Mormonism Around the World - FromtheDesk.org

Global Mormonism tells the story of how a faith born with Joseph Smith in 19th-century America became a worldwide religion. From Native American missions and Polynesian conversions to Mexico’s Third Convention and the rapid growth of Latter-day Saints in Africa and Brazil, the church’s expansion has been shaped by migration, translation, and local leadership. Along the way, members have endured upheaval—from the Armenian Saints’ exodus out of Aintab to a temple in Manila safeguarded during a coup—while building a global community of faith. This article explores the milestones, tensions, and resilience that define Mormonism’s worldwide journey.

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North America
South America
Oceania
Europe
Africa
East Asia
Southeast Asia
West Asia and the Middle East
Conclusion
Further Reading

Latter-day Saints in North America

Latter-day Saints and Native American Communities

Book of Mormon and Native Americans

Since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded in the early United States of America, the faith developed in a context where Native Americans were present.

Max Perry Mueller discussed how the Book of Mormon intersected with the rhetoric of race and lineage within that context. He also described how this influenced missionary work among Native Americans:

Everywhere the Latter-day Saints went—but especially in their (most often failed) efforts to convert Native Americans (most of who they called “Lamanites”)—missionary work and literacy-promotion work went hand-in-hand.

This is the case with the first official mission in Mormon history (to the Delaware in “Indian Country” in 1831) and throughout the missionary efforts in early Utah. Becoming literate, perhaps even more than being dunked in the baptismal waters, was a key step for non-white Mormons towards becoming “white and delightsome.”
Max Perry Mueller on ‘Race and the Making of the Mormon People’

Were there Native American Converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

Yes. For example, Amanda Hendrix-Komoto described the contributions of one Native American convert to the Church named Peninah Shropshire Cotton, who was considered by some Latter-day Saint settlers as a “‘godsend’ and as performing a similar role as Sacajawea—guiding the Saints as they moved west.”

Who Was Jacob Hamblin?

How did Latter-day Saint colonization affect Native Americans?

At the heart of conflicts between Native Americans and Latter-day Saint settlers was competition over limited resources in the arid Great Basin region. Amanda Hendrix-Komoto noted that “When white settlers arrived in an area, they implemented white understandings of agriculture. The introduction of white crops and livestock displaced the plants and animals that Native people had cultivated for centuries.”

Jacob Hamblin likewise described the situation of Paiutes in Southern Utah after colonists arrived to found St. George:

Jacob Hamblin wrote three remarkable letters (one to Brigham Young in September 1873 and two to John Wesley Powell in November 1880) in which he described how the degradation of Paiute environmental living areas by white settlers and ranchers was causing Paiutes to starve to death. Paiutes traditionally would migrate through the year, planning on specific foods to be available at specific times and places. One of their key food sources was grass seed; however, Latter-day Saint ranchers often led their cattle to these grass pastures, and when the Paiutes arrived, needing food, the grass and its seed would be gone.
Who Was Jacob Hamblin?

How Was the St. George Temple Built?

Did Latter-day Saints enslave Native Americans?

Yes, in a technical sense, they did. W. Paul Reeve and Christopher B. Rich, however, discussed that there is a lot of nuance to slavery in the Utah Territory that is often overlooked:

When the Latter-day Saints first arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, there was already a long-standing trade in Native American children between the Western Ute and merchants in New Mexico. Sometimes Utes attacked a Paiute band and stole the children, and sometimes they negotiated a sale. The Ute saw the Latter-day Saints as a new market for these children. … The Latter-days Saints often bought Indigenous children [from the Utes] to save them from death, or from being sold as slaves into New Mexico.

While these humanitarian motivations always remained important, Latter-day Saints also began to purchase Indian children directly from their parents. Partly this was an effort to acculturate Native children and “redeem the Lamanites” according to Mormon theology. Sometimes it was an attempt to save a child from poverty. Yet some Latter-day Saints probably bought Indian children as a cheap source of labor.
Was Slavery Practiced in Utah Territory?

Who Are the Navajo Latter-day Saints?

Did Native Americans perpetrate the Mountain Meadows Massacre?

There was a band of Paiutes who were coerced into participating in the massacre. The Mountain Meadows Massacre, however, was orchestrated and largely carried out by White Latter-day Saint settlers in southern Utah who used the Paiutes as scapegoats after the fact.

Rick Turley and Barbara Jones Brown mention that “[John D.] Lee’s blaming of local Paiutes as prime movers in the crime led to generations of persecuting Paiutes and shielding those primarily responsible. The repercussions continue to be felt to this day.”

