- United States - 1830
- Canada - 1830
- United Kingdom - 1837
- Australia - 1840
- French Polynesia - 1844
- Denmark - 1849
- France - 1849 (missionaries served inconsistently in France until 1946)
- Switzerland - 1850
- Germany - 1851 (first branch created in 1843)
- Norway - 1851
- Sweden - early 1850s
- Ireland - 1850s (missionary work began in late 1830s but closed due to famine and emigration)
- New Zealand - 1854
- Netherlands - 1861
- Finland - 1870s (more permanent, consistent missionary activity began in 1947)
- Mexico - 1875
- Austria - 1883 (year first Austria baptized in Austria; missionaries periodically visited years earlier)
- American Samoa - 1888 (previous attempt to establish church in 1862 but unsuccessful)
- Belgium - 1888
- Samoa - 1888 (previous attempt to establish church in 1862 but unsuccessful)
- Tonga - 1891 (missionaries removed from 1897 to 1907)
- Syria - late 1890s-1951 (closed due to political conditions and emigration of Armenian converts)
- Japan - 1901 (mission closed in 1924 and reopened in 1946)
- South Africa - 1903 (missionaries also served from 1853-1865)
- Argentina - 1925
- Brazil - 1928
- Czech Republic - 1929 (missionaries removed in 1950; reintroduced in 1990)
- Israel (Palestine) - 1933-1939, 1946-1951, 1970s-mid-1980s (closed due to BYU-Jerusalem agreement with government)
- Cook Islands - 1946 (previous attempt to established church in 1899 unsuccessful)
- Costa Rica - 1946
- Guatemala - 1947
- Uruguay - 1947
- El Salvador - 1949
- Hong Kong - 1949 (previous attempt to establish church in 1853 unsuccessful)
- Paraguay - 1950
- Zimbabwe - 1950 (missionary visits began as early as 1930)
- Honduras - 1952
- Niue - 1952
- Nicaragua - 1953 (missionaries withdrawn for most of the 1980s)
- Fiji - 1954
- South Korea - 1954
- Chile - 1956 (previous attempt to establish church in early 1850s unsuccessful)
- Taiwan - 1956
- Peru - late 1950s (first branch created in 1956)
- Philippines - 1961
- Luxembourg - 1963 (no missionaries appeared to be assigned in the 1970s)
- Bolivia - 1964
- Macau - 1964
- India - 1960s (exact year missionaries assigned unknown; some missionary activity in 19th century)
- Ecuador - 1965
- Lebanon - 1965-1975 (LDS presence remains, but no proselytism missionary at present)
- Panama - 1965 (first LDS presence established in 1940s among military)
- Bermuda - 1966
- Colombia - 1966
- Italy - 1966 (some missionary activity occurred in the mid-19th century)
- Venezuela - 1966
- New Caledonia - 1968 (first branch created in 1961)
- Singapore - 1968 (missionaries removed for much of the 1970s)
- Thailand - 1968 (missionaries briefly assigned in 1854, LDS presence established in 1950s)
- Spain - 1968-1969
- Indonesia - 1970
- Malaysia - 1972
- Puerto Rico - early 1970s (time when Puerto Rico assigned to a mission; missionaries visited in 1940)
- Portugal - 1974
- Iceland - 1975 (LDS presence and missionaries assigned from 1851-1914; reintroduced in 1975)
- Iran - 1975-1979 (missionary work closed due to Iranian Revolution)
- Kiribati - 1975
- Northern Mariana Islands - 1975 (LDS presence among military first established in 1940s)
- Vanuatu - 1975 (first branch organized in 1973)
- Federated States of Micronesia - 1976
- Guam - 1977 (year first native baptized; LDS presence since 1944 but among military)
- Marshall Islands - 1977
- Trinidad and Tobago - 1977
- Croatia - late 1970s (at the time part of Yugoslavia; dedicated for missionary work in 1985)
- Serbia - late 1970s (first missionary visited in 1899)
- Curacao - 1978 (missionaries removed same year, reassigned in 1982; first branch created in 1979)
- Ghana - 1978
- Jamaica - 1978 (previous attempt to establish church in 1840s and 1850s unsuccessful)
- Namibia - 1978
- Nigeria - 1978
- Palau - 1978
- US Virgin Islands - 1978 (first convert baptisms occurred in 1976)
- Bahamas - 1979
- Barbados - 1979
- Dominican Republic - 1979 (country dedicated, first branch organized in 1978)
- Mauritius - 1979 (one missionary was assigned for two months in 1856)
- Papua New Guinea - 1979 (year first branch was organized; first converts baptized in 1980)
