“As an Oak Grows Slowly from an Acorn”

Inspired by the Book of Mormon, early Church leaders looked to spread the gospel among descendants of Indigenous Americans. In 1851, Elder Parley P. Pratt of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles traveled to Chile, hoping to establish a mission in South America, but his limited Spanish and government restrictions on press and religious freedom hampered the work. Church leaders later focused on Mexico, which passed reforms in the 1870s. The restored gospel was not preached in South America until Church members immigrated to Argentina and Brazil in the 1920s.

At a 1926 conference in Buenos Aires, Apostle and mission president Melvin J. Ballard predicted that Church growth would begin gradually, “just as an oak grows slowly from an acorn.” But, he promised, “The day will come when the South American Mission will be a power in the Church.” Over the next 25 years, as missionary work expanded from Argentina to Brazil and Uruguay, the Church grew slowly. In 1950, there were fewer than 2,500 Latter-day Saints on the continent.

In June 1962, presidents of the South American missions and their wives gathered for a special meeting at Machu Picchu, Peru, high in the Andes Mountains. They spoke of their responsibility to increase their dedication to serve all the peoples of South America. “We have got to be different,” said Elder A. Theodore Tuttle, president of the South American Mission, “and even though it requires more sacrifice, more dedication, we ought to give it, and feel that we ought to, as that is what will help the work to go forward better.”