On a warm, rainy afternoon in August 1964, Elders Dail Nielson and Gene Roskelly knocked on the door of a humble apartment in Manila, where a young, pregnant Josefina Villanueva answered the door. She had never heard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the nickname “Mormon,” perhaps because the Church had only just begun formal missionary work in the Philippines three years earlier. Josefina asked, “Are you another Protestant religion?” Elder Roskelly responded in the negative. Curiosity piqued, Josefina then asked the question that her current religion could never answer satisfactorily for her: “What is your concept of God? Do you believe that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are one being or three separate beings?” Elder Nielson replied, “We believe they are one in purpose but are separate beings.” Fully intrigued now, she said, “Then please return again tomorrow when my husband, Rufino, is home.”[1] Thus began Josefina and Rufino Villanueva’s journey and lifelong devotion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is a story of faith and fortitude, service and sacrifice, and hope and happiness. It is a story made more compelling by the fact that Josefina’s background and experience provide a compelling case study for why the Church has flourished in the Philippines.

Josefina Sacro Villanueva. Courtesy of Eliza May Villanueva Shumway.

Located in the western Pacific just south of Taiwan, the Philippines is an archipelago made up of over seventy-six hundred islands, approximately two thousand of which are inhabited. Its 109 million people speak one or more of nineteen major languages, but the national languages are Filipino (Tagalog) and English. Catholicism is the predominant religion in the country, having been introduced by Spanish colonizers who ruled the Philippines for over 330 years before ceding the islands to the United States following the Spanish-American War in 1898.[2] The Philippines became an independent state in 1946 and boasts a constitutional framework that ensures religious freedom.[3]

The meteoric growth of the Church in the Philippines is a modern miracle.[4] From the time of the first baptism in 1946,[5] to the formal recognition of the Church in 1961,[6] to the announcement of the country’s thirteenth temple in 2023,[7] Church growth has been phenomenal. Within the relatively short span of sixty-two years, the Philippines enjoys the fourth-largest concentration of members of the Church in the world,[8] behind only the United States, Mexico, and Brazil, where the Church has been established for 193, 146, and 95 years, respectively.[9] President Gordon B. Hinckley felt a special affinity for the Philippines and once declared, “I do not know of any place in the world where the harvest has been so great in such a short period. The Lord has touched this land in a miraculous and wonderful way.”[10]

Several factors contributed to the early success of the Church there,[11] including the establishment of Christianity before Latter-day Saint missionaries first arrived; the influx of Latter-day Saint service personnel from the time of the US occupation in 1898 to World War II and the Korean War who introduced the gospel to local Filipinos; high education and literacy rates in the country, particularly English; success in finding and baptizing local Filipinos who could assume leadership roles in the Church; Filipino resonance with the Church’s doctrine of the family; Filipino desire to live the temporal gospel because of the socioeconomic conditions in the Philippines;[12] and the Filipino social value of “pakikisama”[13]—a desire to get along with others and share what one has. While these factors individually are not unique to the Philippines, the combination of all of them together laid the groundwork for the tremendous growth we see in the Church today.[14]

Josefina Sacro Villanueva (1936–2016) exemplified how each of these factors forged a people ready to accept and live the gospel of Jesus Christ. In many ways she is the archetype of the early converts whose faith and devotion helped establish the Church in the Philippines. She and her husband, Rufino Alvarez Villanueva Jr. (1930–2016) joined the Church in October 1964 when the Church in their country was still in its infancy.[15] Like other influential women of the Restoration, Josefina fit the description the Lord gave of Emma Smith in Doctrine and Covenants 25. She was “an elect lady” who was called upon “to expound scriptures, and to exhort the church” and to “be for a comfort” and support to her husband as they labored together to build the Church (see Doctrine and Covenants 25:3, 5, 7). That labor was not always easy, and service in the Church often required great sacrifices. But they held to the Lord’s invitation and promise to “be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:33). By the time of her death in 2016, Josefina had witnessed and participated in all but three years of the Church’s formal existence in her country. She epitomized what it meant to be a devoted disciple of Christ in the Philippines.

Brief History of the Church in the Philippines

The Church’s presence in the Philippines first began in 1898 when Willard Call and George Seaman were set apart as missionaries before deploying to the Philippines during the Spanish-American War as members of a Utah artillery battery.[16] Presumably they shared the gospel with fellow soldiers and perhaps others, but no recorded baptisms resulted from their efforts.[17] During World War II, hundreds of Latter-day Saint servicemen and servicewomen passed through the Philippines and were successful in organizing group meetings and the occasional conference. The first official member conference was held on the island of Leyte on February 18, 1945, with a second conference in Manila on May 13, 1945.[18] These meetings were attended almost exclusively by US service personnel. Church leaders in Salt Lake City discouraged members from teaching and baptizing local Filipinos until such time that the Church obtained legal recognition and organized units for local members in the country, without which it would be difficult for them to remain active.[19] Occasionally, the Church granted exceptions to this practice, as was the case with Aniceta Pabilona Fajardo, who was baptized on Easter Sunday, April 21, 1945, the first recorded Filipino convert.[20]

After the war most US troops returned home, and Church meetings tapered off dramatically. During this time a constant common thread that kept the fledgling group of members together was Maxine Tate Grimm and her husband, Ed “Pete” Grimm. A native of Tooele, Utah, Maxine joined the Red Cross at the start of World War II and served in several islands of the Pacific before being assigned to the Philippines.[21] An accomplished musician, Maxine traveled with a portable pump organ to play for church services. While working in Manila she met and married Colonel Grimm, who was not a member but was very supportive of the Church’s efforts in the Philippines. They opened their home for Church meetings and offered their backyard swimming pool as a baptismal font.[22] David Lagman, the first male to join the Church in the Philippines, later stated, “If you write the history of the mission of the Church in the Philippines, and you don’t include Sister Maxine Grimm, it’s not a complete history. You have to have her name in there, up front.”[23]