- Reunion - 1979
- Belize - 1980
- Haiti - 1980 (first convert baptisms occurred in 1978)
- Kenya - 1980 (first convert baptisms occurred in 1979)
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - 1980
- Saint Martin/Sint Maarten - 1983
- Antigua and Barbuda - 1984
- Guadeloupe - 1984 (first branch created in 1982)
- Martinique - 1984
- Saint Kitts and Nevis - 1984
- Grenada - 1985
- Tuvalu - 1985 (year first branch and convert baptisms occurred; missionaries removed 2005-2010)
- Cayman Islands - 1985 (church services began in 1982)
- Greece - 1986 (first branch created in the 1960s; (some limited missionary activity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries)
- Aruba - 1987 (first branch created in 1986)
- Democratic Republic of the Congo - 1987
- Liberia - 1987
- Swaziland - 1987 (first branch created in 1986)
- Cote d'Ivoire - 1988
- Guyana - 1988
- Malta - 1988 (previous attempts to establish church occurred in the 1850s and 1979)
- Poland - 1988 (sporadic missionary efforts occurred for nearly 100 years before this time)
- Sierra Leone - 1988
- Suriname - 1988
- Cape Verde - 1988-1989
- Hungary - 1988-1989 (sporadic missionary presence around 1900, first convert baptisms in 1988)
- French Guiana - 1989
- Lesotho - 1989
- Botswana - 1990
- Bulgaria - 1990
- Estonia - 1990
- Romania - 1990 (missionaries were assigned periodically from 1903-1933)
- Russia - 1990
- Slovakia - 1990 (some missionary activity occurred in the 1930s and 1940s).
- Slovenia - 1990
- Uganda - 1990
- Ukraine - 1990
- Armenia - 1991 (year country dedicated for missionary work; first branch organized in 1994)
- Madagascar - 1991 (first convert baptisms occurred in 1988)
- Republic of the Congo - 1991-1992
- Albania - 1992
- Andorra - 1992 (first convert baptism; unclear exact year first missionaries were assigned)
- Cameroon - 1992 (young missionaries not assigned until mid-2000s)
- Latvia - 1992 (some missionary activity briefly occurred in 1903)
- Lithuania - 1992
- Mongolia - 1992
- Tanzania - 1992
- Zambia - 1992 (missionaries briefly assigned in 1960s)
- Belarus - 1993
- Cyprus - 1993 (year country dedicated for missionary work; unclear when first missionaries assigned)
- Ethiopia - 1993
- Pakistan - 1993 (first LDS presence established in 1970s)
- Cambodia - 1994
- Solomon Islands - 1995 (year first senior missionaries assigned; missionaries withdrawn for much of the 2000s
- Moldova - 1997 (missionaries withdrawn from 2004 to 2007)
- Sri Lanka - late 1990s (time when first proselytizing missionaries from Singapore Mission assigned)
- Benin - 1998 (year senior missionaries first assigned and first baptism; first branch organized in 2003)
- Malawi - 1999 (first convert baptisms occurred in 1992)
- Mozambique - 1999 (first branch created in 1996)
- Togo - 1999
- Saint Lucia - 2003 (year branch was reestablished; brief missionary presence from 1983-1986)
- Kazakhstan - mid-2000s (exact year unknown; country dedicated in 2003)
- Vietnam - mid-2000s
- Dominica - 2006
- Georgia - 2006
- Laos - 2006 (young missionaries removed same year; only humanitarian missionaries at present)
- Angola - 2008 (first branch created in 1996)
- Turks and Caicos Islands - 2008-2009
- Burundi - 2010
- Kosovo - 2011
- Bosnia and Herzegovina - 2012 (first branch created in 2011)
- Macedonia - 2012
- Montenegro - 2012
- Turkey - 2012 (some limited missionary activity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries)
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Countries of the World and Year Opened to LDS Missionary Work
Below is a chronological list of countries that have had LDS missionaries assigned provided with the year the first missionaries were assigned. Years with multiple countries opened have countries listed in alphabetical order. Countries that no longer have an LDS presence are listed in red and provided with the last year of an LDS presence. Notes are provided clarifying when an LDS presence was first established, any previous attempts to begin missionary activity earlier on, and setbacks requiring the removal of all missionaries.
