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International Voices

Happy in Uruguay

by Angelo Berbotto
June, 1997

Angelo Berbotto in 2007

I'm from Uruguay and I would like to tell you my experience since I've felt the Lord's hand on all this. Please, feel free to publish whatever you think is appropriate. Firstly, I would like to thank you all in Affirmation for your dedication and the wonderful spirit that you convey.

I was born in 1975 in a little town in the west part of Uruguay in South America. I was taught the Catholic religion because my mother wanted us to receive some religious education. Notwithstanding, I never felt comfortable in the church, mostly because everything was so abstract and hard to understand for me.

In 1989 the Uruguayan Mission sent a couple of missionaries for the first time to my town. I was fifteen years old and very curious. By that time I had also started to study English so I though it would be fun to make friends with the missionaries and being able to practice the language. They taught the Gospel to me which I embraced with all my heart. I was baptized on December 12, and I am the first member of the Juan Lacaze Branch.

Soon after my baptism my family moved to Montevideo. In the big city there were lots of wards and activities for young people. I introduced the Gospel to my brother and my three sisters, all of whom are Church members. I attended Seminary and Institute and prepared myself for serving a mission. During all this time I was fighting a secret battle against myself. In spite of my trusting in the leaders, I could not tell them what I felt. I longed for serving a mission because I thought that the Lord would "heal" me from those satanic feelings.

As a missionary in Argentina

I was called to the Argentina-Resistencia Mission in November 1993. I enjoyed those twenty-four months even when they were so hard at times. When I returned home I realized that nothing had happened regarding my sexual orientation. No change, nothing. I know what I had to do. I was not going to get married because the leaders told me so. I was not going to do something that I did not want to do. I also knew that the church had a very bitter attitude towards gays. So I left the church . . . but not the Gospel.

After my mission I returned to school. I began to train for teaching English as a second language so I had to go very often to the only English library in the country. Once there, I requested a book containing information because I knew that there were other people in the world with similar experiences to mine. Isolation had been very hard for me. Since Uruguay is an extremely homophobic country, I have had very few opportunities to meet other gays. Affirmation has indeed helped me a lot in my coming-out process.

I think that the Lord has been preparing everything, just as it happened in the mission, for a year after my returning from Argentina, my best Mormon friend opened up and told me that he was gay. That was a surprise that I will never forget We had shared so many special moments in the church and I feared that he would reject me once he knew of my sexual orientation. Today, we are still the best friends and enjoy the blessing of being Mormon and gay.

Little by little we found other gay members, one of them had been my guiding teacher companion, another had served as the Young Adults' Leader, there was a returned missionary who had been assistant to the President in his mission, etc. Finally, on April 13, 1997, six of us met to talk about the creation of a chapter in Uruguay. This will be an important step for us. Church members can be very hostile against gays and gay members do not have anyone to turn to because the only thing one can find is intolerance . . . and excommunication.

I am very thankful to you, brothers and sisters. Thanks to your commitment to serve your fellows we can learn from your experience. It was very difficult for us to be homosexual Latter-Day Saints, now we've come to accept both as part of our lives. At the moment we work on the translation into Spanish of various of Affirmation's publications and hope to share them with our people.

I'd appreciate it very much if you could send us the rules and instructions for setting up the chapter because we do not have that information. We would be very glad to hear from any of you who has served a mission here as well as any other comment, advice, anecdote, etc. of something that might be helpful to our young organization.

Many of us remember one or two people in their respective missions who might be interested in hearing this "good news" so we planned to expand to other places.

Some weeks ago, I was invited to attend a Stake Conference in Montevideo. There we sung a new hymn called "With Faith In Every Footstep." It really touched me because we are pioneers and must face many obstacles. But the Lord is always there to bless and comfort us. We will succeed and we'll help many many others who now feel lonely and hurt.

I am happy to be a homosexual child of God. I am happy to be part of Affirmation. I am happy to serve others as Christ did.

Love = Con Amor