At first glance, Elder Ulisses Soares’ Nov. 6-17 European ministry itinerary seemed jam-packed with a diverse collection of meetings, visits and interactions — common to typical ministry itineraries for him and his fellow members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Over a dozen-plus days in four countries and two different Church areas in Europe, Elder Soares spent substantial time in a half-dozen major cities — Rome, Italy; Barcelona and Valencia, Spain; Paris, France; and Lisbon and Porto, Portugal. He alternated visits with friends of other faiths, government leaders and heads of charitable organizations with larger-scale meetings with members, missionaries and local leaders.
Accompanied by his wife, Sister Rosana Soares, the Apostle from Brazil hosted an Argentine rabbi on the Rome Italy Temple grounds, visited France’s Senator Stéphane Demilly in Paris and later met with a Catholic patriarch of Lisbon. Other prominent moments in Portugal included prepping potatoes and meat in a local food bank, prerecording a Rádio Televisão Portugal interview for the TV show “Caminhos” and returning to Porto for the first time on official assignment since Elder and Sister Soares led the Portugal Porto Mission more than two decades earlier.
One Sunday, on Nov. 10, he presided over and spoke at a countrywide, multistake conference meeting in Barcelona in the morning, took a flight of more than 500 miles (800 kilometers) to Paris, stopped with Sister Soares for a quick visit of the Paris France Temple and visitors’ center since it was their first time visiting the city on a special assignment, and then met in the nearby Versailles meeting for a devotional with youth ages 16 and older and young single adults that was broadcast across France.
However, some of the most memorable moments and experiences came not from scheduled events but with late changes to his scheduled itinerary and last-minute opportunities, such as when Elder Soares cleared a day’s full schedule to travel to Valencia and nearby Catarroja, devasted by massive flooding.
‘You should go there’
On Friday, Nov. 8, Elder Soares had three scheduled meetings with as many local charitable organization, with the Church prepared to make substantial donations to each. But he learned of the massive flooding and deaths and damage in Valencia the previous week and the struggles and sufferings of Latter-day Saints and others there.
“I thought, ‘Well, donations will eventually be given in the days ahead, but the opportunity to go there and be with those people in Valencia is unique,’” Elder Soares said. “And I really felt in my heart the Spirit saying ‘You should go there.’”
Elder and Sister Soares, accompanied by Elder Rubén V. Alliaud, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Europe Central Area, traveled by train nearly four hours from Barcelona to Valencia and then another hour-plus across the river and through the military checkpoints and control stations. Their group was even expedited when guards recognized the visitors wearing the yellow “Helping Hands” shirts used by Latter-day Saint volunteers.
Elder Soares said he was impressed with the organization and efforts — directed by Valencia Spain Stake President José L. Barría Fernández— at the stake center and the Catarroja Ward meetinghouse.
“He transformed those two buildings into centers of distribution of food and water hygiene kits to all people — not just for the members, but for whomever in need in the whole community,” Elder Soares said. “I felt very impressed by his loving heart and desire to help people that were suffering.”
Starting at the Catarroja meetinghouse, Elder and Sister Soares and Elder Alliaud spent time with the flood survivors there, listening to and embracing each. “We could see how emotional people felt as they saw the Church’s senior leaders paying attention to them in their very moment of suffering,” Elder Soares said.
‘I felt like the Savior was embracing all of us’
“We greeted, hugged each other, cried together and shared our love, the love of the Savior with them, and they really felt embraced by the Savior, Jesus Christ. I thought that was the most important thing we could do that day — we all felt closer to Jesus Christ. That day, I felt like the Savior was embracing all of us.”
The three visitors also stopped at the stake center, similarly greeting the some 50 Latter-day Saint volunteers and others who had worked for days in an area safe from flood waters in distributing water, food and supplies.
Elder Soares and Elder Alliaud continued to the Hospital La Fe, meeting Latter-day Saint Raúl Gámez Fuentes. Trying to cross a flooded street to reach his children safe in an upper floor of their home, he had stepped in an open manhole and severely injured a leg — enough that doctors later feared the need to amputate it.
