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IN 1926 JUST BEFORE LEAVING ARGENTINA after a six-month mission and few baptisms, Elder Melvin J. Ballard of the Council of the Twelve Apostles drew on natural images to suggest the future growth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South America: "The work of the Lord will grow slowly for a time here just as an oak grows slowly from an acorn. It will not shoot up in a day as does the sunflower that grows quickly and then dies. But thousands will join the Church. It will be divided into more than one mission and will be one of the strongest in the Church... . The South American Mission will be a power in the Church."
That prophecy has seen partial fulfillment during the past seventy- five years. From 1925 through the 1960s, the Church struggled with limited growth. However, in the past forty years, the Church in Latin America went from less than 1 percent (.72) of the entire Church to almost 37 percent by January 1, 2004. On the same date, Church membership in Latin America was 69 percent of the total Church outside of the United States and Canada. Apostle Ballard's prediction that South America would be "a power in the Church" is surely in the process of being fulfilled. The increase in membership in Latin America in the last half of the twentieth century is one of the most momentous events in the Church's history. Without it, the LDS Church would be very different.
This article provides an overview of the Church's growth and development in Latin America, including some suggestions about why the Church was late in coming to Latin America, why early growth was slow, and when and why expansion in numbers did occur. LDS growth in this region is part of a much larger reformation of religious belief and practice in Latin America and also a result of changes that occurred within the Church itself. Although I strongly affirm the spiritual and prophetic aspects of the Church's development, most of this analysis is descriptive and informational in nature.
Beginning
To suggest that the early leaders of the Church regarded the world's Catholic countries with frustration would be a considerable understatement. Whenever missionaries...