The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico
(Logo in Spanish)
The Mexico City Mexico Temple
Membership	1,481,530 (2019)[1]
Stakes	222
Districts	47
Wards	1,356
Branches	487
Total Congregations	1,843
Missions	32
Temples	13 operating, 1 under construction, and 2 Announced
Family History Centers	278[2]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico describes the history and information about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Mexico. The country of Mexico has the largest body of LDS Church members outside the United States. The LDS Church reported 1,455,774 members at the end of 2018. In the 2010 census, 314,932 individuals reported belonging to the LDS Church.^[3]

History[]

"Combination church-schoolhouse with Sunday School congregation in Colonia Diaz. Notice opera hall at extreme right." A former meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Colonia Diaz, Chihuahua, Mexico. It was the first such meetinghouse in Mexico, and was destroyed in 1912 when the whole community was ransacked during the Mexican Revolution.

A meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cancún.

The LDS Church's first missionaries entered Mexico in 1874. This was shortly after Daniel W. Jones and Meliton Trejo had begun to translate the Book of Mormon into Spanish. The first missionaries did not perform any baptisms. In 1876, church president Brigham Young sent additional missionaries to Mexico and instructed them to contact and preach to the Yaqui Indians. The group of missionaries conisted of Helaman Pratt, Meliton Trejo Gonzalez, Louis Garff, George Terry, James Z. Stewart, and his brother Isaac. Pratt, Terry, and Garff found success in Hermosillo and on May 20, 1877 baptized Jose Epifanio Jesus, with Jose Severo Rodriguez, Maria de la Cruz Pasos, Cruz Parra, and Jose Vicente Parra all baptized a few days later, May 24. These were the first baptisms in Mexico.^[4] Later in 1879, more missionary efforts were started in Mexico City. The first person baptized a member of the LDS Church in that city was Plotino Rhodakanaty. In 1880, Desideria Quintanar de Yáñez became the first woman in Mexico City to join the church. Missionary work in central Mexico continued until 1889 when it was halted for a time.

In 1885, a group of Latter-day Saints from the Utah and Arizona territories settled in the state of Chihuahua. They were fleeing the U.S. federal government's prosecution of Mormon polygamists. These Latter-day Saints eventually founded the settlements of Colonia Juárez, Colonia Dublán, four more in Chihuahua, and two in the state of Sonora.

In 1901, the Mexican Mission of the church was re-established with Ammon M. Tenney as president. In 1910, Rey L. Pratt became president. By 1912, Pratt was forced to leave Mexico City but he was able to put most of the branches in Central Mexico under the leadership of local members. Among these was Rafael Monroy.

Most of the Mormon colonists left in 1912 due to rising violence,^[5] but many were able to return in later years. Pratt remained as mission president until his death, also establishing missionary work among the Spanish-speaking populations in the Southwestern United States.

In 1936, a group of people called the Third Convention, influenced by the spirit of the Mexican Revolution, called for a Mexican to serve as president of the church's mission in Mexico. The tactics of this group led to the excommunication of its members. In 1946, church president George Albert Smith visited Mexico and was able to establish a reconciliation with most of the members of the Third Convention and the vast majority of this group were brought back into the church.

In 1956, the Mexican Mission was divided for the first time, with the Northern Mexican Mission being organized. From this time forward the church focused on setting up the structure to organize stakes. In 1959, the church established a network of schools outside of Colonia Juárez. The longest lasting of these, the preparatory school Benemérito, was established in 1963 in Mexico City and taught students until 2013.

The first Spanish-speaking stake in Mexico was organized in Mexico City in 1961. In 1966, Agricol Lozano became the first indigenous Mexican to serve as a stake president. In 1970, the Monterrey Stake (now Monterrey Mexico Mitras Stake) was organized with Guillermo G. Garza as president. This was the first stake in Mexico outside of the Mormon colonies and the Mexico City area.

