The Church in Aruba

Missionaries arrived in Aruba in 1987. By 2004, there was a Church district in Oranjstad.

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History of the Church in Aruba

The first Aruban branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was formed in August 1986 in the capital city of Oranjestad. Though missionaries did not officially arrive to preach the restored gospel until January 1987, Jose Gonzalez, a convert from Argentina, was already living in the small island country. Within a month of the missionaries’ arrival, Sidney Gerald Marcito Marcano became the first Latter-day Saint convert baptized in Aruba. That same year, selections of The Book of Mormon were translated into the local language, Papiamento.

A second branch of the Church was organized in San Nicolas in 1991. Ten years later, Church President Gordon B. Hinckley visited Aruba and prophesied that one day Aruba and Curaçao would be home to thousands of Latter-day Saints. Since 2003, Church services have been held in Papiamento, and in 2004 the Oranjestad Aruba District was created, with Roland A. Odor as president.