Elder Melvin J. Ballard: Apostle, Vision of the Redeemer, and Founder of the South American Mission (1852–1939)

Elder Melvin J. Ballard (1852–1939) was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (called 1919) and the father of the Latter-day Saint work in South America. In December 1925, in a park in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he dedicated all of South America for the preaching of the restored gospel—the seed from which has grown a Church of more than a million Saints across the continent. Elder Ballard was also granted a remarkable vision of the Savior, of which he testified: 'I know—as I know that I live—that He lives. That is my testimony.' His life is a faith-promoting witness of an apostle who saw the Redeemer and carried the restored gospel to a new hemisphere.