Helio R. Camargo
Helio da Rocha Camargo served in the First Quorum of the Seventy from 1985 to 1989. He was then transferred to the Second Quorum of the Seventy and was released in 1990. He was the first Brazilian General Authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Camargo was born on February 1, 1926, in Rio de Janeiro. He graduated from Academia Militar de Agulhas Negras (equivalent to the USA’s West Point) and served in the Brazilian military, advancing to the rank of captain before his retirement. He also studied business administration and worked in a bank. He then entered a Methodist seminary, became an ordained Methodist minister, but was later expelled with two other ministers because they opposed infant baptism.
He began attending meetings of the Church of Jesus Christ and he and his wife were baptized in 1957.
Camargo served as the first president of the Sao Paulo East Stake. He also served as a Sunday School teacher, bishop, counselor to a mission president, and mission president. He was also president of the Sao Paulo Brazil Temple from 1990 to 1993.
He and his wife, Nair Belmira de Bouvea, are the parents of six children, one of whom is Milton Camargo, who served as first counselor of the Sunday School general presidency from April 2019 to August 2024.
Camargo died Friday, July 19, 2024, in Rio de Janeiro. He was 98.
