URDANETA, Philippines — When President Dallin H. Oaks first arrived in the Philippines as an Apostle with the assignment to serve as area president in 2002, he sought the Lord’s guidance for a theme that would define his ministry.
That night, the Spirit of the Lord awakened President Oaks and impressed upon his mind a passage from the Book of Mormon: “Now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them” (Mosiah 4:10).
At the time, the Philippines was experiencing rapid growth with some 600,000 members but did not have enough Latter-day Saints with a current temple recommend for President Oaks to recommend a second temple for the nation.
For the next two years, he taught Filipino Latter-day Saints to perform the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ with greater effectiveness.
Twenty years later, President Oaks, now serving as first counselor in the First Presidency, returned to the Southeast Asian nation on April 28 and dedicated the Urdaneta Philippines Temple — the Church’s 190th worldwide and third in the Philippines. In addition to the Manila temple (dedicated in 1984) and a second temple in Cebu City (2010), the Church has announced 10 more temples for the nation, including three currently under construction.
President Oaks was accompanied at the dedication, held in two sessions, by his wife, Sister Kristen M. Oaks; Elder Kevin R. Duncan, General Authority Seventy and executive director of the Temple Department, and his wife, Sister Nancy Duncan; and Elder Carlos G. Revillo Jr., a General Authority Seventy and second counselor in the Philippines Area Presidency, and his wife, Sister Marites F. Revillo.
“As we see you wonderful brothers and sisters and youth here in the Philippines, we are thrilled to realize that you have grown much more in faithfulness in keeping the commandments of God than when Sister Oaks and I left the Philippines 20 years ago,” said President Oaks.
Sister Oaks said as they drove from the airport to the temple after landing in the Philippines — a land they love — she got teary-eyed. “The Filipino people are so warm, so loyal, such good friends,” she said. “We have so many memories here. It was an incredible time.”
‘Great and everlasting good’
The dedication of the Urdaneta temple marked the 63rd anniversary of missionary work in the Philippines.
On April 28, 1961, President Gordon B. Hinckley, then of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, gathered with a small group of local servicemen, American residents and one Filipino Latter-day Saint at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial to offer a prayer for the country. “What we will begin here will affect the lives of thousands and thousands of people in this island republic, and its effect will go on from generation to generation for great and everlasting good,” he said.
Four missionaries from the Southern Far East Mission of the Church arrived and began teaching in the humble, happy, Christian nation. One of those missionaries, Ray Goodson, had served for three years in Hong Kong and immediately felt something different. “In the Philippines, everyone welcomed us,” he recalled. The growth of the Church accelerated quickly, and by the end of the 1960s, the Church had a presence on eight major islands.
When Goodson returned in 1974 as a mission president, he immediately sensed what the Church in the nation could become. “We began to teach Church leaders about temples,” he said, noting he returned in 1978 to help identify a temple site in Manila.
Participating in the Urdaneta temple dedication was Elder Augusto Lim, the Church’s first Filipino general authority. He witnessed much of the nation’s growth.
In 1964, two missionaries knocked on the Lims’ door. After meeting with the missionaries, Elder Lim, an attorney, realized that what the missionaries were teaching “was what I believed in the first place. … I just knew this was it; this was something I could understand.”
In 1973, when President Ezra Taft Benson organized the first stake in the country, Elder Lim was called to serve as its president. He did not have a car and accomplished the great majority of his Church work on public transportation. He remembers when Church leaders found and purchased the site for the temple in Manila and when the temple was dedicated.
Temples strengthen the land in which they are built, and they strengthen the people who enter them to do the work of the Lord, said President Oaks.
“Temple teachings center on Jesus Christ, whose house this is,” he said. “All that is taught here relates to our Savior. This is His House. This is His work and the work of His Father.”
‘The city … will never ever be the same’
Gregorio Araque Karganilla’s parents met the missionaries in 1974. Then, almost 18 years old, he joined a missionary discussion and was asked to pray. He stood to pray and then paused to get control of his emotions. “I felt the Spirit bearing witness that this is the Lord’s Church,” he said.
On May 3, he will celebrate 50 years as a Latter-day Saint.
Karganilla, with his wife, Ana Marie Karganilla, is serving as chairman of the local Urdaneta temple committee.
Ana Karganilla was baptized at age 8 after her parents met the missionaries in 1971. She sang in the dedication choir of the Manila Philippines Temple and had no thought that there would ever be another temple in her nation. The dedication of the temple in Urdaneta and the construction and planning of an additional 10 temples are proof the Lord is hastening His work, she said. “This will really bless our people,” she said.
Ana Karganilla recalled a promise made by President Jeffrey R. Holland, now acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, when he broke ground for the Urdaneta temple on Jan. 16, 2019.
“This city, this locale, this property, this province and the entire nation of the Philippines will never ever be the same as a result of the construction of this building,” he said.
Ana Karganilla added, the temple “is a beacon of hope, a beacon of light.”
A Christian nation
Made up of thousands of islands in Southeast Asia, the Philippines is home to 118 million people. After 400 years of teaching by Catholic missionaries, the Philippines is filled with a devout population eager to learn more of Jesus Christ, said President Oaks.
Upon this foundation, the Church “has grown miraculously in the Philippines” — the only Christian nation in Asia. The nation now has more than 870,000 members, who attend 128 stakes and support 23 missions.
