Luis Alfonso López Hidalgo, the eldest son of Bertha Hidalgo Rojas (see the previous vignette), has an intriguing story of becoming a Latter-day Saint in his teenage years. He is one of Bertha’s seven sons who gave their mother considerable heartburn over converting from Catholicism to the Latter-day Saint faith. His story involves imponderables, including the impact of an agricultural and nutritional field program run by Brigham Young University near his hometown of Atlixco. This vignette illustrates one of many instances of generational transfer of the Latter-day Saint faith in Mexico.

Luis Alfonso was a maturing and pensive fourteen-year-old when his father, Alfonso López Sierra (1922–71), died from damaged heart valves. The young lad no doubt experienced some of the emotional turmoil characteristic of adolescence as he tried to become reconciled to his father’s death. Alfonso López Sierra had been, from his children’s adult perspective, as close to an ideal parent as one might imagine, with a remarkable loving bond between father and sons. Just as Bertha had done, Luis Alfonso (hereafter Alfonso) wondered why his life had come crashing around him. He was not angry with God, as was his mother, but certainly he was distressed.

Almost a year to the day from his father’s death, fifteen-year-old Alfonso decided he wanted for himself what his father had wanted for him: to enter a Catholic seminary and become a priest. Sensing that he could not take this course lightly, he recalled that his father had taught him to go to the Lord in prayer when something important was afoot. Accordingly, Alfonso set aside a week in which, in addition to his school studies, he would reflect, study, and pray to know God’s will for him regarding the rest of his life.

Upon returning home from school one Monday, Alfonso knelt in his room and asked God to guide him. “Lord, show me the way. All I desire is to serve thee.” (Indícame el camino. Yo lo único que deseo es servirte.) He arose and, as planned, reflected and studied, which he also did the following day.

On Wednesday after his prayer and during his reflecting and studying, he heard the doorbell ring at his grandmother’s house where he, his siblings, and their mother had taken refuge following his father’s death two years earlier. As he was home alone, he went to see who was at the entryway to his grandmother’s compound. A man in his late forties with an American accent was there. His name was Kirt Olson.[1] Olson told Alfonso that he was living nearby and was working on a project to raise the dietary protein consumption of poor people in the area. The lad’s mother had told Olson that the Hidalgos had a nice tool that could be used to make rabbit cages, and Olson asked to borrow it. This was serious business. Olson had ninety-five recently arrived students with four teachers and advisers from Brigham Young University to help him for a month with the university’s Project Mexico.[2]

Interestingly, up to this point, Alfonso had not seen any of the students nor had any interaction with anyone other than those of his own faith. Making this new acquaintance was a pristine experience for him. He would soon bump up against more of it. Within several days, David Richardson and Bruce Brittain, two students from the BYU project, arrived at the Hidalgo compound to spend a month sleeping and accepting meals and, in their spare time, helping the entire López Hidalgo family practice English.

On Thursday, the following day, Alfonso went to the Olson home for more explanation. Because Alfonso’s father had been a veterinarian, the idea of raising rabbits for enhanced protein consumption intrigued the teenager. He loaned Olson the tool, no doubt after consulting with his mother.

Aside from his interest in the rabbit hutches, Alfonso was generally intrigued with the Olson family, not the least of the attractions being their daughter Linda, a year and a half younger than he. The Olsons invited him and his brothers over frequently. They happily obliged. Again, among other things, the children were anxious to improve their English.

It was the way Kirt Olson treated his children that initially caught Alfonso’s attention. Olson respectfully engaged his children in conversation, he called on them to say a prayer over their meals, he talked to them about their studies—and he hugged them! Yes, hugged them! Alfonso was emotionally overcome one time when Olson held a young daughter on his lap while they ate. He remembered his father holding his young brothers that way. At the dinner table he emotively exclaimed, “Occasionally my father sat my young brothers like this on his knees!” (¡Así en ocasiones mi papá sentaba en sus piernas a mis hermanos pequeños!)

As time progressed, Olson’s stature as a father figure rose in Alfonso’s estimation, and although Alfonso continued with his prayers, he forgot to go back to reflecting and studying to become a priest.

Inevitably, at one of the meals that Alfonso shared in the Olson home the subject of religion arose. Alfonso told them about how he was considering preparing for the Catholic priesthood. Kirt Olson’s wife, Beth, told him about the Church their family belonged to. Alfonso was pleased to hear their spiritual experiences. Moreover, he was delighted that they respected his religious beliefs and did not criticize him.

At some point the Olsons introduced Alfonso to the Book of Mormon. He asked his mother’s brother, his uncle Raúl, about it. Raúl told him that years previously someone had given him a copy of the book. He loaned it to Alfonso, who began to peruse it. Beth pointed out Moroni’s invitation to ask God if the book is true. Alfonso was captivated, saying to himself, “This is exactly what I have been doing! I have been asking God to guide me to the truth.” (¡Esto es exactamente lo que he estado haciendo! He estado pidiendo a Dios que me guíe a la verdad.) From then on Alfonso began to think that his getting to know the Olsons was no coincidence.

