Mormon woman inspired change
Before the three-hour block was official in the LDS Church, it was first tried in Guatemala, because one faithful woman noticed a need. Carmen Gálvez saw members traveling hours just to attend meetings. So she asked: What if everything happened on one day?
Were you a member of the church before the 3-hour block was instituted? If so, drop me a message in the comments and let me know what that was like. In the 1940s, a young Guatemalan woman named Carmen Galves married a Latter-day Saint named John O'Donnell. Even though her Catholic family strongly opposed it, she didn't join the church right away, but she admired her husband's faith and conviction.
And as they traveled around the country, he would tell her that one day these native Mayan tribes will have the gospel preached to them. He even personally visited President George Albert Smith and asked him to send missionaries to Guatemala, which he did. When Carmen finally read the Book of Mormon and then prayed about it, she felt a dark presence surround her and felt that Satan was trying to destroy her.
Frightened, she went to the missionaries and asked for a priesthood blessing, which brought her peace. and afterward she knew. She was baptized in 1948 by her husband. But Carmen didn't stop at conversion. She observed, she noticed needs and she acted. As the church grew in Guatemala, Carmen saw something leaders far away couldn't see. Indigenous members were traveling hours, sometimes days, just to attend various church meetings that were all held on different days.
And she said essentially, "This isn't working." So Carmen proposed something different. What if we held all our meetings on the same day in one block so families only have to make that journey once? That idea, the three-hour block, was first piloted in Guatemala. She also noticed new members struggling with complex lesson materials, so she simplified them. Those lessons became what the church later called gospel principles.
She also advocated for smaller, less expensive local meeting houses. Years later, Carmen and her husband served as mission leaders, helped train missionaries in Mayan languages, and eventually became the first matron and president of the Guatemala City Temple. Carmen wasn't a general auxiliary leader. She wasn't famous, but she was faithful, observant, courageous, and listened to the spirit.
This is the church around the world. Different cultures, different languages, different challenges, but the same gospel.
