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List of Mormon missionary entries by country

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The following list indicates when missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) first preached in the territory of present-day countries.

Country Year First official church missionary[1] Notes
 United States 1830 Samuel H. Smith Smith is regarded as the "first missionary" of the LDS Church. He preached in New York in June 1830.
 Canada 1830 Joseph Smith, Sr. and Don Carlos Smith Although Phineas Young preached in Upper Canada several months before the Smiths, when he did so he was not a member of the church and therefore was not an official missionary of the church. The Smiths preached in villages north of the St. Lawrence River in Upper Canada in September 1830.
 United Kingdom 1837 Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde Kimball and Hyde first preached in Preston, England
 Ireland 1840 John Taylor, James McGuffie, and William Black A few months before Taylor, McGuffie, and Black arrived in Ireland, Reuben Headlock preached in Belfast, which was part of Ireland at the time but which is now in Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom
 Australia 1840 William Barratt Barratt was a 17-year-old convert from England whose family emigrated to Australia. Before his departure, he was set apart as a missionary to Australia.
 Netherlands 1841 Orson Hyde Hyde spent a week in Rotterdam and Amsterdam preaching to rabbis.
 Germany 1841 Orson Hyde A British church member named James Howells preached in Germany in 1840, but he was not an official missionary of the church.
 Turkey 1841 Orson Hyde Hyde preached in Istanbul.
 Israel 1841 Orson Hyde Hyde preached in Jerusalem and dedicated Palestine for the return of the Jews.
 Palestine
 French Polynesia 1844 Addison Pratt, Noah Rogers, and Benjamin Franklin Grouard Preached first in Tubuai. Preached in Tahitian; first official church missionaries to preach in a language other than English.
 Channel Islands 1848
 France 1849 William Howells
 Denmark 1850 Erastus Snow, Peter O. Hansen, John E. Forsgren, and George P. Dykes First preached in Copenhagen
 Italy 1850 Lorenzo Snow, Joseph Toronto, and Thomas Stenhouse First preached in Genoa
 Sweden 1850 John E. Forsgren
  Switzerland 1850 Thomas Stenhouse and Lorenzo Snow First preached in Geneva
 Norway 1851 Hans F. Petersen Petersen was one of the first converts baptized in Denmark
 Iceland 1851 Gudmund Gudmundson and Thorarinn Thorason Gudmundson and Torason joined the church in Denmark and were sent back to their native Iceland as missionaries.
 India 1851 Joseph Richards Church members Benjamin Richey and George Barber preached in India in 1849, but they were not official missionaries of the church.
 Chile 1851 Parley P. Pratt, Phoebe Pratt and Rufus C. Allen Phoebe was one of Parley's plural wives.
 Malta 1852 Lorenzo Snow and Jabez Woodard
 South Africa 1853 Jesse Haven, Leonard L. Smith, and William H. Walker Preached first in Cape Town. In 1852, Joseph Richards spent nearly a month in Cape Town on his way home from his assigned mission in India. He distributed some tracts and preached a few sermons. Haven, Smith, and Walker were the first missionaries specifically assigned to South Africa.
 Hong Kong 1853 Hosea Stout, James Lewis, and Chapman Duncan The missionaries were called to preach in China, but conditions allowed them to only preach in Hong Kong, which was a British colony at the time.
 Jamaica 1853 Darwin Richardson, Aaron F. Fan, Jesse Turpin, and A. B. Lambson
 Sri Lanka 1853 Chauncey W. West and Benjamin F. Dewey
 New Zealand 1854 Augustus Farnham, William Cooke, and Thomas Holder Preached first in Auckland, Wellington, and Nelson
 Thailand 1854 Elam Luddington Preached first in Bangkok.
 Mauritius 1856 George Kershaw
 Samoa 1863 Kimo Pelia and Samuela Manoa
 Austria 1865 Orson Pratt and William W. Ritter
 Mexico 1876 Daniel Webster Jones and Ammon N. Tenney
 Finland 1876 Carl A. Sundstrom and John E. Sundstrom Preached first in Vaasa.
 Czech Republic 1884 Thomas Biesinger Preached in Prague.
 Hungary 1885 Thomas Biesinger and Paul Hammer Preached in Budapest.
