TASAY, Philippines – On the eve of the dedication of the Bacolod Philippines Temple, Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles testified of the Savior Jesus Christ and the power of making temple covenants.
“This is a wonderful time for the Philippines,” Elder Andersen told missionaries from the Philippines Bacolod Mission gathered May 30 at the meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Talisay, just north of Bacolod, Negros Island.
The Bacolod Temple is the sixth house of the Lord consecrated in this country of over 7,500 islands and the third house of the Lord consecrated this year. Eight more temples are in construction or planning stages.
The temple, dedicated May 31, was built long before the missionaries began their service, but “what you are doing is what made this temple possible,” Elder Andersen told missionaries from the Philippines, the United States, the Pacific Islands, Africa and Asia.
He said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a worldwide church with missionary efforts around the world.
Elder Andersen said, “It’s amazing that[the Spirit]is felt in every language, every race, every culture, every continent. It’s amazing and a testimony to the fact that each of us is a son and a daughter of God.”
A relationship with God is one of the things members can learn more about in the temple. In the temple, members of the Church make covenants through ordinances such as endowment instruction, eternal marriage, and baptism for the dead.
Elder Andersen said of those who participate in temple ordinances, temples have a way of “bringing into your life the power to feel something you don’t normally feel.”
He asked several missionaries to share their experiences of changes that occurred in their families and their own lives as a result of participating in temple ordinances.
Elder Andersen said that going to the temple and participating in ordinances, including new members who perform proxy baptisms, “will bring a powerful Spirit of truth into them.”
During the devotional, he invited his wife, Sister Kathy Andersen, to share her testimony. He did the same for Elder Carlos G. Revilo, Jr., a General Authority Seventy and president of the Church’s Philippines Area, and his wife, Sister Marites Revilo. Elder Chi Hong (Sam) Wong, a General Authority Seventy and First Counselor in the Philippine Area Presidency, and his wife, Sister Carol Wong. Mission leaders President Federico de Dios and Sister Joy Mirasol de Dios.
Both Elder and Sister Revilo served as young missionaries in the Philippines Bacolod Mission.
Later in the meeting, Elder Andersen encouraged the missionaries to “embrace what you’re learning, what you’re learning spiritually, so that it stays with you for the rest of your life.”
Missionary activities in Bacolod City, Philippines
Elder Andersen pointed to the history of missionary work in the Philippines, particularly in Bacolod, and how the Church has grown from a small membership in Metro Manila to today’s more than 905,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Sixty-five years ago, Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and later president of the Church, blessed the Philippines on the grounds of the U.S. Military Memorial Cemetery in Manila. Missionary work began in earnest in 1961.
In 1964, the first members from Bacolod were taught and baptized in Metro Manila.
Carlos Flores Barredo Sr. and Rosario Barredo were staying with their family while they recovered from their illness. Rufino Alvarez Villanueva Jr. and his wife Josefina Pieda Saculo were baptized in October 1964 and eventually returned to Bacolod to help out on the fish farm owned by Rufino Villanueva’s family.
Years later, when the missionaries came to Bacolod, they found them, carrying the names of both families. Elder Andersen said Rufino Villanueva saw the missionaries and went to collect the tithes he had saved over the past two years.
Both the pioneer couple and their families have served as leaders in the Philippines, Elder Andersen said.
He noted the saying, “You can count the seeds in the apples, but you can’t count the apples in the seeds.”
Elder Revilo said he was assigned to Bacolod in 1988 when the Philippine Bacolod Mission was organized. “The members were great and people were very accepting of us,” he recalls.
“I was blessed to be on the mission, the mission changed me, the mission changed me. The biggest convert I took away from the mission was myself,” he said.
