The Call to Gather

For Mariana Becerra, life was hard before the Church was established there. She had been a member of the Church for only a couple of years when she came to the islands in 1990.

"There was no Church when I came," Mariana says. "It was just my son and me. We held family home evening and tried to live the gospel. But the few other members I knew didn't live according to gospel standards."

David and Jeanneth Palacios had a similar experience. David had joined the Church as a teenager, and Jeanneth was baptized in 1993, just a year before the couple moved to the Galápagos.

"When we moved here, we didn't know any other members. I thought we were the only ones. It was very difficult to live without the Church," Jeanneth says.

"Then one day in 1997 André came to where I worked and said, 'I'm looking for Jeanneth de Palacios. Are you a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormon Church?'

"I felt as though the Lord had extended His hand and was gathering His sheep," Jeanneth remembers. "And I said, 'Yes, yes!' I felt such happiness because we are not alone. We are more!"

Mariana adds, "It felt so good when André gathered us. We had something profound—something greater than friendship—as members of the Church."