When US service personnel began arriving again due to the Korean conflict, group meetings resumed and the Church officially organized the Luzon Servicemen’s District in 1953.[24] Two years later, at Clark Air Base on August 21, 1955, Elder Joseph Fielding Smith dedicated the Philippines for preaching the gospel.[25] Missionaries could not be sent, however, until the Philippine government agreed to issue visas for those missionaries. That agreement came in 1961, largely due to the efforts of Filipinas “Ping” Batchelor.[26] Soon after that approval, Elder Hinckley inaugurated missionary work in the Philippines in a sunrise meeting on May 28, 1961.[27] In the hallowed setting of the American Military Cemetery and Memorial, Elder Hinckley offered a powerful prayer, which in part reads:

We invoke Thy blessings upon the people of this land, that they shall be friendly and hospitable and kind and gracious to those who shall come here, and that many, yea Lord, we pray that there shall be many thousands who shall receive this message and be blessed thereby. Wilt Thou bless them with receptive minds and understanding hearts, and with faith to receive, and with courage to live the principles of the gospel, and with a desire to share with others the blessings which they shall receive. We pray that there shall be many men—faithful, good, virtuous, true men—who shall join the Church and who shall receive the blessings of the priesthood, and who shall accept and grow in leadership, that Thy work here shall be handled largely by local brethren, under the direction of those who hold the keys in this day and time, according to the law and order of Thy church.[28]

It wasn’t long before the first missionaries arrived from the Southern Far East Mission on June 5, 1961.[29] Work progressed at a rapid pace, and on June 28, 1967, the Philippines Manila Mission was created with Paul Rose as the first mission president, and six years later on May 20, 1973, the first stake was organized with Augusto Lim as stake president.[30] The first temple in the Philippines, located in Manila, was dedicated on September 25, 1984[31] and by the end of 2022, Church membership in the Philippines exceeded 850,000.[32]

Fertile Ground for Josefina’s Conversion

Maximo and Delilah Sacro with their firstborn child, Josefina, 1936. Courtesy of Eliza May Villanueva Shumway.

Josefina (far right) with friends after church service. Courtesy of Eliza May Villanueva Shumway.

When missionaries knocked on Josefina and Rufino’s door in 1964, they found a couple who already had a deep belief in Jesus Christ. Indeed, perhaps the most significant reason for early Church success was the fact that the Philippines was already a Christian nation. By the time the first Latter-day Saint missionaries arrived in 1961, Filipinos had practiced Christianity, with high participation rates in organized churches, for 440 years. Catholic missionaries from Spain first introduced Christianity to the Philippine islands shortly after Ferdinand Magellan’s arrival in 1521.[33] Islam had arrived from southeast Asia to the southern Philippine Islands centuries earlier[34] but made only modest inroads among the central and northern islands before arrival of the Spaniards. The zealous proselytizing by Catholic missionaries succeeded in converting most of the islands to Catholicism by the seventeenth century.[35] That Catholic presence and a sizable group of Protestant denominations have maintained the Christian majority in the Philippines to this day.[36]

Elder Augusto Lim, the first stake president in Manila and the first Filipino General Authority, commented on the relationship between the growth of the Church and the centuries-old presence of Christianity in the Philippines in a 1992 general conference address: “We are often asked the reasons behind this phenomenal growth in membership. I can only venture some opinions: first, that being perhaps the only Christian country in Asia for many centuries now had prepared the people for the coming of the gospel.”[37] Josefina’s husband, Rufino, offered a similar sentiment: “Here in the Philippines the Filipinos are very, very religious. Very religious. If we can teach them the true gospel, they will accept it.”[38]

It was into that Christian tradition that Josefina was born in 1936 in Castillejos, a city on the western side of the main island of Luzon. Her parents, Maximo and Delilah Sacro, were churchgoing, Bible-reading Catholics, and Josefina was taught from a very young age about God and Jesus Christ, as well as the need to pray, attend church regularly, and follow God’s commandments. Her sister, Juliet, remembers her as being a very spiritually minded person who attended Catholic mass every Sunday.[39] Although raised Catholic, Josefina occasionally attended the Methodist Church but never formally joined.

Despite attending mass frequently, Josefina never felt settled on the doctrine of the Trinity. Her Catholic tradition taught her that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, though distinct in their relationships to each other, were one in being.[40] When she attended the Methodist Church, she heard that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost were all one God, separated into three divine persons.[41] In her mind, none of these explanations made sense. She innately felt that the three members of the Trinity were three distinct beings who were united in their desire to uplift and bless mankind. This doctrinal dissonance would later prove instrumental when Latter-day Saint missionaries knocked on her door.

Influence of American Servicemen and Servicewomen

Josefina grew up with a strong affinity toward Americans. As a five-year-old, she remembered running to the hills when the Imperial Japanese Army invaded the country in December 1941. As an eight-year old, she would have heard the exciting news of General Douglas McArthur landing in Leyte in 1944 and the subsequent liberation of Philippines in 1945.[42] As a ten-year old, she would have felt the pro-American fervor of her people as the United States turned governance of the Philippines over to the democratically elected government on July 4, 1946.[43] In short, pro-American sentiment was generally strong across the country.[44] So when the twenty-eight-year-old Josefina opened her door in August 1964 to see two young, clean-cut American men standing there, she would already have had favorable attitudes toward them and their message.

