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EspañolMISSION (LDS CHURCH)
(Redirected from Missions of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
:''This article is about a geographical administrative area within the LDS Church. For a discussion of the proselytizing or service assignment fulfilled by Latter-day Saints, see 'Missionary (LDS Church)'.''
A 'mission' of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a geographical administrative area to which church missionaries are assigned. Almost all areas of the world are within the boundaries of an LDS Church mission, whether or not Mormon missionaries live or proselytize in the area.
Geographically, a mission may be a city, a city and surrounding areas, a state or province, or perhaps an entire country or even multiple countries. Typically, the name of the mission is the name of the country (or state in the United States), and then the name of the city where the mission headquarters office is located.[1]
:''See main article: Mission president''
All missionaries serve in a ''mission'' under the direction of a mission president, who, like individual missionaries, is assigned by the President of the Church. The mission president must be a married high priest in the Melchizedek Priesthood; his wife is asked to serve alongside him. Mission presidents are typically in their forties or older, and usually have the financial means to devote themselves full-time to the responsibility for three consecutive years. The church provides mission presidents with a minimal living allowance but it normally requires them to supplement it with their own funds. Often, the mission president must learn the local language spoken in the mission, as the missionaries do.
The mission president has at least two counselors, who usually are Latter-day Saints from the local area who keep their regular employment. The role of the counselors varies by mission, but they typically serve as liaisons between the mission and the local membership of the church.
Missions are organized in two parallel structures. The first is the organization of the missionaries. There are two or more missionaries who serve as ''assistants to the president'' (not to be confused with the counselors in the mission presidency). The assistants carry out the direction of the mission president in the organization of the mission, the assigning of companionships and proselyting areas, and oversee the welfare and training of the missionaries. The missionaries are divided into ''zones'', each led by one or more missionaries assigned as ''zone leaders''. The zones may be geographically large or small depending on the mission. The zones are divided into ''districts'', each being led by a missionary assigned as a ''district leader''. A district usually has two to four missionary companionships. The zone leaders and district leaders train the missionaries, see after their welfare, conduct interviews, proselyte together, and share successes. In general, only single male missionaries serve as assistants, zone leaders, and district leaders.
Each missionary companionship has a geographical area which may include part of a ward or branch, one ward or branch, or several wards or branches. The missionaries are responsible for preaching to the people in their own area. In a mission, the ecclesiastical line of authority is from the mission president down to the missionaries. The missionaries answer to the mission president directly, as opposed to the local branch president, bishop, or stake president.
The other type of mission structure exists where there are no organized stakes of the church in an area due to a relatively small number of Latter-day Saints living in the area. This may be the result of the church being relatively new in an area or may be the inescapable result of the church being established in a sparsely populated area of the world. In these stake-less areas, the mission president is the presiding local church authority and he is responsible for the welfare of all the members, not just the missionaries. The mission is divided into districts (not to be confused with the other type of district mentioned above) which serve much the same role as stakes do. Each district is assigned a district president who is usually a local resident; the district president reports directly to the mission presidency. The district presidency perform most of the day-to-day functions that a stake presidency would perform in a stake. Certain duties, such as the issuance of recommends to attend the temple, remain the sole prerogative of the mission president.
Districts within a mission are composed exclusively of branches. After the membership has grown sufficiently, the branches may be converted into wards and the district may be converted into a stake. Typically, this will not occur until there are least five ward-sized congregations in the district. Once a district becomes a stake, the mission president is only responsible for the proselyting missionaries in the area, not the local members of the church.
These are the names of the missions of the LDS Church. The geographical area they actually cover is often much larger than the name may indicate; most areas of the world are within the jurisdiction of a mission of the church.
The LDS Church mission with the smallest geographic area is the Utah Salt Lake Temple Square Mission, in which missionaries from around the world serve as tour guides on Temple Square, often to visitors from their own homelands. These missionaries serve for approximately 6 months on Temple Square, then serve for 6 months in another mission in another part of the United States, then return to Temple Square for the final 6 months of their 18-month mission call. Only single, female missionaries and older, retired couples are called to the Temple Square Mission.
