From an Apartment Behind La Consolacion to a House of the Lord: The Story of the Church and the Temple in Bacolod

On a sun-drenched afternoon in the summer of 1964, a woman in Manila ran after two young missionaries.

Her name was Rosario. Her husband, Carlos Flores Barredo Sr., had been recovering from illness at his brother's home in Sta. Mesa when the missionaries first came knocking, not for them, but for the family they were staying with. Carlos and Rosario had sat quietly in the corner of those visits, listening without a word. Recognizing the family wasn’t ready, the missionaries stepped back while keeping the door open for future visits

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What they didn't know was that behind the quietude of that couple from Bacolod, something had already taken root.

"Not knowing that despite my parents' quietude, they were enthused by the teachings and felt something unusual within," their son Christopher would later recall. "My mother, upon hearing that the missionaries were not returning, went after them and pled that they come back to continue the teachings even just for her and my father."

On July 25, 1964, Carlos Sr. and Rosario Caper Alameda Barredo were baptized by Elder Christensen and his companion at the Grimm's pool in Sta. Mesa, Manila. They were among the earliest Latter-day Saints from Negros Island. They had no idea what was coming, not just for them, but for an entire island generation of believers who would follow in their wake.

Sixty years later, a temple stands in Bacolod.

The Seed Before the Soil

The story of the Bacolod Philippines Temple does not begin with a groundbreaking, a general conference announcement, or an architectural rendering. It begins with ordinary people who opened their doors and sometimes ran after those they almost turned away.

Months after the Barredos' baptism, another door opened, this time in Makati. It was early August 1964 when Elders Dail Nielson and Gene Roskelly knocked on the apartment of a young couple: Rufino Alvarez Villanueva Jr. and his pregnant wife, Josefina Piedad Sacro.  Josefina answered the door and before the missionaries could finish their introduction, cut them off.

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"It's just another one of the Protestant denominations," she said flatly.

Elder Roskelly told her it was not. Josefina paused then asked a question that would change her life: "What is your concept of God? Do you believe that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are one?"

Their answer made her think. And instead of sending them away, she told them to come back when her husband was home.

Rufino and Josefina received their first discussion on August 9, 1964. They were baptized on October 25, 1964, in Makati, Metro Manila. Not long after, Rufino heeded his father's plea to come home and manage the family fish farm in San Enrique, Negros. What seemed like a simple family obligation was, in hindsight, something more, two members of the young Church quietly returning to an island that was not yet ready but would be soon.

Elder Nielson, reflecting years later the of the Barredos, wrote in his journal:

"I do not recall any investigators who accepted the gospel so easily. They were just ready for it. The whole process was so smooth, it made me wonder why? They seemed so eager to learn and did everything we asked them to do readily. In retrospect, considering what a major impact on the work in the Philippines they had, I believe they were prepared for it in the pre-existence."

Negros Island Opens Its Doors

It was April 1967, barely six years since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had obtained official recognition in the Philippines, when Paul S. Rose, president of the Philippines Mission, sent Elder Moises Mabunga and Elder Douglas Buck to Bacolod City to formally begin missionary work on the island.

They came with the names of two families: the Barredos and the Villanuevas.

 Finding them was the first priority, and from that reunion, the missionary work in Negros formally began.

Two months after their arrival, the first convert baptized in Negros was Rosalinda Godinez, on June 16, 1967. She was followed shortly by Carlos Jr. and Cesar Barredo on July 1. The Church in Negros had its first names on its rolls.

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In a recorded interview, Rosalinda later spoke of those early days:

"I was very excited. I was the one who saw all the conversions during those days. There was so much to learn in the Church amidst the persecutions we had because of our new-found faith."

She paused before adding:

"With what is happening now in the Church in Bacolod, the Church had apparently blossomed into something much more than we had expected at that time. The land, the people, undoubtedly was ready for the historic growth."

The missionaries did not always receive a warm welcome. Elder Galen Updike, writing in 1968, described open-air preaching in Bacolod where men gathered to hear and challenge ministers of every faith:

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"We got there at the appointed hour and immediately drew a crowd. We got separated from each other by a few yards. Elder Jenkins had great skills in repartee type conversations and 'humbled' a few people who wanted to argue. I was less argumentative and basically tried to answer sincere questions."

It was rugged, humble, street-level missionary work. But it was working.

The Apartment Behind La Consolacion

Between 1967 and 1977, the small but growing congregation of Bacolod gathered where they could.

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Sunday meetings were held at the missionaries' apartment at the back of La Consolacion College on Gatuslao Street, a modest space that bore witness to the earliest sacrament meetings on Negros Island. As membership grew, the Saints moved from place to place, renting meeting spaces in Punta Makiling, Malaspina, along Lacson Street at the Twin Lumberyard, at 10th Lacson Street, on Malaspina Street in Villamonte, and at the Correa Building on the corner of Araneta and Rosario streets.

A church on the move but always moving forward.