 Belgium 1888 Mischa Markow Preached in Antwerp.
 Tonga 1891 Brigham Smoot and Alva J. Butler[2][3] Met with and granted permission from King George Tupou I before preaching.
 Russia 1895 August Höglund Preached in St. Petersburg.
 Syria 1898
 Greece 1899 Ferdinand F. Hintze
 Serbia 1899 Mischa Markow Preached in Belgrade.
 Croatia 1899 Mischa Markow
 Romania 1899 Mischa Markow
 Cook Islands 1899 Osborne J. P. Widtsoe and Mervin Davis preached first in Rarotonga
 Bulgaria 1900 Mischa Markow
 Japan 1901 Heber J. Grant, Horace S. Ensign, Louis A. Kelsch, and Alma O. Taylor
 Latvia 1903 Mischa Markow Preached in Riga.
 Argentina 1925 Rulon S. Wells and Rey Pratt Preached first in Buenos Aires. Wells preached in German and Pratt preached in Spanish.
 Brazil 1928 Rheinhold Stoof, William F. Heinz, and Emil Schindler Preaching began among German speakers.
 Slovakia 1929 Arthur Gaeth Gaeth was the first mission president of the Czechoslovakia Mission. Thomas Biesinger had previously preached within Czechoslovakia, but only in the current territory of the Czech Republic.
 Zimbabwe 1930 George C. Maw, Vern D. Greene, and Bertram C. Cutforth
 Costa Rica 1946 Arwell L. Pierce, Robert B. Miller, and David D. Lingard
 Guatemala 1947 Seth G. Mattice, Earl E. Hansen, Robert B. Miller, and David D. Lingard
 Uruguay 1947 Frederick S. Williams
 El Salvador 1949 Glenn W. Skousen and Omer Farnsworth
 Paraguay 1950 Frederick S. Williams, Sister Williams and William S. Farnsworth The first baptism was performed by Samuel J. Skousen, a former missionary in Argentina who was then working as the military attache to the United States Embassy in Paraguay, he baptized Carlos Alerto Rodriguez, having previously been authorized to do so by the First Presidency. Williams was president of the Argentine Mission when he went with his wife and Elder Farnsworth to begin missionary work in Paraguay. Three additional missionaries, Keith J. Morris, Norval C. Jesperson and Daryl L. Anderson were sent after President Williams had determined that the government would allow missionary work to proceed.
 Honduras 1952 James T. Thorup and George W. Allen
 Niue 1952 Thayne Christensen Fritz Bunge-Kruger and his family arrived earlier in 1952 and traveled about the island doing missionary work, but none of the members of the family were official church missionaries
 Nicaragua 1953 Manuel Arias and Archie R. Mortensen
 Fiji 1954 Boyd L. Harris and Sheldon L. Abbott
 South Korea 1954 Richard L. Detton and Don G. Powell
 Faroe Islands 1958
 Bolivia 1964 Sterling Nicolayson was President of the Andes Mission; he met with American expatriate members in Bolivia in October to November. Missionaries under him arrived in late November and baptized their first covert, Victor Walter Vallejos, just before Christmas. In 1962 Norval Jesperson, who had been among the first six missionaries in Paraguay, became the director of the American-Bolivian Center in Cochabamba. He shared the gospel with several people and baptized Maria van Gemerfen.
 Peru 1956 Darwin Thomas, Edward T. Hall, Donald L. Hokanson, Shirrel M. Plowman
 Taiwan 1956 Weldon J. Kitchen, Keith Madsen, Duane W. Dean, and Melvin C. Fish
 Guam 1957
 Philippines 1961 Ray Goodson, Harry Murray, Kent Lowe, and Nestor Ledesma
 Luxembourg 1963 Hyrum M. Smith and Gerald E. Malmrose
 Puerto Rico 1964 Verl Tolbert and Dwight K. Hunter The first baptisms of Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico had occurred May 7, 1959 when Cristina Burk and Irma Haws, both of whom were married to American Mormons, were baptized. Tolbert and Hunter mainly worked with US military personnel in Puerto Rico, although they did baptize Becky Farticelli, the first Puerto Rican convert who did not have familial connections to the U.S. mainland. Steven Johnson and Craig Van Tassell in 1969 were the first missionaries in Puerto Rico to preach in Spanish.
