[5] When the Latter-day Saint settlers arrived in the Intermountain West in 1847 and established early communities, like Salt Lake City and Bountiful, Utah, they were settling in Alta California (a federal territory of Mexico).

It was during the following year that the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed and ratified, ending the Mexican-American War and making the territory where Latter-day Saints had settled part of the United States.

Their primary purposes in enlisting were to build a good relationship with the United States government (in case the U.S. won the war and gained control of the territory) and to earn some income to support their emigration.

[8] The Mormon Battalion saw no combat with Mexican troops, but did take part in a brief occupation of Tucson, guarded the Luiseño people in the aftermath of the Temecula massacre,[9][10] and occupied San Diego until they were discharged.

[11][12] Concerns about their potential reception as a result of the Mormon Battalion's involvement in the Mexican-American War may have contributed to the decision to send missionaries, including Parley P. Pratt, to Chile in 1851 rather than to Mexico as the first proselyting efforts in Latin America.

[13] The first missionaries from the LDS Church to Mexico were called during the late summer and early fall of 1875, shortly after Daniel W. Jones and Meliton Gonzalez Trejo had begun to translate portions of the Book of Mormon into Spanish.

[14] This initial scouting mission consisted of a handful of men who journeyed through Arizona to the Mexican state of Chihuahua, lasting ten months.

[14] These first missionaries did not perform any baptisms; church president Brigham Young had instructed them to merely observe the conditions of the country in order to determine if their preaching would be effective.

This group consisted of Helaman Pratt, Meliton Gonzalez Trejo, Louis Garff, George Terry, James Z. Stewart, and his brother Isaac.

Rhodakanaty had come across a Mormon doctrinal tract in 1875 which so impressed him that he wrote a letter to the First Presidency, requesting that additional materials and missionaries be sent to him in Mexico City.

[18] By the end of 1879, sixteen converts had been baptized and joined the church in Mexico City, in large part due to the influence of Dr.

In 1915, two members of the church in San Marcos, Hidalgo named Rafael Monroy and Vicente Morales were killed by the Liberation Army of the South (Zapatistas) for refusing to renounce their faith and for their association with foreigners.

After the store was searched and no weapons or ammunition were found, Monroy and Morales, an employee of the family, were both taken prisoner by the soldiers and later executed by firing squad.

In 1972, church president Harold B. Lee spoke to members at a Mexico City area conference, along with his counselors, several Apostles, and other leaders.

Located within the church's Colonia Juárez in Chihuahua, the school was similar to academies found in the Utah territory, and provided English-language instruction intended for "an Anglo population".

In 1885, a group of Latter-day Saints from the Utah and Arizona territories fleeing the U.S. federal government's prosecution of Mormon polygamists settled in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.