“Sister Frango and the Temple,” Tambuli, May 1994, 4
Sister Frango and the Temple
Adapted from an October 1986 general conference address.
In Portugal, in the city of Funchal, on the Madeira Island, lived a lady named Ascenção Frango, who had been a nun for twenty years. She ran a home for poor children and orphans. Early in her life as a nun, she learned that she had cancer in her throat. Having a strong feeling that she had not finished her work on earth, she prayed with great faith and was healed. When her church decided to close the children’s home, she used her own money to keep it going for four years—until the children living there were either adopted or old enough to be on their own.
When she heard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she and a friend attended out of curiosity. The meeting was held on the dirt floor of a Church member’s garage. But the Spirit she felt there impressed her, and the elders began teaching her the discussions. She read the Book of Mormon, gained a strong testimony of its divinity, and soon asked to be baptized. A year later she obtained her temple recommend and could hardly wait to enter the Swiss Temple to make sacred covenants with Heavenly Father.
Many lands in Europe are becoming lands of temples. When President Thomas S. Monson rededicated the land of Germany for the advancement of the work of the Church, he prayed, “Heavenly Father, wilt Thou open up the way that the faithful may be accorded the privilege of going to Thy holy temple, there to receive their holy endowments and to be sealed as families for time and all eternity.”
Illustrated by Larry Winborg