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meeting with the four Adventist families that had come from Kansas in 1890. He was interested in sharing immediately his knowledge of the Holy Scriptures with them and other families. It was advertised that night there would be a religious meeting in German and many were the ones that came to listen. Without time to change clothes, he began the first meeting, then a second and a third preaching. Between each meeting, attendants sang several hymns of their own accord and participated in prayer. Unwillingly, those present agreed to leave “in order to come back again tomorrow night.”10 In a few weeks, on September 9, 1894, the first Seventh-day Adventist Church was organized in Crespo, Entre Ríos, with a membership of 36 members. The number grew quickly from week to week.11 During that time, the brethren took Westphal to preach in different villages where he had three to four meetings per day.12

From Crespo, Westphal went to Santa Fe province, destination San Cristóbal, where he met the family of Johannes Mangold. After two weeks studying the Bible, several members of said family were baptized, organizing a church of nine members that soon grew to 18. This was the second Adventist church organized in Argentina.13 In October of 1894, he organized in the city of Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, a third church of 12 members.14 Then, Westphal expanded his missionary action to Brazil.

In February of 1895, Westphal went to Brazil, disembarking in Rio de Janeiro. He covered 60 kilometers on foot in the suffocating tropical summer heat to then “take the way of the train” until arriving to Piracicaba and making the first baptism in that country. After eight days of study Guilherme Stein was baptized.15

While traveling south to Joinville, in the state of Santa Catarina, he organized a Sabbath School of 30 members. Always with a sense of urgency, in the city of Brusque he came across a group of believers who had received Signs of the Times magazine in German since years ago. F. H. Westphal held meetings by the river, where he baptized eight members, then another 15,16 and organized the church that quickly grew to 200 members.17

After spending five months in Brazil, he returned to his home in Buenos Aires where he found out the sad reality of the passing away of his little daughter Elena, due to measles and then scarlet fever.18

Westphal gave priority to evangelizing. His experiences in Argentina and Brazil would continue in Uruguay. On reading in Buenos Aires the newspaper Argentinische Wochemblatt [Weekly Page of Argentina], where a German-speaking Protestant pastor was requested to preach in Nueva Helvecia, he went to that place and held four meetings during a week in 1895.19 Then, a few kilometers away, in a settlement of Swiss inhabitants, he preached during five weeks in the summer of 1896 and organized a Sabbath School.20

By the end of the same year he held new meetings in Nueva Helvecia for four weeks, that concluded with the baptism of 18 people in the waters of the River of the Plate and the organization of the first church in the Oriental Republic of Uruguay.21

      Westphal developed teamwork. In 1897 he devoted time to evangelizing in the Santa Fe province, Argentina, in coordination with Jean Vuilleumier, John Mc Carthy and Mary Westphal.

During the month of April, churches were organized in Felicia and Las Tunas22 and, later on, Las Garzas, to the north of Santa Fe province, where Lionel Brooking also began a school, the first in that province.23 A short while later a new church began in Malabrigo, after the preaching of Mc Carthy in Spanish and Westphal in German.24

En the countryside of Colonia Portugalete, in San Cristóbal, Westphal baptized Luis Kalbermatter and three of his children.25 Later on, so would do the mother and the other nine children.

L. Brooking wrote that Mary Westphal promoted the study of the Bible through Sabbath School, visiting San Cristóbal, Felicia, Grütli, Esperanza and Las Tunas, an activity greatly appreciated.26

At the end of 1897, John Mc Carthy held meetings for several weeks in Malbertina, near the city of San Francisco.27 Jean Vuilleumier preached in French y F. H. Westphal baptized the first 15 people and organized the church on February 9, 1898, the first in the province of Córdoba, Argentina.28

Even with his health weakened, Westphal kept the sense of mission and his interest in the Republic of Paraguay. When it was known about people that had accepted Adventism through Adventist publications, it was decided to send Elwin Winthrop Snyder, one of the first colporteurs in South America,29 who before beginning the trip from Buenos Aires, along with his wife Estelle, on July 18, 1900,30 was ordained as evangelic minister.31

In Colonia Nacional, Paraguay, Snyder visited a persona that had received from Uruguay a material titled “Der Cristliche Hausfreund” [The Christian Friend of the Home]. By the end of 1901, that interest was realized with the baptism of five people.32

His physical condition worsened, F. H. Westphal returned to the United States along with his wife and his son Carlos for a period of three years,33 with a feeling of great gratitude to God because the Adventist Church and its salvific message were already present in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. In the future, Frank Westphal would extend his evangelizing ministry along the coast of the Pacific Ocean, from Chile to Ecuador.

Once recovered, Frank H. Westphal and his family returned to the South American continent in 1904. They resided in Chile since their arrival on November 4. Frank soon held a series of meetings in Chanco that closed on December 31 with the baptism of five people, some members of the Aeschlimanns among them.34 Westphal continued his dynamic action holding new lectures, meetings, missionary tours and organizing churches.

When giving his report in the General Conference session, on May 30, 1913, Westphal expressed: “The first worker in Ecuador was Brother F. H. Davis, who arrived in 1906 and worked for two years in canvassing. Last year, Brother Davis passed away in Argentina, but his works continue. Last year I baptized two people in Quito and organized a church of eight members. This is the first Adventist church in Ecuador.”35

      In the year 1918, in the city of Punta Arenas, at the southern tip of Chile, the ad in a newspaper changed the life of Luisa Paulentz and his sons Niels and Paul Wensell, because it led them to attend from the beginning the evangelizing lectures it announced; from then on, they did not miss any of the meetings, although the temperature some times reached 20 degrees below zero.

An event that took place in those days shows the ingenuity of this first Adventist pastor residing in South America. Pastor Niels Wensell wrote: “One time my mother was the only person present in the lecture by pastor Francisco Westphal. He sang, prayed and preached as if the room was full. My mother was baptized on October 12, 1918, and her two sons on December 5, same year.”36 In new baptisms another ten believers were added, what led to their being organized as a church.37

Westphal used different means of transportation to carry out his missionary travels. By ship he moved with his family to South America, arriving at the port of Diamante, Entre Ríos, Argentina; to Brazil and Chile, visiting during the voyage the Malvinas Islands and in another time to reach the austral Chilean city of Punta Arenas. The wooden horse-drawn carriage was used to reach the first Adventists in Crespo and on long travels in Entre Ríos, Argentina. The horse was useful to sort long trips in Brazil and Chile. The train was very convenient while traveling through vast plains and mountains in Argentina, while going to Antofagasta in Chile, also in traveling from Guayaquil to Quito in Ecuador. The cart was efficient to travel in the forests in the north of Santa Fe in Argentina. The difficult crossing of the high mountains in the Andes he made it twice riding a mule. More than once he walked long distances. In Brazil, to reach Piracicaba, he walked 60 kilometers; in Chile his feet hurt a lot on traveling to Cañete and to go to Comuy he traveled 40 kilometers on foot.38 To visit the family of Jorge Lust in Entre Ríos, he used a bicycle with a big wheel and another small one, at a time when the settlers of the end of the 19th century considered riders as devil worshippers.39

Westphal took a special interest in church publications and colporteurs. He said: “Because the distribution of our publications, it has emerged promising interest in many places and now there are numerous requests for a live testimony.”40 Westphal worked with colporteurs and valued their pioneering activity in diverse countries of South America.

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