25 years ago
President Hugh B. Brown of the First Presidency finished a five-week tour of South America Feb. 12, 1963, in Lima, Peru. He had arrived in Lima at midnight a few days before and was greeted by 600 members, including a 60-member choir, from the city's 10 branches. (The Church created seven new stakes in Lima Jan. 30-31, 1988. Lima now has 18 stakes. See story on page 3.)
President Brown's tour took him to Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile and Peru. He spoke at 20 conferences, attended by 20,000 people, and at 15 meetings with 1,021 missionaries.
In Lima, President Brown was met by press representatives from the city's eight major newspapers. Articles in the newspapers emphasized that the Church, with 2,200 members, was growing rapidly in Peru.
Quotes from the past
"The world is compelled to admit one or the other of the two following conclusions: Either Joseph Smith, unlettered youth though he was, has so far out-stripped the learning and wisdom of ages, and by the power of his own genius accomplished that which genius aided by scholarship could not do in previous centuries; or else they must conclude that God has in very deed again spoken from heaven, and revealed the gospel and the organization of His kingdom, through Joseph Smith. The first conclusion is absurd, the second is the true solution of the mystery, and thousands testify to it." - Elder B.H. Roberts of the First Council of the Seventy, Salt Lake Fourteenth Ward, Jan. 28, 1884