The Church’s presence in the Philippines indeed began in earnest with the arrival of thousands of Latter-day Saint service men and women during World War II.[45] They organized into groups and met fairly regularly between March 1945 and August 1946.[46] When the Korean War brought a second wave of US service personnel to the islands, interactions between Latter-day Saint personnel and local Filipinos increased. At the time of Josefina’s and Rufino’s baptism, the branch met in the local Masonic Hall, where Josefina and Rufino rubbed shoulders with, and learned from, their American leaders.[47]

The boon in having so many Latter-day Saint servicemen and servicewomen stationed there was so much more than mere numbers—it was the ability of these individuals, many of whom were seasoned leaders back in the US, to mentor and train new Filipino converts. As R. Lanier Britsch observes, “Another important contributor to the success of the Church, especially during the early years of the mission, was the influence and leadership of the LDS servicemen. . . . Filipino leaders had the advantage of older role models to emulate, rather than youthful, inexperienced missionaries.”[48]

Josefina’s Education and English Proficiency

Like many of their Asian neighbors, Filipinos place a high value on education.[49] Within three years of acquiring the Philippines from Spain in 1898, the United States instituted free public education in which the language of instruction was English.[50] This resulted in increased literacy rates and proficiency in the English language.[51] Josefina was a direct beneficiary of that educational environment. Her parents, Delilah and Maximo Sacro, placed heavy emphasis on their children’s intellectual growth and encouraged Josefina to get all the education she could. The Sacros even founded a high school on the island of Mindoro, just south of Luzon, called the “Oriental Mindoro Academy,” which family members still own and operate today. As a young mother, Josefina would return to OMA and serve as a teacher for two years in the late 1960s.

Josefina grew up with a love of books, music, and all manner of learning. She graduated from National University in Manila with a Bachelor of Science degree in education, physics, and math. The language of instruction, then and still today, was English, so Josefina, like many Filipinos, was fluent in English, Tagalog, and her native Ilokano. Her advanced education allowed Josefina more upward mobility in employment opportunities. While she excelled in math, her first love was teaching, and she soon found employment as a high school teacher. This love of teaching followed her throughout her life in both educational and ecclesiastical settings.

Josefina graduated from National University of Manila. Courtesy of Eliza May Villanueva Shumway.

Britsch observed, “English is the real lingua franca of the nation. It is used in government, business, education, and communications. . . . The implications for missionary work are obvious.”[52] Elder Lim explained that the Philippines’ being the third largest English-speaking country in the world “certainly made it easier for people to understand the message of the gospel and is the reason for the fast development of the leadership skills of its members.”[53] Josefina’s and Rufino’s education and fluency in English no doubt helped them develop leadership skills very quickly.

Josefina’s Leadership Skills

Even as Josefina charted a career path in education, she always planned on marriage and family. However, because of both her educational aspirations and her high personal standards, none of the men in her circles attracted her eye during her high school and college years. That changed when, at twenty-two, she met a young, athletic physical education teacher named Rufino Villanueva. Highly educated and an interesting conversationalist, he treated her with great respect. After five years of courtship, Josefina and Rufino married on December 30, 1963, in a Catholic ceremony, even though Rufino was Methodist. He was thirty-three and she was twenty-seven.

Josefina and Rufino on their wedding day, December 30, 1963. Courtesy of Eliza May Villanueva Shumway.

Josefina and Rufino were the kind of local converts the Church needed in its early stages to assume leadership roles quickly. As in any area where the Church is new, one of the missionaries’ highest priorities is to find, teach, and baptize local leaders. That almost universally meant looking for men and women who were educated, with stable jobs, who thus had the ability, time, and resources to devote their energies to establishing the Church in that area.[54] Elder Nielson and Elder Roskelly returned to the Villanueva apartment the day after the interchange with Josefina and began teaching the young couple. Nielson recorded in his journal that night, “August 9, 1964. This evening we called on Mr. and Mrs. Villanueva and taught them the first. They are good people. I hope we can keep them coming toward baptism.”[55]

Elder Dail Nielson, 1964. Courtesy of Dail Nielson.

Elder Gene Roskelly, 1964. Courtesy of Dail Nielson.

Rufino and Josefina were immediately drawn to these young, sincere missionaries from America. The Villanuevas’ shared Christianity and advanced education allowed them to understand the scriptural English of the Book of Mormon with relative ease, and within two days they gained a witness of the truthfulness of the gospel, of the Book of Mormon, and of Joseph Smith the Prophet. With this spiritual confirmation, they accepted the invitation to be baptized. “I think my wife was responsible for our conversion,” Rufino recalled later. “She was the one who made the appointment with the missionaries and saw to it that I was there on time.”[56] Like so many early converts in Manila in those days, the Villanuevas were baptized in the Grimms’ swimming pool in October 1964. Elder Neilson later wrote: “I do not recall any investigators who accepted the gospel so easily. They were just ready for it. The whole process was so smooth it made me wonder why? They seemed eager to learn and did everything we asked them to[,] readily. In retrospect, considering what a major impact on the work in the Philippines they have had, I believe they were prepared for it in the preexistence.”[57]

Josefina and Rufino shortly after their baptism, October 1964. Courtesy of Eliza May Villanueva Shumway.

