Ashort time after the turn of the century, thousands of European families bid farwell to the economic challenges and signs of war in their homelands and immigrated to South America.
Among them was 17-year-old Ramon Avila, who left his home in Ameria, Spain. He and a cousin, Andres, arrived here May 10, 1910, and were received by relatives. During the following years, the discovery of new opportunities dominated his life as he worked to better his lot in his new land.In 1925, he married a daughter of Italian immigrants, Elisa Leonor Melga. The couple built their own home and established a business. However, the effects of the worldwide depression in 1930 seriously depleted their business and threw the family on hard times.
The economy did not slow their desire to have a family, however. By 1936, they were parents of five sons. A year after his birth, the fifth son, Jose Luis Avila, contracted a severe case of meningitis. The parents took the baby to the Buenos Aires Childrens Hospital. Physicians there told the parents to take the baby home and wait out the disease, because there was nothing they could do.
The anguished parents took their baby home where tiny Jose Luis continued to cry and suffer. They watched helplessly. A neighbor, seeing the anguish on the face of the mother, asked about the situation. She then spoke to two LDS missionaries, and they came to administer to Jose Luis. The night after the blessing, Jose Luis slept peacefully and the next morning began to eat and recuperate.
This event is regarded as a miracle by the Avila family. Afterwards they began investigating the Church and attending the meetings with their faithful neighbor, Maria Lopez. The missionaries taught the Avila family the lessons. Three years later, on Oct. 19, 1940, the Avila family was baptized in Liniers, a suburb of Buenos Aires.
Three years later, a new challenge came to the family. Leonor died, leaving her husband with six sons, the youngest not 2 years old. Well-founded in the gospel, Brother Avila continued his activity in the Church and began rearing the boys by himself.
Brother Avila died Nov. 6, 1979. In his memoirs, he observed:
"In this unfortunate situation, I began to learn to cook, wash and iron clothing, leaving my work as bricklayer. I placed a sign on the front of the home: `Heaters, stoves, pots and clocks repaired.' "
The twin older boys, Juan Carlos and Miguel Angel, began working in a butcher shop while Francisco worked for a fruit seller. The younger boys worked at the repair shop in their home. The dedication of Brother Avila and his sons to the gospel never wavered. Each Sunday at 7 a.m. they walked for an hour and a quarter from their home in New Pompei to attend services at the Liniers Branch.
Miguel Angel later recalled:
"In this period when we joined the Church, the branch was very poor. Although there were many faithful and hard-working members, few were in a good position economically. Few owned their own homes because it required all their efforts to maintain their families. This was an era of sacrifice, but it was not difficult to belong to the Church. When going to Church, we wore mended clothing and tennis shoes, and when it was necessary, our school uniforms, for we had nothing else. In this we were not unique; this was the condition of most of the members then."
Eventually, Juan Carlos and Miguel were among the first local missionaries from Argentina during that era. Since then, the Avila sons have continued to make contributions in the Church. Leadership responsibilities are now carried by the extended Avila family. Currently, a number of their children or children's spouses are serving as stake presidents, bishops, Relief Society presidents and in other responsible callings.
Three of the Avila sons are particularly well-known. Miguel, the oldest, served as bishop and later as stake patriarch. Juan Carlos, who died April 3, 1995, served as counselor in the stake presidency of the first stake in Argentina and later as regional representative and mission president.
Jose Luis, the baby with meningitis who was blessed by the missionaries in 1936, is today a counselor in the presidency of the Buenos Aires Argentina Temple. He recently reflected on how the past has influenced the present:
"Those were times of great sacrifice, but thanks to the examples of our parents and our brothers and their perseverance, I have had the blessing of baptizing my wife, starting a family and being sealed to them in the temple. I have watched our family increase and grow within the light of the gospel. We have the goal of being a family eternally united.
"Now, being in the temple every day and seeing other families sealed adds to my certainty that this work is the most important of our lives."