Te Veremos Pronto, Elder Conner Walden

Elder Conner Walden, oldest son of Matthew and Robin Walden and grandson of James and Linda Walden, has been called to serve the Lord and His children for 24 months in the Mexico Xalapa Mission. He will enter the Mexico City MTC on June 26 where he will learn Spanish over a period of several weeks before he begins knocking on doors. He claims he has no experience with the Spanish language so he is praying the Lord will bless him to be able to learn quickly.

In 1875, President Brigham Young called a party of six missionaries to take Spanish language materials about the Church from Salt Lake City to Mexico. Upon arriving in Mexico in 1876, the missionaries divided into two groups and shortly thereafter the first five Mexican converts were baptized by Helaman Pratt and Meliton Trejo, a Spanish convert.

In 1885, a group of nearly 400 colonists from Utah arrived at the northern Mexico Casas Grandes River and acquired property. Mexico's first stake was created in Colonia Juárez in 1895. By 1912, more than 4,000 members had settled in Chihuahua and Sonora.

When Rey L. Pratt returned to central Mexico in November of 1917, he found the members had remained faithful despite difficult living circumstances. Local Mexican leaders again maintained stability and expanded proselyting work, calling six local missionaries in 1930. In 1946 Church President George Albert Smith visited Mexico, where membership then numbered more than 5,300.

On 3 December 1961, the Mexico Stake was created, with Harold Brown as president. Membership numbered nearly 25,000. Church schools were begun in Mexico in 1959. On 3 April 1976, a temple was announced for Mexico City and the completed temple was dedicated 2 December 1983 by President Gordon B. Hinckley. At that time, membership in Mexico was conservatively numbered at about 240,000. Mexico was the first country outside the USA with 100 LDS stakes.

An historic moment came on 29 June 1993, when the Mexican government formally registered the Church, allowing it to own property. President Howard W. Hunter visited Mexico to create the Mexico City Contreras Stake, the Church's 2,000th, on 11 December 1994.

Today, 1.5 million – or 1 in 90 - people living in Mexico are church members.  There are now 34 missions and 13 temples.

Que el Señor vigilar y protegerle, le llevará a aquellos que Él ha preparado para escuchar el mensaje del Evangelio de usted corazón y el alma ... y te llevará a salvo a casa, Elder Walden.