Josefina and Rufino’s commitment and their educated status marked them for leadership roles as the Church grew. In March 1965, they moved to the city of La Carlota on Rufino’s home island of Negros, about 485 kilometers southeast of Manila, where Rufino would assist his father to run a fish farm. Elder Nielson and other Church leaders on Luzon worried that without any organized Church unit on Negros, the Villanuevas would struggle to maintain their testimonies and perhaps leave their faith. Josefina and Rufino studied the gospel on their own using manuals they received from Manila. In 1966 two missionaries on the neighboring island of Iloilo, Elder Mabunga and Elder Free, found out that the Villanuevas resided on Negros, so the missionaries transferred to Bacolod, rented an apartment, and quickly contacted the Villanuevas. The first church meeting on the island of Negros occurred in the elders’ apartment. Present were Rufino, Josefina, their infant Nephia, the two elders, and one person taking the lessons, Sister Godinez. Within two years over one hundred people were attending church. In 1968 President Paul Rose of the recently created Philippines Manila Mission organized the Bacolod Branch with Rufino as its first branch president and Josefina as a Relief Society leader.[58]

Josefina and Rufino were key contributors to the growth and vitality of the Church as it took root on Negros. Elder Galen Updike, an American missionary in the Philippines in the late 1960s, spoke of the Villanuevas in a message to their children:

Your parents were legendary to the missionaries, pioneers in every sense of the word. Your father kept his tithing in a safe place until he could turn it over to a visiting elder or somehow get it to the mission home in Manila. We used your father’s and mother’s example to teach others about the blessings of paying tithing. . . . Bacolod was opened for missionary work and your parents helped in gathering converts into a group organization. It was still a group in 1968 when I was there, with some 30 or 40 members, total. I remember one really stormy Sunday morning (almost typhoon conditions), when no one came to church except your dad. He traveled from La Carlota on his motorcycle with your younger brother so that he wouldn’t miss sacrament or priesthood meeting. I was in awe. Your father shared with me Church books from your parents’ fairly extensive Church collection. Your parents, especially your father, had read every book and understood each one. His gospel knowledge was impressive. And your mother was talented as a teacher, and dear to the children and young women she trained. Because they had means and were skilled at fellowshipping and inviting, they helped bring many into the Church. They were not ashamed of the gospel. . . . I don’t know that I’ve known better, more practical, more down-to-earth and loving people than your parents. I know they have the love and respect of the leaders of the Church. . . . Your parents were no less pioneers than the handcart pioneers helping to spread Zion and her stakes into the Philippines.[59]

Rufino and Josefina at the fish farm in San Enrique, Negros, 1968, with their children (oldest to youngest) Nephia, Michael, and Alma, and Rufino’s brotherin-law, Raul Nillos. Courtesy of Eliza May Villanueva Shumway.

In 1969 Josefina’s parents asked them to move to Mindoro to take charge of the Oriental Mindoro Academy, the family’s private high school. Josefina taught there before the family moved to Manila so their children would have more educational opportunities. While there, they witnessed the organization of the Manila Philippines Stake in 1973, and Rufino was called as the first bishop of the new Makati Second Ward. In 1974 Rufino was hired by the Church Educational System as one the first employees in the country and was assigned to Cebu, where the family relocated. He was called as the Cebu District president, where he served for seven years before the Church Educational System transferred him to his hometown of Bacolod in 1981. In each of these venues, Josefina served faithfully alongside her husband. Over her lifetime she served as a district Relief Society president, several times as ward or branch Relief Society president and teacher, institute and seminary teacher, ward choir director, and mission president companion. Benson Misalucha, one of Josefina’s seminary students who later served as a mission president and Area Seventy in the Philippines, explained the impact she had on him as a teenager:

In our Cebu 1st Branch seminary class which she taught in the late 70’s, we had to write our testimonies of Jesus Christ on the workbook provided. She returned mine (which I think she did for all her students) and wrote me a very personal and inspiring response. I have kept and treasure that letter to this day. She help me build a strong gospel foundation that guided me throughout my life. . . . I am a once-seminary student who will always be grateful to his teacher who left a lasting imprint in his life.[60]

Bacolod Group, 1967, a year before becoming a branch. Josefina and Rufino are dressed in white, just to the right of the two American missionaries. Courtesy of Eliza May Villanueva Shumway.

Doctrine of the Family

Even though Josefina and Rufino were older when they married, they knew they wanted a large family. The Church’s teachings on the doctrine of the family resonated with them as it did with so many Filipinos. Families with children were normal due in part to the Catholic Church’s strong emphasis on families and children and its policy discouraging birth control.[61] In 1961 the average household size in the Philippines was 6, higher than most of its Asian neighbors.[62] Even now, over sixty years later, that number is 4.2,[63] almost double Japan’s and Korea’s 2.3.[64]

Villanueva family in 1983. Courtesy of Eliza May Villanueva Shumway.

When taught the doctrine of eternal families, the Villanuevas set a goal that someday they would be sealed as a couple and as a family. Ultimately, they had ten children in eighteen years, the youngest coming when Josefina was forty-six and Rufino fifty-one.[65] Josefina, the well-educated and a former high school teacher, decided to follow President Spencer W. Kimball’s counsel not to be employed outside the home. She was an active homemaker and supported her husband as he served as a bishop, district president, stake president, and regional representative. She often substituted at St. Scholastica Academy in Bacolod, the all-girls Catholic school her daughters attended, and became a favorite with the nuns because she was an excellent teacher.

In April 1974, while Rufino was serving as bishop of the Makati Second Ward in Manila, the Church sent him to general conference in Salt Lake City. Josefina accompanied Rufino so they could receive their endowments and be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. That glorious event took place on April 17, 1974. Once the Manila Temple was dedicated in 1984, Josefina and Rufino eventually would be sealed to the six of their ten children who had not been born in the covenant, thus uniting their family for eternity.