In 2020, the LDS Church canceled services and other public gatherings indefinitely in response to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.^[6]

Missions[]

A private high school operated by the LDS Church in Mexico City, known as Benemerito De Las Americas,^[7] was permanently closed at the end of the 2012–2013 term, and the Mexico City Missionary Training Center (MTC) was relocated here, opening June 26, 2013. This greatly expanded the capacity of the Mexico City MTC, such that it is second in size only to the MTC in Provo, Utah. The old building near the Mexico City Mexico Temple could only accommodate 125 missionaries at a time, but the new 90-acre campus can handle over 1,000.^[8][9][10] The following is a list of missions in Mexico:^{[citation needed]}

• ^a Mexico Leon Mission announced to be renamed to Mexico Aguascalientes Mission in July 2013.^[11]
• ^b Announced to be created July 2013.^[11]

Temples[]

Tijuana

Tampico

Guadalajara

Mérida

Villahermosa

Tuxtla Gutiérrez

Oaxaca

Veracruz

Mexico City

Monterrey

Ciudad Juárez

Hermosillo Sonora

Colonia Juárez Chihuahua

Puebla

Querétaro

Torreón

Temples in Mexico
Red = Operating
Blue = Under Construction
Yellow = Announced
Black = Closed for Renovations

The Mexico City Mexico Temple was the first LDS Church temple in Mexico; it was dedicated in 1983 and was rededicated after renovation in 2008.

From 1999 to 2002 an additional 11 temples were dedicated in Mexico. This comes after historic June 29, 1993, when the Mexican government formally registered the LDS Church, allowing it to own property.^[12]

Significant members from Mexico[]

• Margarito Bautista, a genealogical missionary from San Miguel de Atlautla, Mexico State and the first branch president of the Temporary Lamanite Branch (later Lucero Ward) in Salt Lake City, Utah.^[25][26]
• Benjamin de Hoyos, a General Authority Seventy from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.
• Agricol Lozano, the first Latino stake president in Mexico and a president of the Mexico City Mexico Temple from Tula, Hidalgo.^[27]
• Carl B. Pratt, a General Authority Seventy born in Monterrey, Mexico.
• Octaviano Tenorio, a General Authority Seventy from Tilapan, Veracruz.

See also[]

• Mexicans of American descent
• Mormon colonies in Mexico
• Mormon Corridor
• Religion in Mexico
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints membership statistics

References[]

Further reading[]

• Bridgemon, Rondal R. "Mennonites and Mormons in Northern Chihuahua, Mexico." Journal of the Southwest 54.1 (2012): 71–77.
• Dormady, Jason H., and Jared M. Tamez, eds. Just South of Zion: The Mormons in Mexico and Its Borderlands. University of New Mexico Press, 2015.
• Hardy, B. Carmon. "The trek south: How the Mormons went to Mexico." The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 73.1 (1969): 1-16.
• Hardy, B. Carmon. "Cultural" Encystment" as a Cause of the Mormon Exodus from Mexico in 1912." Pacific Historical Review 34.4 (1965): 439-454.
• Janzen, Rebecca. Liminal Sovereignty: Mennonites and Mormons in Mexican Culture. SUNY Press, 2018.
• Knowlton, David Clark. "How many members are there really? Two censuses and the meaning of LDS membership in Chile and Mexico." Dialogue: A journal of Mormon thought 38.2 (2005): 53.
• Naylor, Thomas H. "The Mormons Colonize Sonora: Early Trials at Colonia Oaxaca." Arizona and the West 20.4 (1978): 325–342.
• Sally Johnson Odekirk, "Mexico Unfurled: From Struggle to Strength", Liahona, January 2014
• 2009 Deseret Morning News Church Almanac (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Morning News, 2008) pp. 413–419
• F. LaMond Tullis. Mormons in Mexico: The Dynamics of Faith and Culture. (Provo: Museo de Historia del Mormonismo en Mexico A. C., 1997)
• F. LaMond Tullis. "Mexico" in Arnold K. Garr, et al., ed. The Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000) pp. 741–743.
• Tullis, LaMond. "Tzotzil-Speaking Mormon Maya in Chiapas, Mexico." Journal of Mormon History 43.2 (2017): 189–216.
• Robinson, Shirley Taylor (1992), "Mexico, Pioneer Settlements in", in Ludlow, Daniel H (ed.), Encyclopedia of Mormonism, New York: Macmillan Publishing, pp. 895–897, ISBN 0-02-879602-0, OCLC 24502140.
• Rubalcava, Boanerges (1992), "Mexico and Central America, The Church in", in Ludlow, Daniel H (ed.), Encyclopedia of Mormonism, New York: Macmillan Publishing, pp. 897–902, ISBN 0-02-879602-0, OCLC 24502140.

External links[]

• Newsroom (Mexico) - Facts and Statistics
• LDS Newsroom (Mexico) - News and Information
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Official Site for Mexico (Español)
• ComeUntoChrist.org Latter-day Saints Visitor site