LDS Church attracts Latinos

The LDS Church is one of the fastest-growing denominations in the country, and much of that growth is coming from an unlikely source: Latino immigrants.

Latinos overwhelmingly are raised Catholic, but The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is aggressively reaching out to them by touting the religion's heavy focus on family and community, pillars of the Mormon faith that are also at the center of Hispanic culture.

As a result, Latinos are joining the LDS Church at a greater rate than members of any ethnic group, even Anglos, church leaders say.

But the outreach has created some unusual conflicts because the majority of the Latino converts are undocumented immigrants, which goes against a major tenet of the Mormon Church: obeying the law.

At the same time, some Mormons who say the church teaches compassion are upset that fellow members, including Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, have spearheaded a crackdown on illegal immigrants.

"What has happened among a good number of LDS members is that they have been shaped by the Republican Party of the last 40 years. They gravitate to the Republican Party, and the party has become very anti-immigrant, culture-wars-oriented," said Brigham Young University history professor Ignacio Garcia.

Men on a mission

One recent afternoon, Daniel Oakey and Daniel Maxwell knocked on the door of an apartment in a predominantly Latino neighborhood in west Mesa. They wore the uniform indicative of Mormon missionaries: short-cropped hair, white shirts, plain ties, dark trousers and backpacks.

Miguel Chavez, an 18-year-old Mesa Community College student, was expecting the two for his weekly Mormon lesson.

Chavez, a native of Colima state in Mexico, came to the U.S. five years ago. Raised Catholic, he attended Mass weekly until two missionaries arrived at his door one day.

At first, Chavez thought "they were crazy."

But the missionaries kept coming back, and Chavez began to like what he heard.

"My father died a few years ago in a job accident in Colima," Chavez said. "They told me that families can be together forever, and we can see each other after this life. I really want to see my dad again."

Spreading the faith

Since Joseph Smith founded the Mormon Church in 1830 in upstate New York, proselytizing has been a cornerstone of the Mormon faith. The church sends missionaries all over the world.

In recent years, the church has been teaching missionaries Spanish, not only to proselytize in Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries, but also to tap into the surging Latino population in the United States, including the 1.8 million Latinos in Arizona.