The mission with the largest geographical area is currently the Micronesia Guam Mission, which covers an area of the earth that is roughly the size of the continental United States. However, the vast majority of this mission is composed of empty ocean. The largest mission in terms of geographical land mass and population is currently the China Hong Kong Mission, which encompasses nearly all of the Chinese landmass and population. Outside of Hong Kong and Macau, there are no Mormon missionaries in China. The India Banglore Mission has the largest population amongst which proselytizing is allowed. This mission covers all of India, thus it has more than one billion inhabitants in its borders.
Russia contains missions with very large areas. In the Russia Novosibirsk Mission it is possible to take an 42-hour train ride to get to the city of Novosibirsk from some places within the mission boundaries.
The title of "First Mission" is normally given to the British Mission, today considered the lineal ancestor of the England London Mission. This was began under the direction of Heber C. Kimball in 1837. Missionary work had previously occurred in the United States and Canada, but missionaries were not organized into specific missions. The work of this mission began in Preston, largely because one of the missionaries Joseph Fielding had a brother there who initially opened his chapel to the missionaries preaching. Later they often preached at the location also used by the Temperance Society. The first convert in the British Mission was George D. Watt, who would later be important in the compilation of the ''Journal of Discourses''. Within the first year of missionary work the headquarters of this mission were moved to Manchester. In 1840 they were moved again to Liverpool, largely so the mission leaders could play a role in organizing the emigration of Latter Day Saints to America. In 1929 when the British Mission was separated from the European Mission, its headquarters were moved to Birmingham.[2] The headquarters were moved to London in about 1930 since by this time the church was no longer encouraging Latter-day Saints to emigrate from Britain.
Although Mormon missionaries served in many parts of the Eastern United States of America from 1830 on, no mission was organized until 1839. In this year a mission was organized in New York City presided over by John P. Greene. However at this time missionaries continued to serve outside of regular mission areas.
With the removal of the main body of the Saints to Utah Territory and other western states the number of church members in the Eastern United States was very small. As mission president of the Eastern States Mission, Wilford Woodruff tried to bring all the saints in New England and other eastern areas to move to Utah.
In 1854, after having been defunct for about three years, the Eastern States Mission was organized again. John Taylor presided over this mission. His main function was to publish a paper to disseminate the teachings of the church. The other thing he did was supervise immigration from Europe to Utah, being the first to meet the saints when they came out of Castle Garden. He did preside over the few Saints in New York City, but did not functionally administer the church in any larger region.
On the eve of the American Civil War missionary work made much progress in New York City as well as other eastern metropolises. However the call of the gathering to Utah, given more power by the preaching and leadership of Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow, caused many of the saints to "flee Babylon and gather to Zion".
The advent of the U.S. Civil War and its connection in the minds of the Saints with Joseph Smith's prophecies on war caused the vast majority of the Saints to leave the eastern United States and gather to Utah.
During the 1850s the church also had an organization in St. Louis with first Erastus Snow and latter Orson Spencer having a regional leadership position somewhat equivalent to that of a mission president, although neither was referred to by this title while they presided from St. Louis.
In the western United States families would be called on settlement missions, but these were not primarily proselytizing missions. Some started as missions to the Native Americans. One such was headed by Orson Hyde and tried to convert the Shoshone in Wyoming. The Southern Indian Mission, with Jacob Hamblin as its most famous missionary, made much prgress. These missions were often directed by church leaders in regular wards and stakes, and did not become an organized mission at this time.
There were three more missions organized at this time in the United States as we define it today. The California Mission thrived for a short time with the presence of such men as Parley P. Pratt and George Q. Cannon. However, there were nearly as men men on gold-mining missions as regular proselytizing missions. By the time of the Utah War, the Calfornia Mission had largely stopped functioning.
The Sandwich Islands Mission was began in 1850. Among the first missionaries sent to what are now called the Hawaiian Islands was George Q. Cannon who converted Jonatana Napela. The two of them translated the ''Book of Mormon'' into Hawaiian, and the church was able to win many native Hawaiian converts.
The last antebellum mission was the Indian Territory Mission. Organized in 1855 with Henry W. Miller as president this mission mainly focused on teaching the Cherokee in what is today Oklahoma. There were some converts made in the following five years, however, the mission was soon afterwards disbanded.
In 1865, John Taylor again organized the Eastern States Mission. However this mission stopped functioning in 1869.
