DAVAO CITY, Philippines — When Virginia Cuyon was a girl in the early 1960s on the southernmost island of Mindanao in the Philippines, she remembers hearing missionaries climbing the stairs to the top floor of her apartment building.
“The missionaries kept coming. You could hear their shoes. They were tall and big. Very big shoes, very big feet,” she laughed.
Cuyon’s mother, Daniela dela Victoria, received a copy of the Book of Mormon in 1958 after one of her children visited Manila. Victoria then shared the book with a pastor named Cipriano Mumar, who took the testimony and wrote a letter to church leaders asking for missionaries to come to Davao City.
About two years later, a missionary was assigned here. Kuyon recalled that they came to her apartment every day around 11:30 or noon. Her mother thought the missionaries had come because they were hungry.
“My mother used to say, ‘I’m done with you. I already practice many religions. You only came here because your job is to eat,'” Kuyon said. But she never forgot that the missionaries “never gave up.”
Her family and the Mumar family pioneered the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Davao, sharing the gospel with their friends and neighbors and continuing for generations.
Their descendants attended the dedication of the Davao Philippines Temple on Sunday, May 3. Levena Brandley, Kuyon’s eldest daughter, Victoria’s granddaughter, spoke to Church News on the temple grounds with her mother.
“Filipinos are very dedicated,” Brandley said. “When they find the truth or learn or know about the truth, they want to share it. ‘Hey, join us…this is great news, this is great gospel.'”
Another woman Brandley knows discovered the gospel in the United States, and when she returned to the Philippines, she invited many of her relatives and neighbors to learn from the missionaries, which helped the church grow in her city.
“That’s true of my grandmother’s story,” Brandley said. “Filipinos are sharing people. We love feasting and we love food. We share what we have.”
“Very spiritual people”
It has been 65 years since the Church was established in the Philippines, and today there are more than 905,000 members in the Philippine islands. The Davao Temple will be the fifth dedicated temple, and the Bacolod Philippines Temple will become the sixth at the end of May.
Church President Dallin H. Oaks served as Philippines Area President from 2002 to 2004 while a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He returned in April 2024 to dedicate the Urdaneta Philippines Temple and spoke to Church News about the great faith of the people of this country.
“Filipinos are a very spiritual people. They naturally love the Lord, naturally seek to serve the Lord, and naturally have a family culture,” he said.
The family of Elder Carlos G. Revilo, Jr., a General Authority Seventy and Philippine Area President, joined the Church in Mindanao in 1971.
The Rebijos traveled several hours over rough roads from General Santos City to Davao City for the district tournament. Carlos C. Revilo Sr. and Amparo G. Revilo then served as presidents and administrators of the Manila Philippines Temple.
Amparo Revilo, now a widow, attended the dedication of the Davao temple.
“It’s worth every sacrifice,” she said Sunday. “I love my family very much. I know that they are central to the Creator’s plan.”
“Old friends and new friends”
Prita Bernales was baptized in 1970 after picking up a pamphlet that had fallen out of a college classmate’s bag. The pamphlet was about Joseph Smith.
“I said, ‘Who is this guy?'” Bernales recalled. Her classmates invited her to church on Sundays “without thinking”.
Almost 56 years later, the two women attended the Davao Temple dedication together.
“This is my convert,” Bernales said, arm in arm with Sin Diana Ghadian on the temple grounds.
Gadian said early members of the church in Davao would carry things about Joseph Smith in their schoolbags because they were told to carry things about the church with them wherever they went. Bernales said that at first he was only interested in the church, but now he realizes that he was seeking the truth.
The first thing she noticed was the Church’s teaching to love everyone. “This is my daily motivation,” she said.
The branch was small and new at the time. “I had to be a teacher and a choir member at the same time,” Bernales said. “We had to do everything ourselves.”
Currently, there are multiple stakes in the Davao Temple District. Church members enthusiastically invited friends and neighbors, and nearly 30,000 people attended the open house.
The grounds on Sunday were filled with smiles and greetings. Bernales and Gadiane were often interrupted while speaking on church news to hug others.
It was a day of “old friends and new friends” in the gospel, as Gadian said.