Some time passed before Alfonso got up enough courage to ask God the question about the book. However, one night he decided to go ahead and do it. Kneeling, he supplicated God to indicate to him unequivocally the truth with respect to this new road he was hearing about, and specifically about the Book of Mormon. He prayed for about twenty minutes and then went to bed.

During the night he dreamed he was in a large meadow. In the distance he could see a person coming toward him. Soon Alfonso could see that the man had two books in his hand. Then Alfonso recognized the man as his father! His father drew near and, looking penetratingly into his eyes, said, “What are you waiting for to be baptized?” (¿Qué esperas para bauti­zarte?) Then he left.

The dream was so real, impressive, and startling that Alfonso awakened and ran down the stairs to his mother’s room to talk to her about it. Her response: “Oh dear! Go back to sleep! (¡Ay, regrésate a dormir!) He went back to his bedroom but did not sleep: “I knew that it was real and that the Lord was not going to play with the sincere supplications of one of his sons. From this moment on I decided to be baptized.” (Pero yo sabía que era real y que el Señor no iba a jugar con las súplicas sinceras de uno de sus hijos. Desde ese momento, tomé la decisión de bautizarme.)

Four years passed. No one in Alfonso’s family other than his brother Gustavo would listen to him. Nevertheless, his mother finally consented to his being baptized because she was exhausted with his incessant pleas and, in any event, her son was now of age (eighteen) and was spending all his Sundays with the Latter-day Saints rather than going to Mass with her anyway.

Because Alfonso could not bear failing to tell someone outside his family and the Church community of his experience, he went to the home of his good friend Antonio Aranda to tell him about his dream and to invite him to his baptism, which would take place later that afternoon in 1975. Aranda’s grandmother, listening from her room, emerged with enough irate energy to yell at Alfonso, “How dare you betray our religion!” (¡Cómo te has atrevido a traicionar nuestra religion!) Alfonso quickly bade his friend goodbye, returned to his home to meet Gustavo, and together they went to the church for Alfonso’s baptism.

Kirt Olson baptized him. After the services when ward members lined up to greet and congratulate Alfonso, to his surprise Aranda’s grandmother was there. When her turn came to greet him, she drew close to his ear and said, “Something inspired me to come here and tell you that what you have done is right.” (Algo me inspiró a que viniera aquí y te dijera que lo que has hecho es correcto.) This experience heightened Alfonso’s faith and confidence that he had made the right decision, and his trust in the Lord increased even more.

Somewhere along the way while at BYU, Alfonso remembered his patriarchal blessing promising that his birth family would be ready for the gospel if he served his mission with all his heart, soul, mind, and energy. Praying about the matter, he felt inspired to spend the summer of 1980 in Atlixco to share the Latter-day Saint faith with his family. The outcome, as seen from the previous vignette about his mother, was striking. Having already nurtured Gustavo into the waters of baptism, he became a key influence in the baptism of his five younger brothers, and even of his mother.

After studying at BYU for a year and having served a mission in Puerto Rico, Alfonso married the teenaged friend of his youth, Linda Olson, in the temple. They made their initial home in the United States, where they had five children and where he served as a bishop.

Notes

On December 3, 2011, Eileen Roundy-Tullis and I spent two days in Atlixco with five of the seven sons of Bertha Hidalgo Rojas (Rubén, Paulo, Gustavo, Benjamín, and Arturo). Paulo afforded us accommodations in his lovely home at 31 Oriente, no. 404, Colonia Francisco I, Madero. Earlier Paulo had shared with me by mail a biographical typescript that he and his brothers had drafted about their mother. The family shared additional documents and photographs during the visit. I took notes from dinner conversations, and Eileen and I recorded approximately eight hours of group and individual interviews with the López Hidalgo sons and their wives. This became the principal data source for writing about Luis Alfonso’s mother (see the previous vignette) as well as six of her seven living children. Luis Alfonso was not present for this two-day interview. The information was provided by his brothers.

The English version of this vignette profits from commentary by Eileen Roundy-Tullis, Sharman Gill, and Rubén López Hidalgo, as well as from supplemental information that David Richardson sent via letter to me on May 22, 2012.

[1] Kirt Olson was Brigham Young University’s resident field supervisor for the university’s Indian Assistance Program in Puebla. He was living there with his wife Beth and numerous children. Previously he and his family had lived among the Navajos in Crystal, New Mexico, working in turn for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and then the Church of Jesus Christ’s Indian seminary program. After his humanitarian service in Puebla, Mexico, he served as president of the Colombia Bogotá Mission. In 1980 he joined the Church’s American Indian Services (AIS). While in Utah he also worked with the seminary program and later with the Church’s Curriculum Department. See “News of the Church,” Ensign, June 1974; and John P. Livingstone, “Meeting Needs with Resources,” in Same Drum, Different Beat: The Story of Dale T. Tingey and American Indian Services (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2003).

[2] The teachers and advisers were Lowell Wood, Ivan Corbridge, Ted Lyon, and Kay Frantz (David Richardson to LaMond Tullis, May 22, 2012).