Temporal Gospel

Socioeconomic conditions in the Philippines were tough for many people. In 1961, the year the Church formally began missionary work, the average annual household income was ₱1,804,[66] about $894 US dollars.[67] These conditions not only had created a humble people but also a people eager to improve their situations. For Elder Lim, this factor of Church growth eclipsed even the Philippines’s Christian heritage and English proficiency in significance:

But more important [than Christianity in the Philippines and the populace’s understanding of English] is the humble nature of the people and their dependence on the Lord for the things they stand in need of, making them receptive to the promptings of the Spirit. Because of economic difficulties experienced in the Philippines, the gospel is the answer, and rightly so, to the people’s prayer for a better way of life. As a result of the gospel-centered lives of many Latter-day Saints, people around them see changes in their lives that in turn give them hope. Member families may still live in humble homes with dirt or bamboo floors and walls, but because of their positive response to the gospel plan, and through their obedience to the Lord’s commandments, they receive the promised blessings and, as a result, people see the changes in these families who are now living in a more sanitary condition and are healthier, more educated, always ready and delighted to help others, grateful for what they have, no matter how humble, and generally happier. They have obeyed the Lord’s counsel to “learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me” (D&C 19:23) Generally, however, the faith, devotion, and living of correct gospel principles by the members have improved their lives not only spiritually but also temporally, for did not the Lord say that the “willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days”? (D&C 64:34)[68]

Though Rufino was well educated and well employed as a coordinator for the Church Educational System, raising and educating a family of ten children was not an easy task. Josefina was very resourceful in helping to provide for her family. She made sausages and sold them to supplement the family income. She taught piano lessons. She taught her children how to cook and manage a household and how to be self-reliant. Their daughter, Eliza May, remembers Josefina teaching her the simple principle of finance that revenue minus the cost of goods sold is profit. So, with her mother’s blessing, eight-year-old Eliza collected guavas from the tree in their backyard and sold them on jeepneys [small, often colorful busses originally made from converted US Army jeeps] on her way to school.

The Villanueva family grew and matured alongside the growth of the Church. In 1978, while they lived in Cebu, the Church created a twenty-eight-minute film for release in the Philippines called The Mormons.[69] The film featured several individuals and families, including the Villanuevas, to introduce Filipino people to the Church. In a ninety-second segment of the film, Josefina is shown teaching a Relief Society class that illustrates the importance of the temporal gospel to Filipinos. Josefina taught the sisters about “unwise economic ideas and practices,” which led to a discussion of the dangers of easy credit plans and other financial pitfalls.[70] Even after Josefina was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, she served as a facilitator for the Church’s self-reliance classes and was posthumously awarded a certificate for doing so six months after her death.

Pakikisama—a Desire to Get Along with Others and Share What One Has

Like many Filipinos, Josefina possessed a strong sense of social camaraderie, of wanting to be with and get along well with others. The Tagalog term pakikisama is translated as the “Filipino concept of smooth interpersonal relations; group loyalty; adapting to others; getting along; company; society; companionship.”[71] More broadly as a social value, the word connotes a “feeling of closeness to one another, . . . [of] sharing one’s wealth, talent, time and self with fellow human beings and working together for a common good.”[72] Filipinos are very social and recognize a responsibility to do things that promote harmony and benefit the group.

For many members in the Philippines, this trait of pakikisama manifests itself in a strong desire to share the gospel once they receive it. Marvin K. Gardner notes, “Another reason [for phenomenal Church growth in the Philippines] is that it is the Filipino’s nature to share what he has. ‘Everyone has nonmember friends and relatives for us to teach,’ says a missionary. ‘Most of our referrals come from members.’”[73] This explains, in part, why Josefina, like many other members, was a fearless missionary. Her children recall countless times they rode somewhere in a taxi and their mother would purposely sit in the front seat so she could talk to the driver. “Do you have a family?” she would ask. “Yes,” came the reply. “Do you want to live with them forever?” she boldly continued. They found themselves unable to contradict. She would then spend the rest of the drive talking about how the Church blesses families. She would usually leave them with a copy of the Book of Mormon that she always carried and an invitation along the lines of “You will find real happiness when you listen and accept what our missionaries have to offer your family.” Even though her children initially were mortified by such exchanges, they learned great lessons in sharing the gospel.

Josefina and Rufino served as mission leaders in the newly created Cagayan de Oro Mission, 1988–91. Courtesy of Eliza May Villanueva Shumway.

Josefina and Rufino set a goal to bring one family per year into the Church. Josefina would purposely hire women of other faiths to work in the Villanueva home with the express purpose of introducing them to the missionaries. She would also use her love of music to invite friends to Church. Always a participant or director of branch and ward choirs, Josefina one day invited her friend Belen Misalucha and her husband, Benjamin, to join the Cebu First Branch choir. Both Misaluchas loved to sing, and they had five children who were roughly the same age as the Villanueva children. It was not long before the Misaluchas’ interest in singing became interest in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Fellowshipped by the Villanuevas and other members of the branch, the Misalucha family joined the Church on April 29, 1978.[74]

The Villanueva family continued their missionary efforts after relocating from Cebu to Bacolod in 1981. During a 1994 interview, Rufino was asked what the most significant event was for the growth of the Church in Bacolod. His response again illustrates how the principle of pakikisama helped fuel member missionary efforts. He described how a Filipino regional representative encouraged every member in Bacolod to share the gospel, and they responded with enthusiasm. The result was 250–300 baptisms per month. “I think that’s the greatest event here in Bacolod that I have experienced,” he recalls. “In a year’s time we established one stake. Then in six months we divided it into two. In another year we divided it into four. Now [1994] we have five stakes here in Bacolod. I think it was the missionary work. I was really very impressed with the members trying to share the gospel with their friends and relatives.”[75]

Rufino and Josefina in 2009. Courtesy of Eliza May Villanueva Shumway.