Still, the nation has challenges.
In a country of high unemployment, people work to sustain themselves with self-employment. That is evident in Urdaneta’s busy city center.
Located 110 miles north of Manila on Luzon, Urdaneta houses a massive wholesale market for fruits, vegetables and other goods, drawing local vendors and shoppers from neighboring municipalities and provinces. Often referred to as “Divisoria of the North” — referencing “Divisoria” or hub of commerce in Manila — Udaneta’s massive markets are filled with fruit and vegetables of all varieties, such as mangos, bananas, papaya, durian, jackfruit, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, and yacon and ginger root, to name a few. The market also boasts eggs and varieties of meat and fresh fish, along with “Daing, tuyô, or bilad” — dried fish — caught by local fishermen.
The market is a testament to the resilience of the nation — where the educated population do what they can to meet the demands of daily living.
The Philippines, said President Oaks, is unique because almost every natural disaster that occurs on the earth “occurs in that little island.”
“They have volcanic outbreaks, they have tornadoes, they have floods — whatever you name that has occurred any place else on earth, all of those occur in the Philippines. The Filipinos are survivors.”
They know how to rebuild, he said.
“They are a loyal, wonderful, obedient, faithful, Christian people.”
Urdaneta Philippines Temple
Nestled amid picturesque rice fields, the 32,604-square-foot Urdaneta temple is located in the southern part of Urdaneta along the MacArthur Highway. The site also includes temple patron housing. Temple motifs include the sampaguita flower — a representation of purity, simplicity, humility and strength to Filipinos.
Dedicated on a day when temperatures soared well above 100 degrees — with 90% humidity — patrons took shelter under trees and umbrellas while awaiting their session to start.
President Oaks said Church leaders chose to locate a temple in Urdaneta because of its central location to the 200,000 Latter-day Saints in the temple district — who reside in 34 stakes and 13 districts.
The area has Latter-day Saint roots that date back five decades.
Fe Corazon Basconcillo Johnson and her sister, Maria Teresita Basconcillo Credo, joined the Church while studying in Baguio City in April 1969.
When the sisters returned to their home in Urdaneta, they shared the gospel with their parents, Antonino and Petra Basconcillo, who joined the Church in 1970. The family was committed but had a hard time attending Church services — held more than an hour from their home.
Then one day, Johnson was sitting under a bamboo tree in front of her home in Urdaneta when she saw an unusual sight — four Latter-day Saint missionaries walking down the street. Her father had written a letter to Philippines Mission President Paul S. Rose, asking him to send elders to the city.
The missionaries shared the good news. “They were going to start a group in Urdaneta.”
That first Sunday, without receiving supplies from the mission office, the missionaries blessed and passed the sacrament with the family’s china.
“It amazes me how the Lord works — a little at a time,” said Johnson, noting that from that small meeting of one family and the missionaries, the Church in Urdaneta flourished.
After the temple was announced for Urdaneta, Johnson and her husband, Greg Johnson, bought property in the city. They can see the temple from their house.
Maria Credo and her husband, Rogelio Credo, had just received permanent residency in Canada when they heard the Church would have a temple in Urdaneta. They knew it was “time to return home.”
They turned down their Canadian residency and moved back to the Philippines. “We will work in the temple in Urdaneta for the rest of our lives,” she said.
‘Showing them our home’
Siblings Sarah Ocampo Linsangan, Judy Ocampo Tigno and Wagner Piedad Ocampo were baptized in 1976 in the ocean, because Urdaneta did not have a baptismal font.
Their father, Felino Caparas Campo, was a minister when he joined the Church and was ostracized by his family. “We had no relatives anymore,” said Wagner Ocampo.
But the Church was enough.
Felino Campo became the first bishop and stake president in Urdaneta and would drive his family — that included 11 living children — in a jeepney (small Filipino bus) to meetings each Sunday. In 1980, Wagner Ocampo was called to serve in the Cebu mission — becoming an early missionary from Urdaneta. After the temple was dedicated in Manila, the family was sealed.
Still, said Tigno, they never anticipated the Church would build a temple in Urdaneta.
She said people came from all over the Philippines to see the temple during the open house — which drew some 63,500 people.
Aaron Delos Santos worked with ushers during the temple open house. It was most rewarding, he said, to hear the response of the visitors. “It is not just showing them inside the temple, it is like showing them our home,” he said.
As a child he watched his father work as a custodian cleaning the Church. In the process, he learned about sacred stewardships. “If we know how to take care of the things that are important to the Lord, the Lord will take care of things that are important to us,” he said.
Latter-day Saints in Urdaneta will make sure they are worthy of the blessings of the temple, he said.
Journa Liz S. Ramirez is compiling a history for the local temple committee. She details how the Lord guided the work of the open house and dedication — and of the sacrifice of many who traveled numerous hours in Philippines traffic to see the temple. “This is His house,” she said.
A graduate of BYU–Hawaii in journalism, she was recently asked how her education had blessed her life. Of the work she did as part of the dedication and open house committee, she said, “This is it. My education helped me prepare for this.”
As a child, her family was part of the Mapandan Branch, where her father served as branch president. “We didn’t have a chapel,” she said.
Now the land is dotted by beautiful chapels — and temples. “The Saints have grown,” she said.