The true advent of fully functioning missions, with missionaries functioning under a mission president, in the United States on a large and permanent scale can be dated to the organization of the Southern States Mission. This mission was started in 1876 with Henry G. Boyle as president. A short time latter John Morgan was made the president of this mission.
The next mission to be organized was the Northern States Mission (initially called the Northwestern States Mission) with headquarters in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The first president of this mission was Cyrus H. Wheelock. Wheelock had served as a missionary in both Iowa and Michigan about this time. The mission was organized in 1878. It was renamed the Northern States Mission in 1889. The mission headquarters were moved to Chicago in 1896.
In 1883, the Indian Territory Mission was reestablished with Matthew W. Dalton as president. In 1898 it was renamed the Southwestern States Mission, signifying it was not only teaching the Native Americans but everyone else in its jurisdiction who would listen. 1892 saw a mission organized in California. This marked the beginning of proselytizing there. John Dalton worked initially in Oakland and San Francisco. In 1893 Karl G. Maeser arrived as head of the Utah exhibit at the mid-winter fair in San Francisco. He also presided over the mission, focusing his effrorts on gaining friends in the San Francisco Bay Area. Henry S. Tanner arrived the next August, with missionaries, thus he was able to preside over missionaries. The headquarters of the mission remained in San Francisco, but by August of 1895 a branch had been organized in Los Angeles. That year also marked the division of the Califonia mission into Conferences(Andrew, Jenson. ''Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints''. p. 110)
In 1893, the Eastern States Mission was organized again. This is the first time the mission was a truly regional one, supervising missionary work throughout much of the eastern United States.
By the 1890s, the leaders of the church were beginning to encourage converts to no longer gather to Utah. With more church members from Utah moving east for employment and education, a nucleus was building around which the church could grow. Still, most people were baptized by missionaries traveling without purse or scrip.
In 1896, the Colorado and Montana Missions were organized. In 1897, the Northwestern States Mission was organized, and it and the Montana Mission were merged in 1898.
In 1900, the United States was divided into eight missions, with three whole states and parts of two others outside of all missions. The newly-acquired Hawaiian Islands made a ninth mission in the United States. However, missionary work was not going on in the Philippines, Puerto Rico or any of the smaller areas the U.S. had acquired in the Spanish American War.
The Eastern States Mission encompassed New England, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. This mission had its headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. It also included all of Ontario and the parts of Canada further east, though missionaries were only active in Ontario at this time.
The Southern States Mission covered Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio. Ohio had been placed in this mission so there was a northern climate where missionaries could recover from illness. The Southern States Mission was headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The Northern States Mission included Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Manitoba. It was headquartered in Chicago. The Southwestern States Mission covered Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. It was headquartered in St. John, Kansas. The Colorado Mission covered North and South Dakota, Nebraska, the eastern two-thirds of Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. It was headquartered in Denver.
Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Southern Idaho and Western Wyoming were not in any mission. Missionary work, to the extent that it occurred in these areas, was administered through the Home Missionary Program at the stake level. The Northwestern States Mission included Wyoming, Northern Idaho, Oregon and Washington. It also included Western Canada; however, it would not be until 1902 that Nephi Pratt, president of the Northwestern States Mission and a son of Parley P. Pratt, would lead missionaries into British Columbia. Edward G. Cannon was going about the Nome, Alaska region with a tabernacle on wheels in which to hold church meetings, but he had no actual connection with a mission and had gone to Alaska on his own initiative to share the gospel. The last mission was the California Mission, which in 1900 had boundaries co-terminus with California.[3]
In 1902, the Middle States Mission was created with Ben E. Rich as president. However, in 1903, Ephraim H. Nye, president of the Souther States mission, died. He was replaced by Ben E. Rich and the boundaries of the missions were realigned. In 1904, the Southwestern States Mission was renamed the Central States Mission. After the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906, the mission headquarters was relocated to Los Angeles from San Francisco. In the next few years the headquarters of the Central States Mission were moved to Independence, Missouri, and the headquarters of the Northwestern States Mission were moved to Portland, Oregon. In 1907, the Colorado Mission was renamed the Western States Mission. Also in these years, the headquarters of the Southern States Mission moved from Chattanooga to Atlanta, Georgia.