The first permanent Church-owned facility in Negros came through the generosity of the Magapan family, who donated the land for what would become the beloved Bakyas Meetinghouse. That building stands today as home to the Bacolod 2nd Ward of the Bacolod Philippines Stake,  a quiet monument to the earliest days of the faith on this island.

From Branch to Stake: The Lord's Work Takes Root

The growth that followed was steady and, by any measure, remarkable.

In October 1968, just a year after the first baptism in Negros, President Paul S. Rose of the Philippines Mission organized the first branch of the Church on Negros Island, with Rufino Alvarez Villanueva Jr., the same man who had come home to tend a fish farm called as its first branch president. A handful of converts were now a covenant community with a leader of their own.

By November 1973, the Philippines Western Visayas District was organized. The Philippines Visayan District, then under the Philippines Cebu City Mission presided by Carl D. Jones, was divided into Eastern Visayas and Western Visayas districts, reflecting a Church that had outgrown its original boundaries in the region.

Five years later, in 1978, the Bacolod Philippines District was reorganized to create a separate Iloilo Philippines District, with Romivil Villanueva Cayabyab presiding over Bacolod further evidence of a membership too large for a single administrative unit.

Then came the milestone that would have seemed unimaginable just a decade before: on July 5, 1981, Elder Spencer W. Osborne organized the first Bacolod Stake, with Remus Gasataya Villarete called as its first stake president. During his tenure, the Church experienced phenomenal growth in this part of the Visayas Region. Stake after stake was organized, district after district formed, paving the way for what came next.

In 1990, the Philippines Bacolod Mission was created with Lowell L. Leishman serving as its first mission president giving Negros its own mission headquarters, right in the heart of Bacolod City.

By 2004, just 37 years after Elder Buck and Elder Mabunga first arrived, the island of Negros had 13 organized stakes and districts. Today, the Church in Bacolod counts 76 meetinghouses across 9 stakes and 4 districts. In Bacolod City alone, there are 14 meetinghouses.

From the missionaries' tiny apartment behind La Consolacion, sizable meetinghouses had been built everywhere standing, as Leonor Santillan, Historical Subcommittee Chair, wrote, "like a beacon to all who would come to partake the blessings of eternal life."

Such growth, she noted, is the fulfillment of what the Prophet Joseph Smith so boldly declared over a century ago: "No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing."

 A Prophet Speaks, and a Promise Is Made

On October 5, 2019, during the 189th Semiannual General Conference of the Church, President Russell M. Nelson announced a temple for Bacolod, the seventh announced for the Philippines. For members in Negros who had long made the journey to the Cebu City Philippines Temple, the words carried the weight of decades.

It was the fulfillment of something that had been growing since 1964.  Since a woman in Manila ran after two missionaries, since a young wife in Makati asked a question about God, since two elders walked into Bacolod and started looking for people they had been told would be ready.

On December 11, 2021, Elder Taniela B. Wakolo, then a General Authority Seventy and president of the Philippines Area, presided at the groundbreaking and site dedication for the Bacolod Philippines Temple. He was joined by his counselors, government officials, interfaith leaders, and hundreds of members whose families traced their faith to those earliest converts of Negros.

The land, 12.3 acres on the Bacolod Airport Access Road, was now consecrated. The building could begin.

 The House the Lord Prepared

The Bacolod Philippines Temple is a single-story structure spanning approximately 2,480.5 square meters, featuring a domed cupola with metallic diamond shingles, backlit art glass, decorative urns, deep cornices, and ornate window casings. Alongside the temple, a 167-square-meter ancillary building provides patron housing, an arrival center, and a distribution center, ensuring that even those who travel great distances to worship can do so with care and comfort.

Inside are a baptistry, instruction rooms, and sealing rooms, spaces where covenants are made and families are bound together for eternity.

When Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicates the temple on Sunday, May 31, 2026, it will become the sixth operating temple in the Philippines and the second in the Visayas, serving the nearly 900,000 Latter-day Saints across this island nation.

Gregorio Horlador Lagaña and Maria Luisa Arnaiz Nain Lagaña will serve as the temple's first president and matron.

 For Those Who Prepared the Way

Before the dedication, the public is invited to experience the temple during the Open House from April 16 to May 2, 2026 (excluding Sundays), from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Admission is free. The walking tour lasts approximately 45 minutes, and representatives of the Church will be present to answer questions.

It is, in every sense, a moment for the entire community, for neighbors who have watched the building rise, for families who have prayed for its completion, and for those who may not yet know why a temple matters but are curious enough to walk through its doors.

Much like a woman in Manila who once ran after two missionaries.

Much like a wife in Makati who paused, thought, and asked the missionaries to come back.

Much like the people of Negros who, as Rosalinda Godinez said, were ready.

They always were.

To read more about the free public open house, visit:

Bacolod Philippines Temple Open House

Open House Dates: April 16 -  May 2, 2026 (Mon–Sat, 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.)

Location: Corner of Bacolod Airport Access Road and Buri Road, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental

Dedication: May 31, 2026, Elder Neil L. Andersen presiding

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