A Waiter, a Prophecy, and an Open Door
José Santos Ortega Flores, a waiter at the Hotel Prado in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, was surprised when the North American visitors he was serving all declined his offer of coffee. One of the men in the group introduced himself as Elder Spencer W. Kimball, an Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Kimball explained that they were in Tegucigalpa seeking government approval for missionaries to proselytize in Honduras. “I feel you are going to be the first elder of the Church here in Honduras,” Kimball told José.
José maintained contact with Elder Kimball and Gordon M. Romney, president of the newly created Central American Mission, who had been with Kimball that afternoon. Three weeks after their initial contact, Romney returned to Tegucigalpa with a copy of the Book of Mormon for José and two missionaries to teach him.
José had been searching for religious truth since his boyhood but never found it in any of the various sects. What the missionaries taught him, on the other hand, rang true in his heart. Still, joining the Church presented José with certain challenges. He was barely able to support his wife and their young children on the small wages he made as a waiter. The prospect of paying a tenth of those wages in tithing seemed daunting.
Over the next several weeks, José met with the missionaries and attended weekly services with others, during which the missionaries shared the gospel. He accepted the missionaries’ invitation to be baptized—but in his heart, he wavered. Late one night, just days before the scheduled baptism, he found himself staring up at the ceiling above his bed. As he contemplated the best way to tell the missionaries he was not ready to be baptized, he saw a vision of a man who spoke to him, repeating four times, “Don’t be afraid! Be baptized!”
After the spiritual manifestation faded away, he lay in bed with tears of both sorrow and joy running down his face—sorrow that the spirit could not stay with him longer and joy at knowing he had been forgiven. He was clean!
Curious onlookers watched as José and a missionary waded into a nearby river on March 21, 1953. José, along with Alicia Castañeda, Antonieta Dávila Mendoza de Chahín, and Corina Bustamante and her young daughter, became the first converts in Honduras.
The onlookers could not have understood the significance of what they were witnessing. José went on to become the first elder ordained in Honduras, as Elder Kimball had foretold, and served in leadership positions. Alicia Castañeda became the first Relief Society president in Honduras and served the Church faithfully for many years. Antonieta Dávila Mendoza de Chahín helped with the first Primary children. Family members of these first converts joined the Church and helped it grow. As those five people emerged from the river that day, the building blocks in the foundation of the Church in Honduras were laid.