In 1919, the first major change to missions in more than 15 years occurred. Ontario, Manitoba and Québec were split from the Eastern States Mission and the Northern States Mission and organized as the Canadian Mission. In 1925, the North Central States Mission was organized with parts of the Western States, Northern States, and Canadian Missions included. In 1926, Ohio was transfered to the Northern States Mission.[4]
Early on in church history, a general dichotomy grew up where the "mission field" was view as a separate area from the stakes of the church.
This line began to blur in the 1920s. With the organization of stakes in California, the mission still sent missionaries into those areas although it no longer had jurisdiction over the local units [5]
The first mission in Latin America was an attempt in the 1850s by Parley P. Pratt to preach in Chile. He made no progress and did not make a permanent impact.
It was not until the 1870s, after Meliton Trejo and Daniel Jones had translated the ''Book of Mormon'' into Spanish that missionary work began on a permanent footing in Mexico. The first mission president there was Moses Thatcher. Another early mission president in that land was Helaman Pratt, son of Parley and father of Rey Pratt.
After the initial opening of the British Mission it would be over ten years before missions would open in continental Europe. Although a missionary was sent to Germany in 1840 and Orson Hyde traveled across Europe in the early 1840s, it would not be until after the Latter-day Saints had gone to the Salt Lake Valley that missions would be established in Europe.
In October General Conference of 1849 three apostles were called to open missionary work in Europe. Erastus Snow was assigned to open missionary work in Scandinavia.[6] The other two assignments were for Lorenzo Snow to go to Italy and John Taylor to go to France. There were other elders assigned to accompany each of these apostles, so a mission organization was in place even before any missionaries had reached their destinations.
In the case of France, Howells from Wales actually was in France preaching long before Taylor and his companions arrived. The French mission came to include the Channel Islands under John Taylor's direction, and this was where the mission saw the most converts in the early days.
A few years latter one of Taylor's converts, Louis Bertrand, returned to the mission and ran a Mormon newspaper out of Paris. He had little success in winning converts.
The Scandinavian mission came to encompass Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland.
The Italian mission, despite the presence of Joseph Toronto, was largely confined to northern Italy among the Waldensians. Lorenzo Snow also supervised the opening of the Swiss Mission. This mission eventually became the Swiss-Italian-German mission a few years latter, and then "Italian" was dropped from the name since no missionary work was going on in Italy.
The first missionaries to the Pacific Islands went to French Polynesia in 1844. These missionaries had much success in baptizing converts, but there were only three missionaries so no fully functioning order was needed. Addison Pratt was designated the mission president, but they made decisions on where to labor jointly.
In 1850 a mission was organized in Hawaii. Here there was also a designated mission president and there were enough missionaries to make it a clear process of assigning missionaries to specific areas. However each area was an island, and the number of missionaries in each area varied. Beyond this the decision to go from teaching in English to American and English sailors temporarily on the islands and other expatriates to teaching the natives in the Hawaiian Language was made by George Q. Cannon, who was not the mission president.
Although some British Latter-day Saints on their way to Australia were set apart as missionaries in the early 1840s, missionary work on an organized basis did not began there until the arrival of John Murdock in 1851.[7]
Many missionaries working together build strong bonds of friendship, and for a few years after their missions are over, a former mission president will host reunions of missionaries who served during his tenure. As the missionaries come from many different parts of the world, it is common that the reunions are held in Utah, especially during church general conference weekends, as it provides for the probability of the largest number of attendees. Several web sites have been created by church members with the express purpose of allowing mission alumni to keep in contact.
★ Area (LDS Church)
1. The only exception to this general rule is the ''Singapore Mission'' of the church.
2. Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
3. Cowan, Richard O. "The Church in the 20th Century", Bookcraft: Salt Lake City, 1985, p. 2
4. Deseret News Church Almanac, 2006 ed., p. 243
5. title=Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Author=Andrew Jenson. Publisher=Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. year=1941. Page #=109
6. Deseret News Church Almanac, 2007 ed. p. 345
7. Deseret News Church Alamanc, 2007 ed., p. 297
★ ''2001-2002 Deseret News Church Almanac'' (2000). Salt Lake City: Deseret News.
★ 2007 Deseret News Church Almanac
★ Cowan, Richard. ''The Church in the 20th Century'' Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1985.
★ LDS Mission Network - index of LDS missionary alumni websites
:''This article is about a geographical administrative area within the LDS Church. For a discussion of the proselytizing or service assignment fulfilled by Latter-day Saints, see 'Missionary (LDS Church)'.''