 Macau 1964 Darryl Thomander and Gilbert Montano
 Ecuador 1965 Craig Carpenter, Bryant R. Gold, Lindon Robinson, and Paul O. Allen
 Panama 1965 Ted E. Brewerton[citation needed]
 Colombia 1966 Randall Harmsen and Jerry Broome Preached first in Bogotá.
 Bermuda 1966
 Venezuela 1967 Ted E. Brewerton, Floyd Baum, Neil Gruwell, David Bell, and Fred Podlesny
 Singapore 1968 Kim A. Shipley, Joel Richards III, Rhett T. Bake and Melvin D. Shurtz
 New Caledonia 1968 Harold Richards and Jeannine Richards
 Spain 1970 Clark Hinckley and a few others.[4]
 Indonesia 1970 Frank Willard, Dale Storer, Robert Meier, Ross Marchant, Greg Hawker, and Larry Hunt
 Kiribati 1972 Eb L. Davis
 Malaysia 1972 Elam Luddington had preached on the island of Penang in 1854. Anthony Lim, the first Malaysian baptized in Malaysia, was baptized on December 3, 1972.
 Vietnam 1973 Colin B. Van Orman, James L. Chrisensen, David T. Posey, and Richard C. Holloman
 Portugal 1974 William Grant Bangerter
 Slovenia 1975 Neil D. Schaerrer
 Vanuatu 1975 Asaeli Mokofisi and Peni Malohifo’ou (of Tonga) and Brett Edward Olsen and Rodvern Lowry (of Canada)
 Northern Mariana Islands 1975 Jeff Frame and Callis Carlton
 Iran 1975 Kent Bowman, Randy Clark, Kerry Riley, and Derrin Watson[citation needed]
 Micronesia 1976 George L. Mortensen and Aldric Porter Preached first on Pohnpei.
 Marshall Islands 1977 William Wardel and Steven Cooper
 Poland 1977 Matthew and Marion Ciembronowicz[5]
 Trinidad and Tobago 1977 Chris Doty, Doug Mathews, Randy Clark, and David Roos
 Dominican Republic 1978 John A. Davis and Ada Davis Latter-day Saints Eddie Amparo and Mercedes Amparo preached prior to 1978, but they were not official missionaries of the church.
 Ghana 1978 Edwin Q. "Ted" Cannon, Janath Cannon, Rendell N. Mabey, Rachel Mabey Billy Johnson and others had shared the Book of Mormon with many people in Ghana and even been recognized as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by the government in 1968, but none of these people had been baptized. Immediately after the June 1978 Revelation on Priesthood, Ted Cannon, and Merrill J. Bateman had made a short fact-finding trip to Ghana and Nigeria where they laid the final ground-work for the entry of missionaries a few months later. The missions of the Cannons and the Mabeys resulted in the baptism of several hundred people, most of whom were among those prepared by Johnson and his associates.
 Nigeria 1978 Edwin Q. "Ted" Cannon, Janath Cannon, Rendell N. Mabey, Rachel Mabey See note on Ghana, above. In Nigeria there had been others who set up unofficial congregations of the LDS Church, such as Anthony Obina.
 Suriname 1978 John Limburg and Beverly Limburg
 Palau 1978 Ron Brown and Stanton Akana
 United States Virgin Islands 1978
 Curaçao 1978
 Réunion 1979
 Belize 1980 Samuel Flores and Robert Henke
 Haiti 1980 Glenn E. Stringham
 Papua New Guinea 1980 L. Douglas Johnson and Eva Johnson
 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 1980 Steven B. Wooley and Terry Williams
 St. Lucia 1983 Todd Hardy, Paul Jackson, Jay Schroeder, and Marty Harris
 Martinique 1983 Kenneth Zabriskie
 St. Kitts and Nevis 1984 Douglas Myers and Robert J. Molina
 Antigua and Barbuda 1984 Ralph Tate and Aileen Tate
 Nauru 1984 Joseph B. Keeler
 Tuvalu 1984 Joseph B. Keeler, Glen Cornwall, and Shirley Cornwall
 Guadeloupe 1984
 Grenada 1985 Robert W. Hoffmaster and Leonard G. Gill
 Cayman Islands 1985
 Democratic Republic of the Congo 1986 R. Bay Hutchings and Jean Hutchings
 Eswatini 1987 Kenneth Edwards and Betty Edwards
 Liberia 1987 J. Duffy Palmer and Jacelyn Palmer
 Aruba 1987 Clay Jorgensen and Julio Gonzalez
 Guyana 1988 Benjamin Hudson and Ruth Hudson
 Cape Verde 1988 Marion K. Hamblin, Christopher Lee, and Ken Margetts
 Ivory Coast 1988 Barnard S. Silver and Cherry Silver
 Sierra Leone 1988
 Lesotho 1989 Marc Modersitzki and Bradley Saunderson
 Cyprus 1989 James O. Henrie and Evelyn H. Henrie[1]
 French Guiana 1989
 Botswana 1990 R. J. Stone
 Namibia 1990
 Uganda 1990 Lark Washburn and Arlea Washburn
 Estonia 1990 Gary L. Browning Browning was the president of the Finland Helsinki East Mission, which had jurisdiction over Estonia.
