President Gordon B. Hinckley delivered a message of love and respect to members in Chile and Argentina, leaving them with eyes filled with tears and hearts filled with the Spirit.

President Hinckley's visit to Santiago, Chile, was received with quiet gratitude. Many less-active and non-members came from throughout the country. About 15,000 more people attended the Nov. 11 conference than were expected, for a total of some 48,000.While in Chile, President Hinckley was interviewed by Santiago Pavlovic, host of a popular information program on Chilean National Television. The interview will be part of a special report on the Church to be telecast later.

Members came from Antofagasta in the north to Punto Arenas in the south at considerable personal sacrifice. The elderly, children, expectant mothers, the ill and disabled, youth and adults - all demonstrated great faith in attending, said local leaders. Two sessions of the conference were held.

President Hinckley was accompanied by his wife, Marjorie; Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve; and Elders F. Melvin Hammond and Jerald L. Taylor of the Seventy, president and first counselor in the Chile Area presidency; and Elder Eduardo Lamartine, area authority and second counselor in the Chile Area presidency.

In his remarks in the second session, President Hinckley thanked the members for the great efforts they made to attend the conference.

"What a great and inspirational thing it is to look into your faces. Thank you for the effort to come here.

"Each of you is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That means you have taken upon yourself certain responsibilities and now is the time, this is the hour, to make a resolution within your heart to stand a little taller as a Latter-day Saint, to live the gospel a little more fully, to honor the Lord in your life, and to do the right thing in all times and in all circumstances.

"Let us, my brethren and sisters, leave this great arena tonight with a decision made within ourselves that we will choose the right, that we will live the gospel, that we will be Latter-day Saints. I am satisfied that if we once make that decision, we will never have to make it again."

President Hinckley further said: "We love you. We love you very much. We love the Saints of Chile. I have watched you grow in this land. I came here first when this was not a separate mission. There was a little handful of Saints. Now you have become a mighty people, nearly 50,000 of you in this conference today. How marvelously you have grown."

Commenting a day later about the prophet's visit, Elder Hammond told of a stake president who reported that more people came from his stake by bus than normally attend sacrament meeting. "They came in 13 buses and made an eight-hour trip."

He also told of the great efforts made by the members to attend the meeting.

For example, one family where the husband was unemployed did not have bus fare. The mother went to the stake president and borrowed enough money to buy a sack of flour. With the flour, she made bread, and then sold it on the street. She earned enough money to repay her stake president and buy round-trip bus tickets to Santiago so her family could hear the prophet.

In Buenos Aires, Argentina, a spirit of deep reverence prevailed as President Hinckley arrived Nov. 12 at the Estadio Velez Sarsfield. Most of the 50,000 members in the stands had arrived more than two hours earlier, and a hush fell over the vast audience as the prophet entered.

The 1,130-voice choir sang with such fervor that they could be heard several blocks away.

President Hinckley was accompanied by Sister Hinckley; Elder Scott; Elders John B. Dickson and Carlos H. Amado of the Seventy, president and first counselor of the South America South Area presidency; and Elder Hugo A. Catron, area authority and second counselor in the area presidency.

While in Buenos Aires, President Hinckley met with Dr. Jose Camilo Cardoso, director of Argentina's non-Catholic Religious Affairs. President Hinckley expressed his profound appreciation to Dr. Cardoso for his efforts in promoting freedom of religion and for the respect and help that the Church has received in Argentina.

Speaking to the Saints in Buenos Aires, who had come from the neighboring countries of Uruguay and Paraguay as well as from distant corners of Argentina, President Hinckley expressed interest in each person.

"Once we were a very small group. Now we are spread across the earth in more than 150 nations, 10 million strong, yet we are interested in one another as individuals. Each of your problems is my problem and we stand to help you any way we can."

He called upon members to "make this a great and significant day, a day of repentance, a day of resolutions, a day to decide that we will no longer do the things we should not do, that we will become `an holy nation,' an even more `peculiar people' (1 Pet. 2:9), that if we have not been observing the Word of Wisdom that from this day henceforth we will do so."

President Hinckley also strongly encouraged members to take advantage of the blessings of the temple. "We believe in eternal marriage. If there are any here tonight who have not received the blessing of eternal marriage in the temple of the Lord, let them resolve from this day forward to make their life worthy to go to the holy house. Great is our privilege, wonderful is our opportunity. . . ."

"Teach your children the way of the Lord. Read to them from the scriptures. If there be any among you who are not having family prayer, let that practice start now, to get on your knees together, if you can possibly do it, every morning and every evening, and speak to the Lord, and express your thanks, invoke His blessings on the needy of the earth, and speak to Him concerning your own well being. He is the great God of the universe, and yet He can listen to an individual and will listen to individuals."

"I just want to say to you that you are good people. If you are trying to live the gospel of Jesus Christ, you are good people. I want to tell you how much I love you. That love is very real. I reach out to each of you. I would like to give every one of you an abrazo (hug), but I can't do it; there are too many of you.

"I want everybody in this vast congregation to remember that you heard Gordon B. Hinckley say he knows that God lives. I know that Jesus is the Christ, our Savior and our Redeemer."

Elder Dickson commented after President Hinckley's departure: "As an area presidency, we were overwhelmed by the special, spiritual experience of this conference. The Saints exhibited incredible maturity and reverence."

He said they arrived in more than 600 buses from stakes as far away as Paraguay. "Every one can tell of his or her own spiritual experience as he or she participated with a spirit of love, service and sacrifice."