed in suits and ties. Some smile softly at the camera, while others look past the frame.

The date was August 23, 1959. And caught within the photo’s borders is a moment shortly after the first meeting in Colonia Suiza, Uruguay, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Delia Rochon, a missionary at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, found the photo in the Church History Library. She knew the place and she knew the people — she was born and raised in Colonia Suiza and joined the Church there in 1962 at age 13.

It was also where, just months after her own baptism, she was called as the Colonia Suiza Branch Primary president. Two people in the 1959 photo were parents to several of the nine Primary children she helped teach for eight years, until she left on a mission to Chile.

Decades later, historians interviewed Sister Rochon for the upcoming “Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, Volume 4.”

That experience, and the 1959 photo, got her wondering what became of the nine Primary children she taught for so long and what happened to her friends in the picture.

So in February, she returned to her home country in the hopes of finding out.

Sister Rochon presented a report to the Church History Department on May 30. Of her nine Primary children, one has died, and one stopped attending Church meetings many years ago, but seven are still active, faithful members.

Of the nine people in the photo, two were members and seven were investigators on that day in 1959. Sister Rochon knew that, with one exception, all of them were eventually baptized. While in Uruguay, she interviewed the only two people in the photo still living, recording their memories of the Church’s earliest days in Colonia Suiza.

Sister Rochon’s report offers a rare glimpse of the pioneers whose faith and dedication helped build the Church’s foundation in Uruguay.

Today, there are 106,911 Church members in Uruguay who comprise the country’s 18 stakes, 97 wards and 32 branches, ChurchofJesusChrist.org reports. There are also 23 FamilySearch centers, two missions and the Montevideo Uruguay Temple.

But in 1959, the Church was still young in Uruguay. The first congregation was organized in 1944, with the first mission following in 1948. The Church’s relative newness in Uruguay meant Colonia Suiza’s few members were “very united. We needed each other,” Sister Rochon said.

In a brief written history, she detailed the names and stories of those in the 1959 photo:
 

The Front Row

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On the front row, from left, are Victor Solari, Graciela Iahn, Redenta Pellegrini and Miryam Pellegrini.

• Victor Solari was the first person in the photo to later be baptized, on October 31, 1959. He was also the first Melchizedek Priesthood holder in Colonia Suiza, the first Colonia Suiza Branch president, and his daughter — one of Sister Rochon’s Primary children — was the first child in the branch to receive a name and a blessing.
• Graciela Iahn was the second to be baptized, on November 14, 1959. Prior to her baptism, she spoke in a sacrament meeting about the Word of Wisdom. Solari later told her this talk helped him decide to join the Church. Iahn later served as the Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association superintendent and as a Sunday School teacher.
• Redenta Pellegrini was never baptized.
• Miryam Pellegrini, Redenta’s twin sister, couldn’t be baptized until her parents consented. While waiting, she served as a teacher in the Relief Society and Sunday School. She was finally baptized on February 6, 1961, and played the branch’s old harmonium in meetings for many years.
   

The Back Row

On the back row, from left, are Luis Soerco, Sergio Chaychenco, Wilma Iahn, Adelaida Klee and Clevis Bertinant.

• Luis Soerco was a Church member who joined the missionaries that day.
• Sergio Chaychenco was a Russian immigrant who joined the Church in a different part of Uruguay before moving to Colonia Suiza with his wife. He later served as President Solari’s first counselor in the branch presidency.
• Wilma Iahn was baptized February 13, 1960. She raised her niece, Graciela, and was the branch’s first Relief Society president.
• Adelaida Klee was baptized on November 14, 1959 and served in the Primary.
• Clevis Bertinant, Klee’s daughter, was baptized on November 14, 1959 and also served in the Primary.

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During her trip to Uruguay in February 2023, Sister Rochon interviewed Graciela Iahn and Miryam Pellegrini — the only two people from the 1959 photo still living.

Pelligrini told Sister Rochon that she was 19 and visiting her grandmother when she met the missionaries. They were discussing the gospel with her grandmother and aunt, and Pelligrini joined in, answering some of the missionaries’ questions.

The discussion gave her a sense of deja vu, like she had heard the ideas before, Pelligrini told Sister Rochon. But then the missionaries left the area.

Pelligrini didn’t hear any more about the Church until early one hot afternoon a year later, when her friend Graciela Iahn came running to say the missionaries were in her home.

Both women recalled how the first two Church meetings in Colonia Suiza were held in the dining room of a local hotel, and how the meetings ended early both weeks because the hotel was serving lunch to guests. After that, the branch rented the basement of a business for about 10 months before moving to a more permanent location.
 

The Primary Children

Sister Rochon’s own baptism came on November 18, 1962, after she was introduced to the Church through her family’s dressmaker.

She was 13 years old, and the only member of her family to join the Church. Just weeks later, in December 1962, she was called as a Primary teacher. Several months after that, in April 1963, she was called as the branch Primary president.

The Church today generally doesn’t ask teenagers to hold key ward or branch callings. But at that time in Uruguay, “No matter [your] age or length of membership in the Church, you were called,” Sister Rochon said.

As a newly baptized member, Sister Rochon said, she was unsure what her responsibilities as president would be. The branch president gave her a manual and told her to pray about any questions she had.

“[I had] no resources besides the Holy Ghost,” Sister Rochon said.

After serving for four years, she was called as the district Primary president and served another four years before receiving a mission call to Chile.

