When Elder Ballard met with seven missionary couples last spring to start the pilot program, the LDS Church had 29 Spanish-speaking branches in the Salt Lake Valley alone, Elder King said. "There are 40 branches in the valley now, and they believe there could be a 50 percent increase by early next year." A member of the state's Hispanic Advisory Board before he went to Mexico City four years ago, he said the thousands of Latino immigrants to Utah have made "Salt Lake City the mission field" for new converts to the faith.

From Elder King's perspective, "Daily Dose," attracts nearly as many non-Latter-day Saints as it does members. "For many of them, it's the first time they've ever come into a Mormon chapel," and he watches their comfort level grow with each passing class. "We have Catholics who feel very comfortable about coming. We love to have them here, and they make a new group of friends."

On a recent evening, Rosa, Christen, Olga, Anna, Francisco, Itel and Angelina and Amalia were among those joining Miguel at a Taylorsville meetinghouse for yet another lesson. They come from Mexico, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Colombia and Chile. Robert Michaelson, a former LDS missionary who speaks Portuguese, leads the intermediate class. He hands out hymn books and asks students to sing "I Am a Child of God" in English with him, before one student prays, thanking God for the instructor and asking a "blessing for learning Spanish and English."

Instructor Ralph Knudsen helps his beginning class distinguish between pronouns and adjectives, but he doesn't call them that. Instead, he uses sentences like: "My family reads the scriptures," "I read the scriptures," "I sing songs," and "My family sings songs," listening for his students to parrot the phrases back to him exactly as he said them.

The program's first class graduated in June, and on a late September day, Michaelson and Knudsen joined the Kings in cheering their students at yet another graduation program.

Escalante said he and his employees are so busy orienting new teachers to the program, he can't keep up with the demand, so the LDS Church is producing a video to train new instructors. He said a general authority in California called him recently after hearing about how well the program has been received, asking when he could offer it to some 11 million Hispanics in that state.

King can't say enough good about Escalante, a native of Argentina, though the businessman will have none of it. While he doesn't have time to facilitate a class himself, Escalante said he's pleased with the feedback he gets from students who attend. During the first "Daily Dose" class, one student, who likely didn't know he had created the program, gave him the ultimate paycheck, he said, savoring the possibilities that knowing some English opens for his fellow Latter-day Saints.

"I've learned more in these 20 minutes than attending six months of traditional grammar-based teaching" was the welcome comment.

---

E-mail: carrie@desnews.com