A 'mission' of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a geographical administrative area to which church missionaries are assigned. Almost all areas of the world are within the boundaries of an LDS Church mission, whether or not Mormon missionaries live or proselytize in the area.
Administrative structure
Many LDS missions have logos or seals. This, for example, is the seal of the Arizona Tucson Mission.
Geographically, a mission may be a city, a city and surrounding areas, a state or province, or perhaps an entire country or even multiple countries. Typically, the name of the mission is the name of the country (or state in the United States), and then the name of the city where the mission headquarters office is located.[1]
Mission president
:''See main article: Mission president''
All missionaries serve in a ''mission'' under the direction of a mission president, who, like individual missionaries, is assigned by the President of the Church. The mission president must be a married high priest in the Melchizedek Priesthood; his wife is asked to serve alongside him. Mission presidents are typically in their forties or older, and usually have the financial means to devote themselves full-time to the responsibility for three consecutive years. The church provides mission presidents with a minimal living allowance but it normally requires them to supplement it with their own funds. Often, the mission president must learn the local language spoken in the mission, as the missionaries do.
The mission president has at least two counselors, who usually are Latter-day Saints from the local area who keep their regular employment. The role of the counselors varies by mission, but they typically serve as liaisons between the mission and the local membership of the church.
Mission organization
Organization of missionaries
Missions are organized in two parallel structures. The first is the organization of the missionaries. There are two or more missionaries who serve as ''assistants to the president'' (not to be confused with the counselors in the mission presidency). The assistants carry out the direction of the mission president in the organization of the mission, the assigning of companionships and proselyting areas, and oversee the welfare and training of the missionaries. The missionaries are divided into ''zones'', each led by one or more missionaries assigned as ''zone leaders''. The zones may be geographically large or small depending on the mission. The zones are divided into ''districts'', each being led by a missionary assigned as a ''district leader''. A district usually has two to four missionary companionships. The zone leaders and district leaders train the missionaries, see after their welfare, conduct interviews, proselyte together, and share successes. In general, only single male missionaries serve as assistants, zone leaders, and district leaders.
Each missionary companionship has a geographical area which may include part of a ward or branch, one ward or branch, or several wards or branches. The missionaries are responsible for preaching to the people in their own area. In a mission, the ecclesiastical line of authority is from the mission president down to the missionaries. The missionaries answer to the mission president directly, as opposed to the local branch president, bishop, or stake president.
Organization in areas without stakes
The other type of mission structure exists where there are no organized stakes of the church in an area due to a relatively small number of Latter-day Saints living in the area. This may be the result of the church being relatively new in an area or may be the inescapable result of the church being established in a sparsely populated area of the world. In these stake-less areas, the mission president is the presiding local church authority and he is responsible for the welfare of all the members, not just the missionaries. The mission is divided into districts (not to be confused with the other type of district mentioned above) which serve much the same role as stakes do. Each district is assigned a district president who is usually a local resident; the district president reports directly to the mission presidency. The district presidency perform most of the day-to-day functions that a stake presidency would perform in a stake. Certain duties, such as the issuance of recommends to attend the temple, remain the sole prerogative of the mission president.
Districts within a mission are composed exclusively of branches. After the membership has grown sufficiently, the branches may be converted into wards and the district may be converted into a stake. Typically, this will not occur until there are least five ward-sized congregations in the district. Once a district becomes a stake, the mission president is only responsible for the proselyting missionaries in the area, not the local members of the church.
Missions of the church
These are the names of the missions of the LDS Church. The geographical area they actually cover is often much larger than the name may indicate; most areas of the world are within the jurisdiction of a mission of the church.
Variations in size
The LDS Church mission with the smallest geographic area is the Utah Salt Lake Temple Square Mission, in which missionaries from around the world serve as tour guides on Temple Square, often to visitors from their own homelands. These missionaries serve for approximately 6 months on Temple Square, then serve for 6 months in another mission in another part of the United States, then return to Temple Square for the final 6 months of their 18-month mission call. Only single, female missionaries and older, retired couples are called to the Temple Square Mission.