Elder Soares and Elder Alliaud shared prayers and expressions of faith, hope and gratitude with Gámez Fuentes, his wife and the Latter-day Saint man who learned of the accident and hospital and spent days with Gámez Fuentes in his hospital room.
Said the Apostle of the day in Valencia: “It was a whole experience that taught me a lot about the importance of ministering to the one, listening to the ones who are suffering, embracing each other when one faces challenges. … I think the Savior comes through in these actions and His influence stays with people when we have that opportunity.”
Returning to the lighthouse
Another rescheduled highlight came on Thursday, Nov. 14, where previously scheduled meetings with key Portugal government leaders fell through and a meeting with the Catholic Patriarch of Lisbon, Bishop Rui Valério, and Dr. Father Peter Stilwell, the interfaith coordinator in the Portuguese Catholic Church.
Elder Soares was scheduled to meet with them at 5 p.m. in Lisbon, which would preclude he and his wife from hopefully reaching the lighthouse at Leça da Palmeira just north of Porto area by dusk, since Porto is nearly 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Lisbon.
But when he learned the Catholic leaders were in a morning conference in Fátima, a Catholic worship placed, located between Lisbon and Portugal, he was able to reschedule a noon meeting with them there. The two were appreciative of Elder Soares having met the day before with officials of Cáritas Portugal, the country’s division of the Catholic Church’s humanitarian organization.
With the early afternoon meeting, Elder and Sister Soares were still able to arrive at the lighthouse before dusk, where he taped a social media video recounting the location’s importance during their mission service.
There they took newly arrived missionaries, watching the beam of light from the lighthouse cutting through the encroaching darkness and using it as an analogy to the gospel of Jesus Christ shining through the darkness of the world.
“We, as representatives of the Savior, Jesus Christ, can bring light into the lives of people,” said Elder Soares, adding, “There is a spirit that we can feel when you compare that light with the light of the Savior that can bring peace and joy into the world the lives of people; that is what I wanted missionaries to feel and experienced that moment.”
Meeting with members, missionaries and local leaders
During the recent ministry, the Soareses were assisted by General Authority Seventies who serve in the Europe Central and Europe North area presidencies: In Italy and Spain, Elder Alliaud and his wife, Sister Fabiana Alliaud; in France, Elder James W. McConkie III, second counselor in the Europe Central Area presidency, and his wife, Sister Laurel McConkie; and in Portugal, Elder Scott D. Whiting, president of the Europe North Area, and his wife, Sister Jeri Whiting.
During the dozen days, Elder Soares met with missionaries from five missions — Spain Barcelona, Portugal Lisbon, Portugal Porto, France Paris and France Lyon, the latter by videoconference while in Paris.
Besides the broadcast-across-Spain multistake conference originating in Barcelona on Nov. 10, he also presided over a Sunday, Nov. 17, conference for Portugal’s Porto, Porto North and Coimbra stakes as well as Saturday leadership and priesthood leadership trainings with stake and ward leaders in Barcelona and Porto on Nov. 9 and 16, respectively. In addition to the Paris devotional, he and Sister Soares also spoke to Porto-area young single adults in a Nov. 16 devotional.
Also in Portugal, Elder Soares and Elder Whiting traveled to Setúbal, to Centro de Apoio ao Sem Abrigo, or CASA, a food bank where Latter-day Saints have been volunteering weekly for many years, helping to provide hot meals for homeless individuals. There, the two leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ joined in helping prepare meals by peeling potatoes, cutting meats and chopping produce.
In Rome, Elder Soares welcomed Rabbi Ariel Stofenmacher, touring the Rome temple grounds and visitors’ center on Wednesday, Nov. 6. The small group also visited the FamilySearch center on the visitors’ center second floor, where the rabbi surprised the Apostle by showing he had already downloaded the FamilySearch app and found three generations of his family.
“FamilySearch helps people to find their own [ancestors]. We as Jewish people, we have been scattered all over the world,” said Rabbi Stofenmacher, rector of the Marshall T. Meyer Latin American Rabbinical Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina. “So, [FamilySearch] gives you the opportunity to go back in time and meet your family.”
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