In January 1988 Rufino and Josefina were called to preside over the newly created Philippines Cagayan de Oro Mission on the southern island of Mindanao. They loved their missionaries, both Filipino and foreign. They taught together, trained together, and entertained dignitaries together. In later life they reported that their time serving as mission leaders was the happiest time of their lives. With every mission call received by their grandchildren, Josefina and Rufino would write them a letter, which read in part:

Do all you can to teach [people] the gospel. Teach them the principles of faith and repentance, and the ordinances of baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. That’s your duty. If you have done that, then it’s up to them whether to live by those principles or not. Members and leaders of the church can help you, but your mission is to seek those who have not heard the gospel. Preach to them. The Lord will bless you for that. Do not be discouraged if only very few are baptized. That is not your main job or your main goal. Your main goal is to preach the gospel to them and give them the chance to accept or to reject. Everybody needs the chance to hear the gospel, and that’s why you are called on a mission. Be happy, seek more of those who haven’t heard the gospel. Father in Heaven will be grateful if you do that.[76]

After returning to Bacolod in 1991, they continued to serve faithfully, with Josefina as Relief Society president and teacher, and Rufino as bishop of the Bacolod Sixth Ward. Their consecrated service diminished only with Josefina’s diagnosis of stage 4 breast cancer in 2013 and Rufino’s diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in November 2014.

Conclusion

True to the way they had labored together in life, Josefina and Rufino could not be parted long by death. Rufino passed away on February 7, 2016. Two hours before his funeral, Josefina collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. She had suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm and passed away a few days later on February 15. At their joint funeral held in Bacolod, family members, friends, and loved ones reminisced on the heritage of faith, commitment, and sacrifice they both exemplified. Josefina’s life is a testament to how the Filipino people, particularly the early converts who were marked for leadership roles, had been prepared by the Lord to receive the restored gospel and serve in the kingdom. We all are blessed by women like Josefina Villanueva, wherever they live. Their legacy of discipleship to Jesus Christ and building the Church should inspire all of us to “be not weary in well doing,” for we truly are laying the foundation for greater works to come.

Notes

[1] Josefina Sacro Villanueva, email message to authors, July 20, 2012.

[2] Gregorio C. Borlaza, Carolina G. Hernandez, and Michael Cullinane, Brittanica, s.v. “Philippines,” https://www.britannica.com/place/Philippines.

[3] Philippines Constitution, art. 3, sec. 5. “No law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. No religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights.” https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/constitutions/1987-constitution/.

[4] President Gordon B. Hinckley was known to call this incredible growth the “miracle of Manila.” Ben B. Banks, “Go Forth to Serve” (devotional, Brigham Young University, September 24, 1996).

[5] Aniceta Pabilona Fajardo, the first recorded Filipino convert, was baptized on April 21, 1946, after being taught by American servicemen. For this and a general introduction to the contributions of US service personnel to the establishment of the Church in the Philippines, see Lowell E. Call, “Latter-day Saint Servicemen in the Philippine Islands: A Historical Study of Their Religious Activities and Influences Resulting in the Official Organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Philippines” (master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1955), 208.

[6] Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Church in the Orient,” Improvement Era, March 1964, 188.

[7] President Russell M. Nelson announced the Laoag Philippines Temple in the October 2023 general conference. The other twelve temples include two that are completed and operating (Manila and Cebu City), four that are under construction (Urdaneta, Alabang, Davao, and Bacolod) and six that are awaiting construction (Cagayan de Oro, Tacloban, Santiago, Naga, Tuguegarao City, and Iloilo). https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/statistics/locations/philippines/.

[8] “What Are the Countries with the Most Latter-day Saints?” August 4, 2021, https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org.

[9] Church Newsroom Facts and Statistics lists Church membership in the United States, where the Church was established in 1830, at 6,804,028; Church membership in Mexico, where missionaries began proselyting in 1877, at 1,507,720, and Church membership in Brazil, where missionaries began proselyting in 1928, at 1,472,521. https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org.

[10] Dell Van Orden, “Emotional Rites Note ‘Miracle of the Philippines,’” Church News, October 7, 1984, 10. President Hinckley made these comments in connection with the dedication of the Manila Philippines Temple in 1984, twenty-three years after formal missionary work commenced in the country.

[11] This list originated from personal, unrecorded interviews the authors conducted with Rufino and Josefina Villanueva in 1996, 2007, and 2013. Liel Maala, former Church history adviser for the Philippines Area, corroborated this list. Liel Maala to authors, email, February 27, 2023. In his seminal work on the history of the Church in Asia, R. Lanier Britsch also includes several of these factors as reasons for the success of the Church in the Philippines. See R. Lanier Britsch, From the East: The History of the Latter-day Saints in Asia, 1851–1996 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1998), 323–26, 335.

[12] President Gordon B. Hinckley linked the “temporal gospel” to principles of self-reliance, particularly financial self-reliance. “I urge you . . . to look to the conditions of your finances. I urge you to be modest in your expenditures; discipline yourselves in your purchases to avoid debt to the extent possible. Pay off debt as quickly as you can, and free yourselves from bondage. This is a part of the temporal gospel in which we believe.” Gordon B. Hinckley, “To the Boys and to the Men,” Ensign, November 1998, 54.

