When it comes to some of my most fond memories, this is it: being associated with this man.....
President Martins was my Mission President. I was in the office serving as AP when he received his call to the 70's. I was there to help him with his overly strong Carioca accent as he worked on his first Conference talk in English. It seemed overwhelming - and he struggled mightily. He was a self-made man. From the slums of Rio to an executive position at PetroBras. From a good but not LDS home, to the history books within the LDS Church as the first black 70 and whose son served the first LDS mission.
I cannot say for sure - but I believe it was the tender moment in the Celestial Room of the Sao Paulo Temple (under construction at the time), that President Kimball witnessed and was resolved to put the question and plea to fervent prayer. Remember that Bruce R. McConkie had famously said that blacks would not receive the Priesthood until the Millennium (and also said that man would not be allowed to walk on the moon) - so there were some difficult moments as the 1978 Revelation came through a unanimous vote in the affirmative. The hard-liners had been moved upon by something.
There was a faction within the Church who fell by the wayside (just as there is in this whole "marriage" thing). As a 10 year old kid, I still remember the excitement and general confusion at the same time. My folks were kind of middle of the streamers.
Out in Pennsylvania, I remember as a kid driving past an old mansion that was hosting a wedding of a black man and a white woman and hearing my father (cannot remember what my mother said), saying that intermarriage was wrong. I do not fault them - we had just come through the sixties with all that upheaval and controversy. I still maintain the belief that there was a full spectrum in the pre-existence as there is in any grouping of sensiate things (animals, insects, humans) and even in my work in the Quality (product performance). You simply have bell curves on everything. Students, breeding stock at the dairy; whatever. So, in order to produce something less than pure chaos, you have strains of the best to take the lead (you take the most capable and make Him a Savior). You take the best woman and make her the head of the human race - rinse and repeat with Sarah and Mary. The infusion of that goodness leads the herd and helps those who are less inclined spiritually, or physically or mentally. We call them teachers or guides. There is no offense in this. I am considered a "gentile". I find no offense in that. Had I lived in Samaria as a "half breed", I would find no offense in Christ's mandate to take it to the House of Israel first (who qualified in the pre-existent realms for the privilege) - and then to others. It is a principle.
In each grouping, you have pre-eminent ones like Helvecio. Forerunners - those who were sent before to prepare the way.
So, I salute a great man who was a very positive influence in my life and his dear wife, Ruda who is still alive. May I see her next year at the Fortaleza Temple dedication - where I am sure she will be in a position of honor as one who helped lay the foundation of a great work in that part of the vinyard:
https://www.lds.org/church/news/1978-revelation-dramatically-changed-lives-of-black-members-in-brazil?lang=eng&_r=1&cid=HP_WE-4-7-2018_dPTH_fCNWS_xLIDyM_
Enjoy!
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