 Ukraine 1991 Gary L. Browning Browning was the president of the Finland Helsinki East Mission, which had jurisdiction over Ukraine.
 Kenya 1991
 Republic of Congo 1991
 Mongolia 1992 Kenneth H. Beesley and Donna Beesley
 Malawi 1992 James Griggs and Diane Griggs
 Tanzania 1992
 Albania 1992
 Lithuania 1992 Gary L. Browning; Robert A. Rees and Ruth Rees Browning was president of the Helsinki Finland East Mission, which had jurisdiction over Lithuania. The Rees were the first missionaries assigned to preach in Lithuania.
 Angola 1993
 Cameroon 1993
 Central African Republic 1993 "a French missionary couple"
 Ethiopia 1993 Eugene Hilton and Ruth Hilton
 Madagascar 1993
 Pakistan 1993
 Belarus 1993
 Cambodia 1994
 Solomon Islands 1995 E. Crawford Jones and Judith Jones
 Moldova 1997
 Benin 1998
 Mozambique 1999
 Togo 1999 Dermoine A. Findlay and Joyce Findlay
 Georgia 1999 Philip Reber and Betty Reber
 Kazakhstan 2001 Barry A. Baker and Tamara H. Baker
 Dominica 2006
 Laos 2006
 Turks and Caicos Islands 2008
 Burundi 2010
 Kosovo 2011 Griseld Merepeza and Eliot Steimle
 North Macedonia 2012 Joel Kay and Chase Adams
 Montenegro 2012 Tyran Schouten and Taylor Nelson
 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2012 Philander Knox Smartt Jr. and Gloria Rose Smartt
 Senegal 2017 "Missionaries from the Cote d'Ivoire Mission"[6]

Countries where LDS Church missionaries have not preached

[edit]

Official LDS Church missionaries have never preached in the following countries and territories:

Missionaries have preached in Hong Kong, and Macau; 1 Feb 1834 Orson Pratt came to China and held meetings;[7] Missionaries also called 28 August 1852 to China by Brigham Young;[8] 7-8 March 1853, 109 Elders called to various missions among them China. [9] Additionally, LDS missionaries are currently not preaching in a number of countries where they have preached previously, including Israel/Palestine, Iran, Laos, Lebanon, and Syria.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b 2013 Deseret News Church Almanac (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News, 2012).
  2. ^ Eric B. Shumway, "Tongan Saints: A Legacy of Faith", Liahona, August 1991.
  3. ^ Savani Latai Toluta'u Aupiu, "Mormon Missionaries in the Kingdom of Tonga, 1891–1897" (MA Thesis, University of Utah, 2009).
  4. ^ Sheri Dew. Go Forward With Faith: The Biography of Gordon B. Hinckley. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1996) p. 306
  5. ^ Mehr, Kahlile B. Mormon Missionaries Enter Eastern Europe (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2002) p. 103.
  6. ^ Sarah Jane Weaver, "Elder Bednar Dedicates Senegal for the Preaching of the Gospel", 26 JUNE 2017.
  7. ^ "Orson Pratt Writings".
  8. ^ "Without Purse or Scrip: A 19-Year-Old Missionary in 1853".
  9. ^ "March 1853".