Was John D. Lee a Scapegoat for the Mountain Meadows Massacre?

What was the Indian Student Placement Program?

The Indian Student Placement Program (ISPP) was, as Farina King explained, “a program where the church set up and arranged for Native American youth who were baptized to go and live with Latter-day Saint families off reservations—especially in Utah towns. They would go to public schools and live with their host families during the school year.”

It was an assimilationist program championed by Spencer W. Kimball that left a complex legacy of both harm and help among those affected by it.

What Did Spencer W. Kimball Write About in His Journal?

Latter-day Saints in Mexico and Central America

Why did Latter-day Saints take an interest in Mexico?

From California to conflict

Latter-day Saints initially took an interest in Mexico as a location to settle and govern themselves. Many Latter-day Saints fled the United States in 1847 and founded Salt Lake City in Alta California (a Mexican territory). At the same time, the call of the 500-man Mormon Battalion by the United States Army of the West at Mt. Pisgah and Winter Quarters meant that Latter-day Saints sided against Mexico in the Mexican–American War. After the Mexican–American War ended in 1848, the territory was ceded to the United States.

A haven for polygamy

The Mexican colonies were established as a haven for Latter-day Saints who practiced plural marriage. Although polygamy was illegal in Mexico, Porfirio Díaz (the dictator leading the country at the time) saw the Latter-day Saints as excellent colonizers for an arid region and turned a blind eye to the practice. Even after the 1890 Manifesto, some plural marriages continued to be approved by the First Presidency, and most of these post-Manifesto plural marriages took place in the Mexican colonies. John Sillito even noted that B. H. Roberts “told a meeting of Latter-day Saints in Colonia Diaz, Mexico, in 1893 that plural marriage was ‘a correct principle and will remain on the earth somewhere, and the sun will shine on it forever.'”

Later, as the United States government began to combat the practice of polygamy, Latter-day Saints looked southward. As Todd Compton wrote, “Brigham Young needed communities that could work as polygamous havens if the anti-polygamy crusade in Washington D.C. threatened to put Latter-day Saint leaders in prison.”

Jacob Hamblin, for example, helped found communities in Arizona, and “was planning to move to Mexico as a polygamy refugee in the years before his death in 1886. He was still married to his last two wives, Priscilla Leavitt and Louisa Bonelli, in the 1880s, so federal marshals were looking for him.” Hamblin’s colleagues did make the journey and established Latter-day Saint colonies in northern Mexico.

The rise of Mormon colonies

As John A. Gonzalez shared in one interview:

The Church was already establishing colonies throughout Utah Territory when Brigham Young sent members to establish settlements in California, Texas, and Nevada. Mexico was a logical extension of Young’s overall plan, but the decision was postponed due to the initial hostile reception by locals.

However, as the Church’s practice of plural marriage in the late 1800s drew increasing negative attention from the U.S. government, the plan to establish settlements in Mexico took on renewed interest. And because Latter-day Saints had already shown an ability to establish footholds in forbidding terrain when they arrived in the Utah territory, the Mexican government welcomed these colonizers. …

This group of men crossed into Chihuahua in 1885 and quickly picked out sites for the first Church colonies: Colonia Diaz, Colonia Juárez, and Colonia Dublán. Within six weeks after the arrival of this first colonizing party, there were 350 Church immigrants in northern Chihuahua.

Eventually, there would be 4,000 of them in eight colonies settled between 1886 and 1900 in the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora.
Who Was the First Native Mexican Missionary?

Early Missionary Work in Mexico

The volcanic region of El Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl volcanoes, near Mexico City in central Mexico, has been called “the cradle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico.”

Fernando R. Gomez explained that “Many small villages dot the countryside and are populated by native dwellers who work the rich, fertile land. Early Latter-day Saint missionaries found success there that laid the foundation of the Restored Gospel in Mexico.”

Challenges in Mexico

Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Latter-day Saint converts in Mexico faced periods of isolation from Church leadership, as leaders repeatedly pulled out of Mexico and then returned. This, along with other difficulties, created some intense challenges for Mexican converts.

Fernando R. Gomez explained that the history of the Church in Mexico involved several major challenges, including:

Mexican Revolution (1910)
Cristero War (religious conflict)
Distance to Salt Lake City
Isolation from headquarters
Few scriptures or hymnbooks in Spanish
Shortage of missionaries and funding
Inadequate meeting spaces

Who Were Mexico’s Latter-day Saint Pioneers?

Who was Rey L. Pratt?