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11 comments:
Do any of the below have or have had missionaries assigned to them?
Anguilla
British Virgin Islands
Central African Republic
Cook Islands
Gibraltar
Guernsey
Isle of Man
Jersey
Liberia
Mayotte
Montserrat
Nauru
Nepal
Niue
Panama
Rwanda
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
St Barthelemy
Thanks for the feedback.
I added the Cook Islands, Liberia, Niue, and Panama to the list. I am not sure when or if missionaries serve or have ever served in the British Virgin Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, or Jersey. No young proselytizing missionaries have been assigned to the Central African Republic, Mayotte, Nauru, Nepal, or Rwanda. There is no known LDS presence in Anguilla, Montserrat, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and St. Barthelemy.
The Turkish Mission was an active successful mission from 1885-1909 and again functioned from 1921 until it became the Armenian Mission in 1924 according to the 2004 Church Almanac. In the mid-1890s, my former wife’s great grandfather was a missionary in the Turkish Mission. He served in Haifa and Jerusalem in Palestine (now Israel), Damascus & Aleppo (now Syria), Beirut (now Lebanon), and Istanbul (now Turkey). Then all were part of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey).
Panama has been a mission since 1989 and was part of the Costa Rica San Jose Mission and Central America Mission before that.
Liberia had missionaries starting in 1987. There was a Liberia Monrovia Mission from 1988 to 1991.
The Cook Islands (Rarotonga) had missionaries as early as 1899. There was a separate Rarotonga Mission from 1960-1966.
Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man have or had missionaries assigned. When I served in the London South Mission (2004-2006) the missionaries alterated between Jersey and Guernsey. My sister served last year around chrismas on the Isle of Man.
The list does not show the first missionaries sent to South America or India. This is important because many countries were prepared to receive the gospel after an initial failure in missionary work. My great great grandfather Hugh Findlay and his brother Allen served in India with over 20 missionaries in the mid-1850's, it is all documented in the book "Nothing More Heroic" from Deseret Book, Author is R. Lanier Britsch. The we're pulled out just prior to the civil war where the Britsh were overthrown.
Craig is correct about the Turkish (Ottoman) Mission. Elders Jacob Spori and George C. Naegle were probably the first missionaries assigned, which they opened on December 1, 1884 when they arrived in Constantinople. Elder Naegle had previously served in the Swiss and German Mission for a few months prior to his reassignment to Constantinople.
To correct the original posted date concerning Greece, President Joseph Wilford Booth arrived in Athens in October 1905. On October 6, 1905 he dedicated Greece on Mars Hill for the preaching of the Gospel. On October 22, 1905 he baptized the first five members on a beach in Paleo Phaleron (Rigas Pofantis, Andomaka H. Malaveta, Constantine Theodoseau, George Zdralis, and John Lazos).
On March 19, 1906, Joseph F. Thorup, the first Elder called to the Greek people arrived in Athens. By mid-1906, he had begun translation of the Book of Mormon into Greek with the help of the small Greek Athens branch. They completed the Full Book of Mormon into Greek in 1907, but never received sufficient funds to publish the Greek Book of Mormon. The mission was closed in 1910 because of fears of war.
The Church still retains a copy of the original translation, which it provided parts of to translators who worked on re-translating the Book of Mormon into Katharevousa Greek back in the mid-to-late 1970s (pre-katsakis).
Finally, the first missionary couple to be sent to Greece arrived in 1978. A couple was generally stationed in Athens from 1978 until 1986 when the first four Elders were transferred from Chicago and Australia to Greece. The 1986 date coincides with the post-war transfer of the four Elders, not the original preaching of the Gospel to the Greeks in the early 1900s.
BTW, Greece was the only part of the Turkish Mission to remain open after 1909. The Church made a concerted effort when Greece was assigned to the Armenian Mission in the 1920s to locate all the members of the Greece Athens branch; none were discovered to still exist in Greece. The 1920s were a difficult time because of the large population transfers between Greece and Turkey.
Thanks for the feedback and corrections. I have made adjustments to the list.
The British Virgin Islands are covered by the Puerto Rico San Juan Mission. My "greenie" served on Tortola toward the end of his mission.
I was a missionary on Guernsey in 1965. We had four missionaries and about 8 members. There were also missionaries on Jersey. It was part of the Southwest British Mission.
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