[13] Speaking of the Seventh-day Adventist efforts to spread their religion in the Philippines, Kenneth Mulzac describes pakikisama as the social value among Filipinos in which “emphasis is placed on getting along with others and making concessions to them, being sensitive to their feelings and making every effort to be agreeable in the face of difficult circumstances, even to the hurt of oneself.” Kenneth Mulzac, “Cultural Dynamics and the Church in the Philippines,” Journal of Adventist Mission Studies 3, no. 2 (2007): 86. R. Lanier Britsch employs the Tagalog word bayanihan to describe a related social attribute of “working together . . . [and] a willingness to extend one’s heart to strangers as well as friends.” Britsch, From the East, 326.

[14] Though beyond the scope of this chapter, a comparative study of the reasons behind the rapid growth of the Church in Mexico, Brazil, and the Philippines, as well as those nations in Africa currently experiencing explosive growth, would likely reveal several close similarities. See, e.g., F. LaMond Tullis, Mormons in Mexico: The Dynamics of Faith and Culture (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1997); Mark L. Grover, A Land of Promise and Prophecy: Elder A. Theodore Tuttle in South America, 1960–1965 (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2008); Matthew K. Heiss, Kathleen M. Irving, and David M. Mayfield, A People and a Place Prepared: A Brief History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Africa (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2022).

[15] The total number of Church members in the Philippines as of December 1963 was 590 (236 of which had joined that year), organized into five branches—three for American service personnel and two for Filipinos. See Hinckley, “The Church in the Orient,” 189, 192, 210.

[16] Britsch, From the East, 319; see also Call, “Latter-day Saint Servicemen,” 85.

[17] Interestingly, Meliton Trejo, the main translator of the Book of Mormon into Spanish, received the spiritual prompting to desert the Spanish Army and travel to Salt Lake City while stationed in the Philippines. Richard O. Cowan, “Meliton Trejo,” in Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History, ed. Arnold K. Garr, Donald Q. Cannon, and Richard O. Cowan (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 1257–58.

[18] Call, “Latter-day Saint Servicemen,” 302, 306.

[19] Maxine Grimm, “History of the Church in the Philippines” (undated manuscript), 1 (Church History Library MS 23811).

[20] Call, “Latter-day Saint Servicemen,” 208.

[21] Christopher Allen Garcia, Pete & Maxine: The Grimms’ Tale, Brigham Young University, 2014, video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDhlPDjXQI4.

[22] Grimm, “History of the Church in the Philippines,” 3.

[23] Garcia, “Pete & Maxine: The Grimms’ Tale,” 1:28:42.

[24] Britsch, From the East, 320.

[25] Hinckley, “The Church in the Orient,” 188.

[26] For a fascinating reminiscence of how Ping secured the approval of those visas, see Filipinas America Lomatnta (Ping) Batchelor, interview by Gary Shumway, June 10, 1989, 13–18.

[27] Hinckley, “The Church in the Orient,” 187; see also Grimm, “History of the Church in the Philippines,” 2. Several other sources list the date of President Hinckley’s prayer as April 28, 1961, instead of May 28. See, e.g., Britsch, From the East, 321; “Gordon B. Hinckley Commencement of Missionary Work in the Philippines, 1961 April 28,” Church History Library CR 623 56. That latter account contains the following notation: “This text may be an entry copied from Hinckley’s journal or may include journal entry excerpts. The origin of this particular typing is not known.” The April 28 date is only found on the title of that document, not in the text. Filipinas “Ping” Batchelor, the woman who was instrumental in getting the Philippine government to approve missionary visas, says that Elder Hinckley’s prayer occurred after the visas had been approved, which happened in early May 1961. Batchelor, interview, 18. Thus, we feel that the original sources of Elder Hinckley, as reported in the March 1964 Improvement Era, and Maxine Grimm are likely the more accurate sources.

[28] Hinckley, “The Church in the Orient,” 188. Before the prayer, Elder Hinckley made clear that he was not re-dedicating the country because Elder Joseph Fielding Smith had done that in 1955. He was merely inaugurating missionary work in the Philippines.

[29] Britsch, From the East, 323.

[30] Britsch, From the East, 328.

[31] “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Celebrates 60 Years in the Philippines,” Church News, April 28, 2021.

[32] Newsroom Facts and Statistics lists Church membership in the Philippines at 853,254. https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org.

[33] Jayeel Cornelio, “How the Philippines Became Catholic,” Christianity Today, February 2018.

[34] Victor Taylor, “Origins of Islam in the Philippines,” Mackenzie Institute, January 9, 2017.

[35] Cornelio, “How the Philippines Became Catholic.”

[36] The Philippine Statistical Authority compiled data on religious affiliation in the Philippines from the 2020 Census. Roman Catholics accounted for 78.8% and Protestant religions for 6.5% of the population. Islam held 6.4%, with the final 8.2% listed as “other religious affiliation.” Philippines Statistical Authority, “Religious Affiliation in the Philippines (2020 Census of Population and Housing), February 22, 2023, https://psa.gov.ph/content/religious-affiliation-philippines-2020-census-population-and-housing. For an analysis of the rise of Protestantism in the Philippines, see Luther Jeremiah Oconer, Spirit-Filled Protestantism: Holiness-Pentecostal Revivals and the Making of Filipino Methodist Identity (Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2017).

[37] Augusto A. Lim, “Missionary Work in the Philippines,” Ensign, November 1992, 83.

[38] Rufino Villanueva, interview by Ronald O. Barney, November 11, 1994, 18.

[39] Juliet Sacro, email message to authors, June 30, 2023.