Rey Lucero Pratt was one of the most significant leaders of the Church in Mexico. As Fernando R. Gomez explains:

Rey Lucero Pratt was the grandson of Parley P. Pratt and son of Helaman Pratt. Rey grew up in Colonia Dublán, where he learned the Spanish language and learned to love the Mexican people and culture. He gave continuous assistance despite the many challenges he faced. His yearly marathon travels to the Mexican Saints and his charisma helped the local Saints develop faith and testimony.
What Is the History of the Church in Mexico?

Pratt also emphasized the training of indigenous leaders. According to F. LaMond Tullis, his “manifest policy was to put native leaders in place and tutor them.” This approach influenced figures such as Isaías Juárez, who became one of Mexico’s “really spectacular indigenous leaders” during the years when foreign missionaries were absent.

What is the Third Convention?

In the 1930s, Mexican Latter-day Saints formed the Third Convention, a movement that broke from Church headquarters to demand Mexican-led leadership. It emerged after Rey L. Pratt’s sudden death in April 1931 and amid long-standing frustrations that faithful Mexican Saints were consistently directed by Anglo-American leaders sent from Utah.

As Jed Woodworth explains in Saints, Volume 2 and Saints, Volume 3, “a large group of members leaves the Church in protest over the question of local leadership. The conflict is resolved, in part with a visit from President George Albert Smith and the creation of a stake led by Mexican Church members.”

‘Saints’ Volume 2: No Unhallowed Hand

Eduardo Balderas and Spanish Translation

One of the most significant figures in the growth of the Church in Spanish-speaking populations was Eduardo Balderas. Biographer Ignacio Garcia explained:

Eduardo Balderas came to the United States from Mexico with his family as a refugee fleeing the Mexican Revolution in 1910. He was three years old when his Father, Mother, and a younger brother crossed the border to El Paso, Texas. He would become The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ first official, full-time translator (Spanish), and without doubt its most significant translator since Joseph Smith. . . .

Spanish-speaking Latter-day Saints came to admire Eduardo Balderas for his translation work of the Doctrine & Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, the temple ceremony, and other works he made accessible in Spanish. Similarly, they observed him as a patriarch and often saw him traveling with other General Authorities.

Since there was no Spanish-speaking General Authority, they chose to recognize him as an unofficial one, thus giving them someone who “spoke with authority”.
Who Was Eduardo Balderas?

Continuing Growth in Mexico

The Church in Mexico has continued to grow, with over 1.5 million members on record, 235 stakes, and 14 temples as of early 2025. F. LaMond Tullis, for example, shared a story of how the Church spread among the Tzotzil-Maya in southern Mexico and Guatemala:

“Push” factors (drought, civil war in Guatemala with accompanying population shifts, drastic reduction in infant mortality) combined to motivate young people to leave their mountain villages and seek work in cities and towns such as San Cristóbal de las Casas.

One such barely teenager, Fernando Ruiz, left his village of Chojolhó and migrated twenty miles to San Cristóbal. For reasons that I ignore, he found lodging in a home of members of the Church. They shepherded him to find work and to get an elementary education. He joined the Church.

This took him back to Chojolhó under a government contract, where he began to teach children from his home village the basics of elementary education and adults about his newfound religion.
Who Were Mexico’s Latter-day Saint Pioneers?

Latter-day Saint Growth in South America: Brazil, Peru, and More

Missionary work in South America was initiated in 1925 in Argentina by a group of men that included Melvin J. Ballard (the grandfather of M. Russell Ballard) and Rey L. Pratt.

Today, Brazil is one of only three countries to boast over 1.5 million Latter-day Saints on record, although congregations exist in each of the South American countries.

What Inspires Jorge Cocco Art?

A brief mission to Chile

The first attempt at missionary work by Latter-day Saints in South America occurred in 1851–1852, when Apostle Parley P. Pratt spent a few months attempting to preach the restored gospel in Chile. Elder Pratt’s inability to speak Spanish, the depth of Catholic presence and traditions in the country, and other factors combined to cause him to close the mission and return to the United States.

Pratt later explained why:

“Didn’t you go out officially [to] open out [the] keys of [the] kingdom to that nation?” . . . No, because I was not fully prepared to do it, neither [did the] spirit of [the] Lord lead me to do it. I had not the language to do [it]. I left [with] sufficient [language skill] to . . . understand . . . freely and defend freely and answer freely, whatever might come. Some of them talked [so] plainly to me that I [could] understand them, but others talked swift and their words sure. [S]ome of them understand [what I] have said, others not at all. Of course [they would] say, “I don’t understand you.”