During her years serving in Primary, Sister Rochon taught nine children, with whom she reconnected during her Uruguay trip in February 2023. She detailed their stories in her report:

• Gerardo Solari, Victor Solari’s son, began attending Primary at age 6 and was baptized in 1964 at age 8. He served a mission in Uruguay, is married with three children and served as a counselor in a stake presidency.
• Osvaldo Alfredo Solari, also Victor Solari’s son, began attending Primary at age 4 and was baptized in 1967 at age 9. He is married with four children and has held many priesthood responsibilities in the Caseros 2nd Ward in Buenos Aires, Argentina, including serving as a member of the bishopric.
• Raquel Miriam Solari, Victor Solari’s daughter, began attending Church meetings as a baby with her family, where she was the first child in the branch to receive a name and a blessing. She was baptized in 1968 at age 8 and is now married with three daughters. She serves as a seminary teacher.
• Amilcar Troche, Clevis Bertinant’s son, began attending Primary at age 4 and was baptized in 1965 at age 9. He passed away prior to Sister Rochon’s visit.
• Sonia Beatriz Troche, Bertinant’s daughter, began attending Church meetings as a 1-year-old with her family. Previously, at 4 months old, she contracted a severe respiratory infection that nearly killed her, and as a result developed neurological disorders that impacted her development. However, she was baptized in 1968 at age 10 and today is an active Church member.
• Silvia Margarita Troche, also Bertinant’s daughter, began attending Church meetings as a baby with her mother and siblings. She was baptized in 1968 at age 8 and later served a mission in Uruguay. Today she is married with three children and serves as a Relief Society president.
• Raquel Porley began attending Church meetings with her mother at age 6. Her parents owned the building where the branch met. Porley’s mother was baptized in 1962, and her father, though friendly with the missionaries and members, was never baptized and didn’t allow Porley to be baptized until she was 14. Porley served a mission in Uruguay, is married with three children and served as a mission leader with her husband in Colombia.
• Alfredo Hurst was raised Lutheran but began attending Primary with the Solari children at age 6. He stopped attending around age 15, when his parents asked him to attend Lutheran church services. Years later, at age 32, he reconnected with Church missionaries and asked his childhood friend Gerardo Solari to baptize him. He and his late wife, who was also baptized, have three children. Alfredo currently serves as a district high councilor and as a member of the district’s audit committee.

The ninth former Primary child stopped attending Church meetings many years ago and declined being interviewed by Sister Rochon. 
 

The Foundation of Primary Teachings

 
Each of the seven former Primary children who are still active identified Primary teachings as the foundation of their testimonies, Sister Rochon wrote in her report.

Music was also an important part of their learning — many of them named “‘Give,’ Said the Little Stream,” as a favorite — and the lessons they remember best were about making covenants, being obedient and following the prophet.

“Perhaps the most remarkable impression left on them was the love people offered them,” Sister Rochon wrote. “They had a strong sense of belonging, a sense of family. They made sacrifices together. They played together. They worshipped together. They were united by love.”

Sister Rochon herself was an important part of that love and belonging. Nearly all of her former Primary children have strong and fond memories of her.

“I clearly remember Delia Rochon as a teacher,” Alfredo Hurst said in his interview with Sister Rochon. “Delia would stop by my house to pick me up and take me, and my mom was happy. My family belonged to another church, but my mom let me attend Primary because she knew I was going to learn … good principles.”

Gerardo Solari told Sister Rochon that he remembered her not only because she was their Primary president but because she was their friend.

He also recalled some of the lessons he learned in Primary, such as attending the temple worthily.

“I think one of the most important things I learned in Primary was that we come to Church because of Jesus Christ,” Solari said. “... To know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and this is His Church and no matter what happens in life [I can] believe in Him — that knowledge was something that helped me at the end of my mission as I faced difficult times at home.”

Raquel Porley recalled Sister Rochon’s determination to attend Church regardless of the weather or punctured bike tires.

Sister Rochon was an “excellent” and “bright” teacher, Porley said, whose lessons “captivated” her Primary class.

For instance, during a lesson on Jesus’ miracles, Sister Rochon stirred a cork in a bucket of water and told her class to make the water stop moving. Then she took them outside and asked them to stop the wind from blowing.

When they returned to the classroom, Sister Rochon taught them that although they couldn’t still the water or stop the wind, Jesus has the power to perform these miracles.

“I never forgot that,” Porley said. “I didn’t have to pray to know if Jesus Christ could do miracles. … I didn’t feel the need to do it because I believed that day.”

She was also influenced by the other branch members, characterized by “women strong like iron.”

The principles those women taught her in Primary are “engraved in my heart like fire,” she continued. “Obedience was one of those principles I learned. We did not discuss if we were going to do what we were asked to do, we just did it. And through my life, I keep adding to that foundation.” 
 

Sharing Her History

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Following her missionary service in Chile, Sister Rochon graduated college, became a clinical psychologist and traveled extensively. After serving as an ordinance worker in the Manila Philippines Temple, she came to Utah.

Now, as a FamilySearch Library missionary, she’s sharing stories of her home and history.

Through all of her experiences, Sister Rochon said what has stuck with her is the importance of keeping the commandments, following the prophet and recognizing the gospel’s simplicity.

“[The gospel is] a way of being,” she said. “It’s a way of worshipping, it’s a way of knowing the Savior and being more like Him. We have to keep the individual connected with Jesus Christ first.”