[40] “In God we see the Father—the ‘being one’ and first principal of life in the Godhead—the Son—the ‘knowing one’—the Word who proceeds from the Father—and the Holy Spirit—the ‘willing one’—the bond of love between the Father and Son who proceeds as love from the Father and Son. These ‘three’ do not ‘equal’ one if we are trying to say 3=1 mathematically. These three are distinct realities, relationally speaking, just as my own being, knowing, and willing are three distinct realities in me. Yet, in both God and man these three relationally distinct realities subsist in one being.” Tim Staples, “Explaining the Trinity,” Catholic Answers Magazine, June 20, 2014.

[41] “The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each God. There is one God who exists in three persons (Matt. 28:19). The Father is God (John 6:27), the Son is God (John 1:1, Heb. 1:8), and the Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4). Like other Christian traditions, the Father is often referred to as the “first person of the Trinity,” the Son as “the second person of the Trinity,” and the Holy Spirit as “the third person of the Trinity.” Daniel Isaiah Joseph, “Do Methodists Believe in the Trinity?” ChristianityFAQ.com, April 18, 2023, https://christianityfaq.com/methodists-believe-trinity/.

[42] “MacArthur’s July 5, 1945 Communique’ ‘The entire Philippine Islands are now liberated . . .’” National WWII Museum, July 4, 2020.

[43] In his inaugural address as president of the new republic, Manuel Roxas declared: “An historic drama has just been unfolded before our very eyes. . . . American flags have been lowered from flagstaffs in this land—not in defeat, not in surrender, not by compulsion, but by voluntary act of the sovereign American Nation. The flag which was first raised in conquest here has been hauled down with even greater glory. The Stars and Stripes will no longer fly over this land but in the hearts of 10 million Filipinos, and in the eyes of many millions more in this part of the world the American flag flies more triumphantly today than ever before in history. . . . Any doubts which may still linger in some quarters of the earth as to the benign intentions of America should be resolved by what she so nobly and unselfishly accomplished here. We are a staging area for democracy in this part of the world.” “President Pledges Aid to Filipinos,” Washington Post, July 4, 1946, https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/flash/july/phil46.htm.

[44] Certainly, there were moments of tension and crisis between the US and the Philippines during the forty-eight-year occupation. For a discussion of this and the US relationship with the Philippines in general, see Stanley Karnow, In Our Image: America’s Empire in the Philippines (New York: Random House, 1989).

[45] Grimm, “History of the Church in the Philippines,” 1.

[46] Call, “Latter-day Saint Servicemen,” 187.

[47] Grimm, “History of the Church in the Philippines,” 3.

[48] Britsch, From the East, 326.

[49] Dalisay S. Maligalig et al., “Education Outcomes in the Philippines,” Asian Development Bank Economic Working Paper Series, January 2010, https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/28409/economics-wp199.pdf.

[50] “Historical Perspective of the Philippine Educational System,” Republic of the Philippines Department of Education, https://www.deped.gov.ph/about-deped/history/.

[51] By 1948, 37.2 percent of the Philippine population spoke English. Teodoro Llamzon, “On Tagalog as a Dominant Language,” Philippine Studies 16, no. 4 (October 1968): 739–40. As of 2022, the Philippines ranked second among East and Southeast Asian nations in English proficiency. Singapore is first. “Philippines Drops to 22nd in English proficiency ranking” BusinessWorld, November 18, 2022.

[52] Britsch, From the East, 325.

[53] Augusto A. Lim, “Missionary Work in the Philippines,” Ensign, November 1992, 83.

[54] Britsch, From the East, 351.

[55] Dail Nielson, journal, a copy of which he sent to the authors in 2015.

[56] Rufino Villanueva, interview, 8.

[57] Nielson, journal.

[58] Villanueva, interview, 7.

[59] Galen Updike, Facebook message to authors, February 2016.

[60] Benson Misalucha, email message to authors, March 18, 2023.

[61] Sunshine LiChauco de Leon, “Philippines Birth Control Legislation Opposed by Church,” Guardian, June 8, 2011.

[62] Philippines Bureau of the Census and Statistics, Population of the Philippines by Censal Year: 1903, 1918, 1939, 1948, 1960.

[63] “Database on Household Size and Composition 2022. UN DESA/POP/2022/DC/NO. 8, Philippines,” United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022), https://population.un.org/household/#/countries/.

[64] “Database on Household Size and Composition 2022,” Japan and Korea, https://population.un.org/household/#/countries/.

[65] The ten children are Nephia Nemerita, Michael John, Alma Vida, Sariah Mia, Rufino Gabriel, Eliza May, Steven Francis, Mary Ellen, David Ray, and Leah Lorraine. From those ten children have come thirty-two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

[66] The Philippines Bureau of the Census and Statistics, “The Philippine Statistical Survey of Households, Bulletin Series No. 14, Family Income and Expenditures,” April 1961, xi.

[67] Sauder School of Business, the University of British Columbia, “Foreign Currency Units per 1 U.S. Dollar, 1950–2022,” https://fx.sauder.ubc.ca/etc/USDpages.pdf.

[68] Augusto A. Lim, “Missionary Work in the Philippines,” Ensign, November 1992, 83.

[69] “The Mormons (Philippines),” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Manila, Philippines, video, 1978, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Q4ikDzjKI.

[70]The Mormons (Philippines), 23:12–24:08.

[71] “Pakikisama,” Tagalog.com.

[72] “Filipino Values,” Account Master Global Solution, https://account-master.com/filipino-values/#.

[73] Marvin K. Gardner, “Philippine Saints: A Believing People,” Tambuli, September 1991, 20.

[74] Josefina and Belen singing in Cebu in 1978 can be seen in The Mormons, 24:20–24:26.

[75] Villanueva, interview, 14.

[76] Josefina and Rufino Villanueva, email message to the authors, May 3, 2014.