The mission with the largest geographical area is currently the Micronesia Guam Mission, which covers an area of the earth that is roughly the size of the continental United States. However, the vast majority of this mission is composed of empty ocean. The largest mission in terms of geographical land mass and population is currently the China Hong Kong Mission, which encompasses nearly all of the Chinese landmass and population. Outside of Hong Kong and Macau, there are no Mormon missionaries in China. The India Banglore Mission has the largest population amongst which proselytizing is allowed. This mission covers all of India, thus it has more than one billion inhabitants in its borders.
Russia contains missions with very large areas. In the Russia Novosibirsk Mission it is possible to take an 42-hour train ride to get to the city of Novosibirsk from some places within the mission boundaries.
History of missions
The title of "First Mission" is normally given to the British Mission, today considered the lineal ancestor of the England London Mission. This was began under the direction of Heber C. Kimball in 1837. Missionary work had previously occurred in the United States and Canada, but missionaries were not organized into specific missions. The work of this mission began in Preston, largely because one of the missionaries Joseph Fielding had a brother there who initially opened his chapel to the missionaries preaching. Later they often preached at the location also used by the Temperance Society. The first convert in the British Mission was George D. Watt, who would later be important in the compilation of the ''Journal of Discourses''. Within the first year of missionary work the headquarters of this mission were moved to Manchester. In 1840 they were moved again to Liverpool, largely so the mission leaders could play a role in organizing the emigration of Latter Day Saints to America. In 1929 when the British Mission was separated from the European Mission, its headquarters were moved to Birmingham.[2] The headquarters were moved to London in about 1930 since by this time the church was no longer encouraging Latter-day Saints to emigrate from Britain.
United States and Canada
Early missions
Although Mormon missionaries served in many parts of the Eastern United States of America from 1830 on, no mission was organized until 1839. In this year a mission was organized in New York City presided over by John P. Greene. However at this time missionaries continued to serve outside of regular mission areas.
With the removal of the main body of the Saints to Utah Territory and other western states the number of church members in the Eastern United States was very small. As mission president of the Eastern States Mission, Wilford Woodruff tried to bring all the saints in New England and other eastern areas to move to Utah.
In 1854, after having been defunct for about three years, the Eastern States Mission was organized again. John Taylor presided over this mission. His main function was to publish a paper to disseminate the teachings of the church. The other thing he did was supervise immigration from Europe to Utah, being the first to meet the saints when they came out of Castle Garden. He did preside over the few Saints in New York City, but did not functionally administer the church in any larger region.
On the eve of the American Civil War missionary work made much progress in New York City as well as other eastern metropolises. However the call of the gathering to Utah, given more power by the preaching and leadership of Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow, caused many of the saints to "flee Babylon and gather to Zion".
The advent of the U.S. Civil War and its connection in the minds of the Saints with Joseph Smith's prophecies on war caused the vast majority of the Saints to leave the eastern United States and gather to Utah.
During the 1850s the church also had an organization in St. Louis with first Erastus Snow and latter Orson Spencer having a regional leadership position somewhat equivalent to that of a mission president, although neither was referred to by this title while they presided from St. Louis.
In the western United States families would be called on settlement missions, but these were not primarily proselytizing missions. Some started as missions to the Native Americans. One such was headed by Orson Hyde and tried to convert the Shoshone in Wyoming. The Southern Indian Mission, with Jacob Hamblin as its most famous missionary, made much prgress. These missions were often directed by church leaders in regular wards and stakes, and did not become an organized mission at this time.
There were three more missions organized at this time in the United States as we define it today. The California Mission thrived for a short time with the presence of such men as Parley P. Pratt and George Q. Cannon. However, there were nearly as men men on gold-mining missions as regular proselytizing missions. By the time of the Utah War, the Calfornia Mission had largely stopped functioning.
The Sandwich Islands Mission was began in 1850. Among the first missionaries sent to what are now called the Hawaiian Islands was George Q. Cannon who converted Jonatana Napela. The two of them translated the ''Book of Mormon'' into Hawaiian, and the church was able to win many native Hawaiian converts.
The last antebellum mission was the Indian Territory Mission. Organized in 1855 with Henry W. Miller as president this mission mainly focused on teaching the Cherokee in what is today Oklahoma. There were some converts made in the following five years, however, the mission was soon afterwards disbanded.
In 1865, John Taylor again organized the Eastern States Mission. However this mission stopped functioning in 1869.