[When asked], “What . . . now is [your] view [of your] mission? Have you fulfilled it?” I just say I have not commenced it. All [I have] done [is] review the field and [I now] know how to commence it. Hereafter, when I sit down to study that language until I am prepared to translate the Book of Mormon . . . and then unlock the door of [the] gospel by the ordinances officially conferred [upon] them and administered among them, and place elders in their own tongue with [the] fullness of [the] gospel in hand.
Parley P. Pratt, October 31, 1852

Dedication of South America

Missionary work began in earnest in South America in 1925, beginning in Argentina. As Mark Grover shared:

On December 6, 1925, three General Authority missionaries arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to begin missionary work in South America. This was the first such effort since Apostle Parley P. Pratt’s unsuccessful mission to Chile in 1851–1852.

The most significant event of their seven-month mission occurred on Christmas Day (December 25), when the continent of South America was dedicated for the preaching of the gospel. From that moment forward, the Church was established in South America and would never again leave the region.
When Did Latter-day Saints Establish the Church in South America?

When Did Latter-day Saints Establish the Church in South America?

Early missionary work in Brazil

It may come as a surprise to learn that missionary work in Argentina and Brazil initially focused on German-speaking communities. Jeremy Talmage explained:

The South American Mission started in Argentina after a handful of German immigrants petitioned for missionaries to be sent to teach their friends. Looking for other lost members and new areas to expand the mission, German-speaking missionaries crossed the border into Brazil in 1928.

At the time, nearly two hundred and fifty thousand Germans called Brazil home, most having moved there due to the intense economic inflation that followed the First World War. Clustered in tight-knit communities, Germans were able to preserve their language and culture.

With very few members or missionaries who spoke Portuguese, the Church struggled to expand. For over a decade, German remained the official mission language.
How Was the Book of Mormon Translated Into Portuguese?

This eventually changed after a failed coup in 1938, after which “Brazilian dictator Getúlio Vargas issued a series of edicts aimed at punishing German immigrants.”

After this, Portuguese became more prominent in use in the Church in Brazil, and the Book of Mormon underwent multiple translations into Portuguese.

Priesthood Revelation in Brazil

Historian Matt Harris has said that “the road to the priesthood for Black Latter-day Saints went through Brazil.” Anti-Black racism in Brazil was less extensive than in the United States, and it was common for people to have Black African ancestry and not even know it. Thus, the priesthood and temple ban became highly problematic for the Church’s ongoing growth in Brazil.

How Did President Kimball Receive the 1978 Priesthood Revelation?

As early as the 1950s, “President McKay … saw how difficult it was to police racial boundaries in two heavily mixed-race countries: South Africa and Brazil.”

After becoming President of the Church, Harris indicates that Spencer W. Kimball used this situation in laying the groundwork for the 1978 revelation that lifted the ban:

It was on his mind and during the early stages of his presidency he began asking hard questions to his colleagues to help them see the wisdom of lifting it.

A couple of the most important questions he posed were:

“How can we build a temple in Brazil if the vast majority of members will not be able to enjoy the sacred ordinances therein?”

“How is it just to deny these faithful Latter-day Saints temple privileges in Brazil when so many of them have sacrificed their limited funds to help build it?”
What Events Led to the 1978 Priesthood Revelation a Process?

Did you know?
A Brazilian named Helvécio Martins was the first person of Black African descent to become a General Authority in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The first Apostle from South America (Ulisses Soares) is also from Brazil.

Latter-day Saints in Oceania: Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, and New Zealand

The Pacific Islands—especially Polynesia—have one of the longest and deepest connections with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints outside North America. From the earliest missions in the 1840s to today, the Church’s presence has shaped both faith and culture across the islands of the sea.

As Elder Quentin L. Cook emphasized in the April 2023 General Conference:

I love that the very first verse in the Doctrine and Covenants includes the people who are on “the islands of the sea.” …

Perhaps less well known is the ongoing missionary effort to the Polynesian Islands. It commenced in 1844 when Addison Pratt arrived in what is now French Polynesia. Many Polynesians already believed in eternal families and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Today almost 25 percent of Polynesians, in the Polynesian Islands, are members of the Church.

