Ecuador: Chronology

June–October 1960 • Salt Lake City, UtahThe First Presidency commissioned an assessment about sending missionaries to Ecuador and concluded that further efforts should wait until conditions improved.

October 3–5, 1963 • Quito, EcuadorElder A. Theodore Tuttle of the Council of the Seventy, supervisor of South American missions, and Sterling Nicolaysen, president of the Andes Mission, traveled to Quito to initiate legal registrations for the Church.

December 10–11, 1964 • QuitoElder Boyd K. Packer, Assistant to the Twelve, visited Quito with Elder Tuttle. Overlooking the city from their hotel window, the two envisioned the site of a future temple and “even agreed on the spot where it should be built.”

October 4, 1965 • QuitoMissionaries from the Andes Mission arrived in Ecuador.

October 6, 1965 • Salt Lake CityElder Spencer W. Kimball of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles met with Church President David O. McKay and pointed to Ecuador on a map, telling President McKay of “millions of Indians, and the Altiplano of the Andes range” and how he believed “the time of the Lamanite has come for them to hear the gospel.” McKay gave his blessing for Kimball to organize the Church in Ecuador and Bolivia.

October 9, 1965 • Quito

Elder Kimball dedicated Ecuador for the preaching of the gospel on the Panecillo hilltop in Quito.

October 31, 1965 • QuitoThe first baptismal service in Ecuador was held. Those baptized included the Alonzo Gonzalo and Ana María Baquero family, the Manuel and Mercedes Cruz family, and the Gonzalo and Gloria Tejada family.

January 22–February 12, 1966 • QuitoIn a basketball tournament of 15 teams, hosted by the YMCA, missionaries competed as team “Misioneros Mormones” and received extensive publicity in two major newspapers, Últimas Noticias and El Comercio.

Late January 1966 • Guayaquil, EcuadorMissionaries held the first sacrament meeting in Guayaquil.

March 1, 1966 • Otavalo and Ibarra, EcuadorMissionaries arrived in Otavalo. Within weeks, printed notices appeared in nearby Ibarra warning residents to avoid Latter-day Saints and a few other proselytizing sects.

March 6, 1966 • OtavaloThe first branch meeting was held in Otavalo, attended only by the missionaries and Manuel Macías Caseras. Within the year, the branch grew to more than 18 members.

April 1, 1966 • GuayaquilThe Sotomayor family became the first members of the Church from Guayaquil.

May 1966 • Guayaquil and QuitoSpencer W. Kimball visited Ecuador and held conferences in Guayaquil and in Quito. While in Quito, Kimball met Ecuador’s president, Clemente Yerovi, and appeared in television interviews.

June 5, 1966 • OtavaloThe José and Rosa Bautista family became the first members in Otavalo.

May 29, 1967 • Peguche, EcuadorSpencer W. Kimball visited Ecuador again and preached on a hillside about the Book of Mormon to a mostly Otavalan audience.

February 1, 1968 • QuitoJ. Avril Jesperson, mission president, reviewed and selected the site for the first Church meetinghouse to be built in Ecuador.

February 3–8, 1969 • Ambato, EcuadorThe first missionaries in Ambato participated in an exposition that included the governor of the province and the mayor of the city. The first Church meetings in Ambato were held.

August 1970 • QuitoThe Ecuador Mission was organized.

June 4, 1978 • GuayaquilThe first stake in Ecuador was organized, with Lorenzo Garaycoa as president.

August 22, 1979 • QuitoThe first stake in Quito was organized.

January 19–24, 1980 • OtavaloThe first meetinghouse in Otavalo was dedicated.

December 6, 1981 • OtavaloThe Otavalo Ecuador Stake was organized. It was the first stake in South America with an almost entirely indigenous American membership.

March 31, 1982 • Salt Lake CityThe First Presidency announced plans to build a temple in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Originally conceived as part of a smaller temple design, this temple was upgraded during planning and became the largest in South America.

July 1985 • Maracaibo, VenezuelaCésar Hugo Cacuango became the first Ecuadorian to serve as a mission president.

November 10, 1986 • QuitoOver 300 single adults attended the opening social of the first institute of religion in Ecuador. University students from as far away as Ibarra and Riobamba enrolled in classes.

August 10, 1996 • GuayaquilFourteen years after plans were announced, ground was broken for the construction of the Guayaquil Ecuador Temple.

August 11, 1997 • Guayaquil and QuitoPresident Gordon B. Hinckley visited Ecuador, the first time a current Church President visited the country.

June 22–July 17, 1999 • GuayaquilOver 108,000 people toured the newly completed Guayaquil Ecuador Temple in an open house.

August 1–2, 1999 • Guayaquil

The Guayaquil Ecuador Temple was dedicated.

1999 • Cuenca, EcuadorLatter-day Saints assisted in humanitarian service with an orphanage of children with special needs in Cuenca. The initial effort grew to support more than a dozen orphanages within a few years.

December 25–27, 2003 • OtavaloThe Otavalo stake choir was invited to perform at the community Christmas celebration in the Parque de Simon Bolívar, the beginning of an annual tradition of participation.

January 2008 • Ecuadorian coastIn response to severe flooding in Esmeraldas, Guayas, Los Ríos, and Manabí, the Church assisted in relief efforts by lending goods, medicine, and construction materials and by opening meetinghouses to serve as shelters for displaced families.

June 2012 • QuitoIn a national address, Ecuador president Rafael Correa praised the Latter-day Saints for their family values and humanitarian service.

April 2016 • Portoviejo, EcuadorThe Church and its members worked alongside neighbors and civil authorities to provide relief after a devastating earthquake.

April 3, 2016 • Salt Lake CityChurch President Thomas S. Monson announced plans to build a temple in Quito.