Establishment of permanent missions
The true advent of fully functioning missions, with missionaries functioning under a mission president, in the United States on a large and permanent scale can be dated to the organization of the Southern States Mission. This mission was started in 1876 with Henry G. Boyle as president. A short time latter John Morgan was made the president of this mission.
The next mission to be organized was the Northern States Mission (initially called the Northwestern States Mission) with headquarters in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The first president of this mission was Cyrus H. Wheelock. Wheelock had served as a missionary in both Iowa and Michigan about this time. The mission was organized in 1878. It was renamed the Northern States Mission in 1889. The mission headquarters were moved to Chicago in 1896.
In 1883, the Indian Territory Mission was reestablished with Matthew W. Dalton as president. In 1898 it was renamed the Southwestern States Mission, signifying it was not only teaching the Native Americans but everyone else in its jurisdiction who would listen. 1892 saw a mission organized in California. This marked the beginning of proselytizing there. John Dalton worked initially in Oakland and San Francisco. In 1893 Karl G. Maeser arrived as head of the Utah exhibit at the mid-winter fair in San Francisco. He also presided over the mission, focusing his effrorts on gaining friends in the San Francisco Bay Area. Henry S. Tanner arrived the next August, with missionaries, thus he was able to preside over missionaries. The headquarters of the mission remained in San Francisco, but by August of 1895 a branch had been organized in Los Angeles. That year also marked the division of the Califonia mission into Conferences(Andrew, Jenson. ''Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints''. p. 110)
In 1893, the Eastern States Mission was organized again. This is the first time the mission was a truly regional one, supervising missionary work throughout much of the eastern United States.
By the 1890s, the leaders of the church were beginning to encourage converts to no longer gather to Utah. With more church members from Utah moving east for employment and education, a nucleus was building around which the church could grow. Still, most people were baptized by missionaries traveling without purse or scrip.
In 1896, the Colorado and Montana Missions were organized. In 1897, the Northwestern States Mission was organized, and it and the Montana Mission were merged in 1898.
In 1900, the United States was divided into eight missions, with three whole states and parts of two others outside of all missions. The newly-acquired Hawaiian Islands made a ninth mission in the United States. However, missionary work was not going on in the Philippines, Puerto Rico or any of the smaller areas the U.S. had acquired in the Spanish American War.
The Eastern States Mission encompassed New England, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. This mission had its headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. It also included all of Ontario and the parts of Canada further east, though missionaries were only active in Ontario at this time.
The Southern States Mission covered Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio. Ohio had been placed in this mission so there was a northern climate where missionaries could recover from illness. The Southern States Mission was headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The Northern States Mission included Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Manitoba. It was headquartered in Chicago. The Southwestern States Mission covered Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. It was headquartered in St. John, Kansas. The Colorado Mission covered North and South Dakota, Nebraska, the eastern two-thirds of Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. It was headquartered in Denver.
Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Southern Idaho and Western Wyoming were not in any mission. Missionary work, to the extent that it occurred in these areas, was administered through the Home Missionary Program at the stake level. The Northwestern States Mission included Wyoming, Northern Idaho, Oregon and Washington. It also included Western Canada; however, it would not be until 1902 that Nephi Pratt, president of the Northwestern States Mission and a son of Parley P. Pratt, would lead missionaries into British Columbia. Edward G. Cannon was going about the Nome, Alaska region with a tabernacle on wheels in which to hold church meetings, but he had no actual connection with a mission and had gone to Alaska on his own initiative to share the gospel. The last mission was the California Mission, which in 1900 had boundaries co-terminus with California.[3]
In 1902, the Middle States Mission was created with Ben E. Rich as president. However, in 1903, Ephraim H. Nye, president of the Souther States mission, died. He was replaced by Ben E. Rich and the boundaries of the missions were realigned. In 1904, the Southwestern States Mission was renamed the Central States Mission. After the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906, the mission headquarters was relocated to Los Angeles from San Francisco. In the next few years the headquarters of the Central States Mission were moved to Independence, Missouri, and the headquarters of the Northwestern States Mission were moved to Portland, Oregon. In 1907, the Colorado Mission was renamed the Western States Mission. Also in these years, the headquarters of the Southern States Mission moved from Chattanooga to Atlanta, Georgia.
