When the first Spanish missionary came to Quarai in 1627, Franciscan friars were already administering and building for the faith in the neighboring pueblos of Abó and Chililí. Juan Gutiérrez de la Chica arrived with only a cartload of tools and his books. Within five years, Tiwa women under Gutiérrez's instruction had built the sandstone and adobe church, convento, and corrals. But conflict between New Mexico's missionaries and the king's men overshadowed the new way of life brought by the friars before the church was even ten years old. For the next 35 years, the people of Quarai would see more than their fair share of trials and trouble. A Franciscan report of 1656 said Quarai had a very good church, organ and choir, and 658 souls under its administration.