This is the second article in a two-part series about the history and growth of the Church in Brazil. The first article was published in the Dec. 18, 2004, Church News.

Photo by Ana Claudia Soli

Acilda Sell with her Portuguese copy of Book of Mormon.

In 1974, a Church statistician looked at Brazil's Church membership growing from 648 in 1950 to 33,000 in 1970 and went out on limb to predict that by 1990 this nation's membership might increase to 200,000.

His guess was only half way there. Instead, Brazil's membership reached 400,000 in 1990. (Deseret News 1975 Church Almanac, p. E15.)

Now, more than 75 years after the first converts were baptized in 1929, the Church in Brazil at year-end 2004 has some 897,000 members, 187 stakes, 52 districts and nearly 1,700 wards and branches. And from its first mission in 1935 — 70 years ago — have come 26 missions, in which approximately 5,000 missionaries are serving. Membership is expected to reach a million in about three years.

President James E. Faust of the First Presidency was a missionary in Brazil in 1939-42 when in one particularly slow year, there were only three convert baptisms among the 70 missionaries serving in Brazil. But numbered among that tiny group of Brazilians were faithful members who "proved to be some of the elect," President Faust said.

This growth pattern was seen by Elder Melvin J. Ballard, the apostle who dedicated South America for the preaching of the gospel. On July 4, 1926, he prophesied: "The work will go forth slowly for a time just as the oak grows slowly from an acorn. It will not shoot up in a day as does the sunflower that grows quickly and thus dies. Thousands will join here. It will be divided into more than one mission and will be one of the strongest in the Church. . . . The South American Mission will become a power in the Church."

Photo Ana Claudia Soli

Frederico Blind is bishop of Navegantes Ward, Vale do Itajai Brazil Stake.

Comparing the Church to an oak is appropriate for members in South America, especially in Brazil. Native to North America, the oak has a reputation for being strong. The more tempests an oak tree faces, the stronger it will become. Its roots naturally grow deeper in the soil and its trunk becomes more robust, making it much more difficult for a storm to tear from the soil or to break down. For an oak tree, a storm is one more challenge to be conquered. And like the oak, Brazilians are used to thriving in the face of challenges. Among these are descendants of the pioneer members, who shared their feelings on the Church's growth and their faith in its future.

Alvin Weiss of the Joinville Brazil Stake said the Church's growth in Brazil depends on various factors.

"It begins with seminary," he said. "If the member succeeds in seminary, he will be a successful missionary and will be a productive member of the Church."

"All of this is the result of efforts of the elders and sisters and of the pioneer members of this country and the dedication to help the new members feel accepted," said Sister Acilda Sell, a pioneer member from Joinville.

Angelo Bueno Perillo, patriarch of the Belo Horizonte Brazil Stake, said there have been many answers to prayers. He told that one time in Goiania, in a district conference, a 14-year-old said the closing prayer and asked Heavenly Father to send men that the single women could marry. Many men were soon baptized and the fervent prayer was answered.

Brother Perillo had a similar experience when he was in the branch presidency in Belo Horizonte. There was no one to direct the music and play the piano in sacrament meeting. So he prayed in Church that the Lord would send an organist and a music leader.

Meetinghouse in Ipomeia, a city where early members in Brazil settled in 1923 and where first branch was started.

One month later, he was standing at the door of the chapel when a woman, Augusta, and her two daughters, Bina and Luisa, arrived. One went to play the piano, while the other directed the music and taught the hymns. The three were baptized. The mother died faithful to the Church, and her daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are members.

"There were dances, where everyone danced, from parents to children. The youth were very united and the (meetinghouse) was our second home. Here we had volleyball, soccer, Scouting, mini-classes, plays and expositions," remembered Celeste Alves, another early member from Belo Horizonte.

For Bina de Queiroz, the work and the activities helped unite and strengthen the people who participated in the beginnings of the Church in Brazil. "We were always together, sometimes the entire weekend. We cleaned the chapel, we had picnics, plays, and even helped to build the chapel. I helped to prepare the land, make the bricks and clean them so that they could be painted. All amid much joy."

Many things changed as the Church progressed and became modernized. New programs, under the direction of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve, were implemented to benefit the community, such as Helping Hands, which in partnership with private businesses, government agencies and religious organizations, has already completed more than 160 projects in more than 150 Brazilian cities, thanks to 50,000 volunteers, including members and friends of the Church.

The overall impact of this work has been recognized in significant places. In December of 2001, in a meeting held by the U.N. in Geneva, Switzerland, the Church was recognized in front of representatives from 123 countries for the volunteer work that it did in Brazil.

The Neonatal Resuscitation training program, sponsored by the Welfare Services Department of the Church, trained 236 medical professionals and donated 25 complete neonatal resuscitation kits to various organizations in 2004. The donation of 4,250 wheelchairs in partnership with the Wheelchair Foundation by the end of 2004 and the government program Zero Thirst, which will construct 220 wells in the semi-arid region of Brazil, are uniting the Church and the government as never before.

Employment Resource Services in 2003 helped approximately 12,400 people find work and offered classes to another 6,200, for a total of 18,500 benefited. By the end of 2004, another 18,000 were helped. In this manner, such centers are seeking to help establish self-sufficiency not only of the individual, but also of the family and the society.

Likewise, by year end 2004, some 5,000 requests were made for loans through the Perpetual Education Fund, which represents a great contribution to the youth and society in the coming years.

Photo courtesy Brazil public affairs

Member missionary work in Brazil begin when LDS pioneers Aguste and Robert Lippelt, bottom right, arrived in Brazil in 1923. Now Church membership in Brazil is nearly 900,000, with such programs as neonatal resuscitation training and Helping Hands, pictured in the colors of the Brazilian flag, bringing the Church out from obscurity.

"This program has enormous importance for, with its help, they will be able to qualify professionally, and thereby they will have better salaries, which will give them a higher quality of life, so that they can have more time to serve in the Church and to help their neighbors."

The temples are another hallmark of the Church. "Before, to receive the covenants of the temple, we had to go to the United States. Many were sealed only after the Sao Paulo Temple was built," said Elisa Blind Weiss, descendant of the early convert Lippelt family.

Now there are four of these sacred buildings — Sao Paulo, Recife, Porto Alegre and Campinas. Shortly, another will be constructed in Curitiba. There are also 1,300 permanent buildings that serve for Sunday worship of members and visitors. Forty-five new meetinghouses are built or renovated annually.

There are also Family History Centers, one of the greatest hallmarks of the Church to the world. In Brazil, 262 Family History Centers offer free services to the public.

Taken altogether, this progress is so great that perhaps it could not even be imagined by those who met in the rustic house in the first small Joinville Branch, or in the Robert and Aguste Lippelt home in Ipomeia more than half a century ago.

And what does this generation hope for the Church in the next 80 years?

"The members of the Church are always increasing in their knowledge of the doctrine, which makes them stronger. For this, the Church now only has to grow and strengthen itself even more," concluded Brother Osiris Cabral, director of temporal affairs, whose father of the same name was a counselor in the first stake presidency in Brazil.

"We have the greatest generation of leaders of the future," said Bishop Antonio Carlos Cavalcanti, the first missionary from the state of Salvador. "Our youth who return from missions, who participate in seminary and institute, will carry this work forward."

Brother Henrique Blind, grandson of the early Lippelt family, concluded, "A strong Church leads to a strong society and blesses the lives of all people around it."

E-mail to: oliveiraacs@ldschurch.org