In 1919, the first major change to missions in more than 15 years occurred. Ontario, Manitoba and Québec were split from the Eastern States Mission and the Northern States Mission and organized as the Canadian Mission. In 1925, the North Central States Mission was organized with parts of the Western States, Northern States, and Canadian Missions included. In 1926, Ohio was transfered to the Northern States Mission.[4]
Mission field versus stakes
Early on in church history, a general dichotomy grew up where the "mission field" was view as a separate area from the stakes of the church.
This line began to blur in the 1920s. With the organization of stakes in California, the mission still sent missionaries into those areas although it no longer had jurisdiction over the local units [5]
Latin America
The first mission in Latin America was an attempt in the 1850s by Parley P. Pratt to preach in Chile. He made no progress and did not make a permanent impact.
It was not until the 1870s, after Meliton Trejo and Daniel Jones had translated the ''Book of Mormon'' into Spanish that missionary work began on a permanent footing in Mexico. The first mission president there was Moses Thatcher. Another early mission president in that land was Helaman Pratt, son of Parley and father of Rey Pratt.
Europe
After the initial opening of the British Mission it would be over ten years before missions would open in continental Europe. Although a missionary was sent to Germany in 1840 and Orson Hyde traveled across Europe in the early 1840s, it would not be until after the Latter-day Saints had gone to the Salt Lake Valley that missions would be established in Europe.
In October General Conference of 1849 three apostles were called to open missionary work in Europe. Erastus Snow was assigned to open missionary work in Scandinavia.[6] The other two assignments were for Lorenzo Snow to go to Italy and John Taylor to go to France. There were other elders assigned to accompany each of these apostles, so a mission organization was in place even before any missionaries had reached their destinations.
In the case of France, Howells from Wales actually was in France preaching long before Taylor and his companions arrived. The French mission came to include the Channel Islands under John Taylor's direction, and this was where the mission saw the most converts in the early days.
A few years latter one of Taylor's converts, Louis Bertrand, returned to the mission and ran a Mormon newspaper out of Paris. He had little success in winning converts.
The Scandinavian mission came to encompass Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland.
The Italian mission, despite the presence of Joseph Toronto, was largely confined to northern Italy among the Waldensians. Lorenzo Snow also supervised the opening of the Swiss Mission. This mission eventually became the Swiss-Italian-German mission a few years latter, and then "Italian" was dropped from the name since no missionary work was going on in Italy.
Oceania
The first missionaries to the Pacific Islands went to French Polynesia in 1844. These missionaries had much success in baptizing converts, but there were only three missionaries so no fully functioning order was needed. Addison Pratt was designated the mission president, but they made decisions on where to labor jointly.
In 1850 a mission was organized in Hawaii. Here there was also a designated mission president and there were enough missionaries to make it a clear process of assigning missionaries to specific areas. However each area was an island, and the number of missionaries in each area varied. Beyond this the decision to go from teaching in English to American and English sailors temporarily on the islands and other expatriates to teaching the natives in the Hawaiian Language was made by George Q. Cannon, who was not the mission president.
Although some British Latter-day Saints on their way to Australia were set apart as missionaries in the early 1840s, missionary work on an organized basis did not began there until the arrival of John Murdock in 1851.[7]
Reunions
Many missionaries working together build strong bonds of friendship, and for a few years after their missions are over, a former mission president will host reunions of missionaries who served during his tenure. As the missionaries come from many different parts of the world, it is common that the reunions are held in Utah, especially during church general conference weekends, as it provides for the probability of the largest number of attendees. Several web sites have been created by church members with the express purpose of allowing mission alumni to keep in contact.
See also
★ Area (LDS Church)
Notes
1. The only exception to this general rule is the ''Singapore Mission'' of the church.
2. Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
3. Cowan, Richard O. "The Church in the 20th Century", Bookcraft: Salt Lake City, 1985, p. 2
4. Deseret News Church Almanac, 2006 ed., p. 243
5. title=Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Author=Andrew Jenson. Publisher=Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. year=1941. Page #=109
6. Deseret News Church Almanac, 2007 ed. p. 345
7. Deseret News Church Alamanc, 2007 ed., p. 297
References
★ ''2001-2002 Deseret News Church Almanac'' (2000). Salt Lake City: Deseret News.
★ 2007 Deseret News Church Almanac
★ Cowan, Richard. ''The Church in the 20th Century'' Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1985.
External links
★ LDS Mission Network - index of LDS missionary alumni websites
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