Pioneers of Chile: Early Latter-day Saints Tell Stories of Faith and Reflect on Church Growth Over Decades

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

By Trent Toone, Church News

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of articles during 2025 featuring Latter-day Saint pioneers in South America as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints commemorates 100 years on that continent.

In March 1976, in the final months of his mission, Raúl Vilugrón was sent to open missionary work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Talagante, Chile, a city 30 minutes outside of Santiago.

One rainy night in April, Vilugrón and his companion were walking home at the end of the day when they noticed a home with the light on. They felt impressed to knock on the door, and a large man named Jorge Aguilera welcomed them in.

The family was receptive to the gospel message, and before leaving, the missionaries knelt in prayer with them, a strong spiritual feeling filling the room. Weeks later, the Aguilera family was baptized as Vilugrón completed his mission.

Twenty years later, Vilugrón’s immediate family, including his parents and siblings, entered the Santiago Chile Temple to be sealed together. Remarkably, the sealing ordinance was performed by Brother Aguilera, the same man who Raúl Vilugrón baptized at the end of his mission. Aguilera also had the privilege of later sealing Raúl Vilugrón to his wife, Maria Vilugrón.

It was a profoundly meaningful experience and a testament to Raúl Vilugrón’s dedicated missionary efforts to build the Church in Chile.

“When Royden Glade, the mission president, set me apart as a missionary, he said, ‘Find families and leaders who will strengthen the Church in Chile,’” Vilugrón said. “We were blessed with many important baptisms.”

This year marks 100 years since Elder Melvin J. Ballard, an early 20th-century Apostle, offered a prayer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in late 1925, dedicating South America for the preaching of the gospel. The following year he prophesied the Church would grow “as an oak grows slowly from an acorn.”

Today, in Chile, more than 607,000 Latter-day Saints attend over 570 congregations, and 11 missions and six temples are in operation, announced or under construction.

There are currently five General Authority Seventies serving who are from Chile — Elder Jorge F. Zeballos, Elder Juan Pablo Villar, Elder Ricardo P. Giménez, Elder Patricio M. Giuffra and Elder Sergio R. Vargas.

Here is a look back at the history of the Church in Chile through the eyes and experiences of some of its Latter-day Saint pioneers.

Church History in Chile

Elder Parley P. Pratt of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles visited Chile briefly in late 1851 and early 1852, but missionaries again arrived in the 1950s, with the Santiago Branch organized in 1956.

Here is a timeline of some historic dates of the Church in Chile from ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

• November 25, 1956: The first native Chilean members were baptized.
• 1962 to 1968: The first Church-built meetinghouses were constructed and dedicated in Santiago, Viña del Mar, Quilpué and Concepción.
• November 19, 1972: The Santiago Chile Stake, the first in the country, was organized with Carlos A. Cifuentes as president. In the same year, seminaries and institutes were established.
• September 15-17, 1983: President Gordon B. Hinckley, then a counselor in the First Presidency, dedicated the first temple in Spanish-speaking South America in Santiago.
• April 25, 1999: President Hinckley presided over a regional conference where he spoke to nearly 60,000 gathered in a stadium, marking one of the largest gatherings of Latter-day Saints ever held in the country.
• 2002 to 2004: Then-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles served as president of the Chile Area.
• October 28, 2018: President Russell M. Nelson dedicated the Concepción Chile Temple, the country’s second operating temple.
• 2019 to 2024: Additional temples were announced for Antofagasta, Santiago West, Viña del Mar and Puerto Montt.

Elder Zeballos

Elder Jorge F. Zeballos, a General Authority Seventy and member of the Church’s Caribbean Area Presidency, was born in Ovalle, Chile, in 1955.

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Elder Zeballos was 12 years old when he noticed four American missionaries in his hometown. His curiosity increased after reading an article about the missionaries in the local newspaper. Not only did the missionaries play basketball, his favorite sport, but the article also mentioned Joseph Smith’s First Vision, which sparked his interest in learning more about the Church.

A friend at school introduced the future General Authority Seventy to Church activities, and he soon attended the tiny Ovalle branch. After six months, with his father’s blessing, Jorge was baptized, becoming the first in his family to join the Church.

“When I joined the Church in March 1968 at the age of 12, there were no more than 12,000 members in all of Chile,” he wrote to the Church News in an email. “So I have been a privileged witness to the enormous growth of the Church in Chile.”

Elder Zeballos was 14 years old when he received his first calling as his branch’s Sunday School superintendent. He went on to serve as a full-time missionary in the Chile Concepción Mission, bishop, stake president, regional representative, Area Authority and Area Seventy. He was serving as president of the Chile Concepción South Mission when he was called to be a General Authority Seventy in 2008. Since then, he has served as a member of the Church’s Chile and South America South Area presidencies, contributing close to 30 years of Church service in Chile.

