Robert A Plowman and Dr. Mark Grover, Harold B. Lee Library

Ribeirão Preto is a large city in the interior of São Paulo and is well established and a place where the LDS Church has been well established. We spent more than a week in Ribeirão Preto as we studied and interviewed and researched the history of the Church in that city. We interviewed more than 40 prominent members of the Church, all of whom had been members since the earliest years of the growth of the Church in that area. We also worked in 13 other cities and performed more than 130 interviews in Brazil. It was a phenomenal experience to sit down and begin to talk about these people’s lives in the Church, the acquisition of their testimonies, and their hopes for the future of the Church in their humble wards and stakes. The interviews all lasted between 1.5 and 4 hours in length. They were almost always emotional and tremendous testimony building conversations.

I discovered how the Lord blesses pioneers of an area, and how He will provide them with whatever means they need to accomplish His mission. The blessings of some of the earliest Saints in Ribeirão Preto were indescribable. We hope to be able to publish these experiences and stories, along with the facts and dates, in six months. We are in the exciting writing phase of the project, although it is very tedious and requires much patience, it is rewarding and satisfying. Part of this project will include still some transcription and even translation of the interviews, and this will be another exciting thing to look forward to. It is my hope that many if not all of these interviews which were accomplished can eventually reach the hands of those who were interviewed.

I apologize that there is not much more to say than this, we are still working on the project, and as this is serving as my Honors Thesis, it will still be a year before I am ready to defend it. I am tremendously excited for the next couple of phases to be finished. I can’t even imagine the excitement we will experience when we are ready to submit our writings for publication, and when we can send the transcribed interviews back to their interviewees. The people we interviewed are my friends, and I would do nearly anything for them. The experiences we had with many people are irreplaceable. In many cases the things we talked about and shared experiences with were things never before spoken of. There were personal and private conversations, testimonies, descriptions, complaints, compliments, and tragedies that were shared. No one felt anything but joy and relief for being able to tell their story and add their piece to the pie. I was overwhelmed with how much information we retrieved, and how much story there is to write.

I could never in my life forget the experiences I had in Brazil on this my second long term visit to the country. I hope that I will return many times to Brazil, and I am certain that I will be able to continue working in this field of study and to continue to serve the Church and its member all across the world. I love the opportunity to serve and to do so with international members is a rare treat that I will never forget. Thank you for providing me with the means to succeed.