1830 The Book of Mormon is published and the Church is organized in Palmyra, New York, USA.

1857–61 President Benito Juárez reforms Mexican government and establishes religious liberty (La Reforma), thereby making the preaching of the gospel possible in Mexico.

1875 Much of the Book of Mormon is translated into Spanish and some of it is printed (under the title Trozos Selectos del Libro de Mormón).

1876 Missionaries/explorers carry the Trozos Selectos on packhorses to northern Mexico.

1880 Apostle Moses Thatcher offers a dedicatory prayer in Mexico in an upper room of the Hotel Iturbide on January 25. He prays for missionary work, for the Mexican people and their government, and for prospects for colonization in Mexico.

1880 Desideria Quintanar de Yáñez sends her son to Mexico City in search of the missionaries.

1881 Apostle Moses Thatcher, two fellow missionaries, and six newly baptized Mexican members hold the first conference of the Church in Mexico on April 6, 1881, about two-thirds the way up the volcano Popocatépetl (17,634 feet). There is plausible evidence that Thatcher intended his powerful prayer the following day near the summit to be a second dedicatory prayer for Mexico.

1885 Latter-day Saint Anglo-American colonies are established in the northern Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora.

1886 The full text of the Book of Mormon is published in Spanish.

1889 Missionaries withdraw from central Mexico due to hostilities between the Church and the US government in Utah Territory.

1901 Proselyting by foreign missionaries resumes in the Mexico City area.

1910 Start of the Mexican Revolution, or civil war (1910–17).

1912 Exodus of Anglo-Americans from the Latter-day Saint colonies in northern Mexico due to the civil war.

1913 Missionaries in central Mexico also withdraw because of the civil war.

1913–21 Mission president Rey L. Pratt leads the Church in Mexico through correspondence and works with Spanish-speaking people in the United States.

1915 Rafael Monroy, president of the San Marcos Branch, and Vicente Morales, his counselor, are martyred.

1921 Missionaries are reassigned to the Mexico City area; Rey L. Pratt returns.

1926 Expulsion of all foreign clergy, including Latter-day Saint missionaries, due to the Cristero Rebellion fostered by Catholic priests in defense of their religious, political, and economic prerogatives that the revolutionary state had attacked.

1926–30s Local Latter-day Saint leaders maintain the Church in Mexico in the absence of foreign missionaries.

1936 The Third Convention begins (1936–46), a dissident movement arising over national pride, local suspicion, and perceptions of Anglo-American insensitivity about local Latter-day Saint leadership capabilities.

1945 The temple ceremony is translated into Spanish; excursions to the Mesa Arizona Temple begin.

1946 President George Albert Smith visits Mexico and presides over the reunification of the Church. Most Third Convention members return to the mainline Church.

1950s Districts and branches are created in nearly all Mexican states.

1961 The Mexico City Stake is created with Harold Brown as president.

1964 The Benemérito School opens in Mexico City. Church primary schools expand.

1967 The second stake in Mexico City is organized; Agrícol Lozano Herrera is called as the first Mexican stake president.

1972 Area conference held in Mexico City.

1970s The Church expands welfare projects and production to Mexico and elsewhere internationally.

1975 Twelve new stakes are organized in Mexico City. Several more are created elsewhere (e.g., in Veracruz).

ca. 1976 Fernando Ruiz, the first Tzotzil-speaking Mayan to join the Church, is baptized in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas.

1980s The Church gains a foothold in the Mayan heartland of Chojolhó, municipality of Chenalhó, Chiapas.

1983 The Mexico City Temple is dedicated.

1984 The Church phases out its forty elementary schools throughout the country.

1985 The Church’s humanitarian services program is inaugurated. Assistance flows to Mexico in the face of earthquakes and floods.

1989 Agustín Gutiérrez begins his translation of selections of the Book of Mormon into Tzotzil Mayan.

1992 Selections from the Book of Mormon are published in Tzotzil Mayan.

1993 The Church is legally recognized in Mexico.

1996 LDS Charities is formed to smooth humanitarian aid in several countries, including Mexico.

1999 The Church’s smallest temple is dedicated in Colonia Juárez, Chihuahua.

2000 Eight temples are dedicated in Mexico: Ciudad Juárez, Hermosillo Sonora, Oaxaca, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Tampico, Villahermosa, Mérida, and Veracruz.

2002 Temple ordinances in Tzotzil Mayan become available for Tzotzil-speaking members in Chiapas.

2009 The first all-Mexican Area Presidency is called (Daniel L. Johnson, president; Benjamín De Hoyos, first counselor; Octaviano Tenorio, second counselor). Johnson is a Mexican citizen from Colonia Juárez in Chihuahua.

2011 The Church decentralizes its history department and establishes local archives and collection activities in Mexico.

2013 The Church withdraws sponsorship of its schools, specifically the Centro Escolar Benemérito de las Américas, due to improved educational opportunities provided by the Mexican government.

2013 A missionary training center opens in Mexico City at the decommissioned Benemérito School’s physical plant.

2021 Announcement of a new temple to be built in Culiacán, Mexico, which will bring the number of temples in Mexico that are in operation or announced to sixteen.