“It has been an enormous privilege and blessing for me to serve the people of my own country during all these years and thus contribute to the establishment and strengthening of the kingdom of God in Chile,” he wrote.

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Elder Zeballos remembers being present at the Ñuñoa meetinghouse in Santiago when then-Elder Gordon B. Hinckley of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles organized the first Chilean stake in November 1972.

In 1974, as a college student, Elder Zeballos attended the creation of the second stake in Chile, this time when then-Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve organized the Viña del Mar Chile Stake.

“I never imagined at that time that stakes would later be organized throughout the country and that, over the years, I would even have the privilege of presiding over the creation of several of those stakes,” Elder Zeballos said.

“The Church is respected and appreciated in Chile. It represents a great blessing for the country, both for the righteousness and influence in society of many of its members and for its willingness to help after the occurrence of natural disasters, which are frequent in the country.”

Fernando Caballero

In the early years of the Church in Chile, many of the young Latter-day Saint converts who served missions often returned to receive leadership callings. One example is Fernando Caballero.

Caballero said he was the first Chilean missionary called to serve outside the country, laboring in Uruguay from 1967 to 1969.

He joined the Church at age 15 in 1962. He remembers the missionary who taught him the first lesson had been in the country for only a few days and barely spoke Spanish.

“But when he gave the discussion about the Restoration of the gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith, I knew that same afternoon that the Church was true,” he said. “Since then, I have never had any doubts about the Church.”

In 1973, Caballero received a scholarship to study at Brigham Young University, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He and his wife, Myriam, were married in the Salt Lake Temple in 1974.

Caballero said he was the first former Chilean missionary to be called as stake president, in 1978, at age 31.

In 1981, at age 34, Caballero said, he was one of the first Chileans to be called as mission president. He presided over the Chile Osorno Mission, and Elder Giuffra was one of his missionaries.

“I had to replace a mission president who was 74 years old,” he said. “But it was a wonderful experience working with more than 600 young people who were eager to serve the Lord.”

Today, the 78-year-old Caballero and his wife live in Orem, Utah.

“The great blessing of being a member of the Church is being able to have a close relationship with Heavenly Father, with His plan of salvation, His plan of progress, and that has helped us as a family,” the Chilean pioneer said. “Being a member has been a joy and a permanent blessing in my life.”

Raúl Vilugrón

Vilugrón’s parents were raising a young family in Talcahuano, Chile, a city north of Concepción, when missionaries knocked on their door and introduced them to the Church. They accepted the gospel rapidly and gained strong testimonies. Raúl Vilugrón’s father was one of the first district presidents in Concepción in the 1960s.

Vilugrón was baptized at age 9.

“We were always active in the Church,” he said.

Vilugrón was one of the few male Chileans who served a mission in the 1970s, a time of political turmoil and economic struggle. He was called to the Chilean Mission and said he was the first Chilean to serve as an assistant to President William Bradford, who later served as a General Authority Seventy.

In those days — 1974 to 1976 — the Chilean Mission covered the entire country. Because there wasn’t yet a temple, native missionaries entered the field without receiving their endowments or being ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood, Vilugrón said.

His sister, Maria del Pilar Vilugrón, was the first sister from Concepción to serve a mission in 1972. She served in Colombia.

Raúl Vilugrón and his wife, Maria Rosario Soto Vidal, a convert from Copiapó, Chile, met through the Church in Concepción when they were teenagers. He has an old photo of them together at a youth conference in Osorno, Chile, in 1972. After both had first marriages that ended in divorce, they married in 1998.

Over the years, both have served in a variety of Church leadership callings. For the last seven years, they have been temple ordinance workers in the Santiago temple. Maria Vilugrón, a retired doctor, serves as a medical missionary adviser, evaluating future missionaries.

It has strengthened their faith to see such “extraordinary growth” in the Church in Chile over many decades. Both have witnessed many examples of one person joining the Church and triggering a ripple effect where many immediate and extended family members follow.

“What stands out to me is that those who were baptized in the ’60s and ’70s have remained strong in the Church,” Raúl Vilugrón said. “They have become the leaders and the ones who have kept the Church strong through their families, their children and their posterity. Their faith has allowed the Church to grow and progress so much in Chile.”

He continued: “More than the Church itself, it is Jesus Christ who has always been at the center of my life. I have had a testimony of the gospel since the moment I first learned about the Church. From the beginning, I felt it was the true Church and the path I was meant to follow.”

Now ages 73 and 71, respectively, Raúl and Maria Vilugrón say they will serve as long as they have strength.

“The gospel has always been incredibly important to us,” she said. “We are in our golden years, as they say here, but we still have the strength and health to keep serving. There are so many young members who still need guidance and so many leaders who need training and preparation.”

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