I once listened to a 17-year-old girl on a distant Tahitian island who was a seventh-generation member. She paid tribute to her ancestors who had been converted in 1845 on Tubuai, two years before early Church members arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.
Safely Gathered Home

Doctrine and Covenants: Joseph Smith, Theology, Polygamy, and More

Early Missionary Work in Hawai’i

The archipelago of Hawai’i is an area where the Church has had a significant presence since its early existence. Amanda Hendrix-Komoto observed that early Hawaiian converts found that the faith “offered followers a sense of spirituality that closely matched Polynesian beliefs in prophecy, healing, etc.” Though the announcement of plural marriage in 1852 slowed missionary work, it continued to thrive in the islands for decades to come.

Future First Presidency member George Q. Cannon played a pivotal role in establishing missionary work on the islands, driven by his commitment to preaching to native Hawaiians rather than the predominantly Caucasian Haole population.

Biographer Kenneth L. Cannon discussed some of this story:

In 1849, he was called first to the “gold mission” to pan for gold to aid the church’s finances.

From there, he was called to serve as a missionary in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), where he had extraordinary success in teaching and baptizing native converts to the church, inspiring his co-missionaries, negotiating with government officials to permit the Latter-day Saint missionaries to proselyte.

His final exceptional act was to translate, with the help of two native church converts, the Book of Mormon into Hawaiian.
George Q. Cannon As Politician, Publisher, and Apostle of Polygamy

George Q. Cannon and His Son Frank: A Complicated Relationship

Joseph F. Smith in Hawai’i

Like George Q. Cannon, Joseph F. Smith also served a mission in Hawai’i. At fifteen years old, he got in trouble for physically assaulting a school teacher, and Brigham Young’s response, as Dennis B. Horne shared, was, “If you’re old enough to lick your teacher, you’re old enough to go on a mission!” As such, “Joseph F. was then given his temple endowment and sent to Hawaii (then the Sandwich Islands), where he grew up and gained a testimony.”

During that time, the Church attempted to establish a gathering place at Lāna’i. However, as the attention of Church leadership was drawn away by the Utah War in 1857, the Church in Hawai’i was neglected. In 1862, Walter M. Gibson arrived as a missionary for the Church, but abused his position in an attempt to create his own personal empire in the Pacific.

Joseph F. Smith, Lorenzo Snow, and a few other men were dispatched to settle the situation:

Young Joseph F. Smith, who had been on a mission to Hawaii, was called to accompany some of the senior apostles there to depose an apostate practicing priestcraft among the native Hawaiians.
How Did Joseph F. Smith Become the Prophet?

They were moderately successful in breaking Walter’s influence, but were unable to regain control of the land on Lāna’i.

Later, as the Raid began in the United States to end polygamy, Joseph F. Smith fled to Hawai’i to avoid arrest. There, he became close friends with Susa Young Gates:

They became friends in Hawai’i in 1885-87. Susa accompanied her husband, Jacob F. Gates, on a return mission to the Sandwich Islands, and their service overlapped with the time that Joseph F. Smith and his wife Julina were there, basically keeping a low profile during the anti-polygamy crusade. (Smith was a highly-wanted man due to his church leadership position and his knowledge of the records.)
Susa Young Gates and the Vision of the Redemption of the Dead

Joseph F. Smith would later announce the construction of the Lā’ie Temple near the end of his life.

Hawaiian Gathering Places

Hawaiian laws in the 1850s prevented native Hawaiians from moving out of the country, so instead of having converts gather in Utah, Church leaders set up gathering places in Hawai’i. The first attempt was at Lāna’i, though Walter M. Gibson’s interference ended the attempt. Later, however, the Church purchased property in Lā’ie that would serve as a gathering place and the Church’s center in Hawai’i:

As a result of colonization in the nineteenth century, many Native Hawaiians had been removed from the land, which they considered to be sacred and their kin. The creation of Lā’ie allowed Native Hawaiian Saints to create a community that resacralized the land. It also created a space where Native Hawaiian Saints were able to create their own Native Mormonism that foregrounded their concerns and interests.
Imperial Zions: An Interview with Amanda Hendrix-Komoto

After Hawai’i was annexed by the United States, Church leaders also organized a gathering place in Iosepa, Utah, so Hawaiian Saints could attend the Salt Lake City Temple. After the Lā’ie temple was completed, however, this was no longer necessary, and many Hawaiian Saints returned to the islands.

New Zealand (Aotearoa)

New Zealand (Aotearoa) is a country with Polynesian roots, where the Church experienced significant success among the Māori. Louis Midgley noted that some cultural resonances facilitated this missionary work:

When Latter-day Saint missionaries began contacting Maori in the late 1880s, they immediately found different groups who had been prepared for them and their message by nine different Matakite (which means “seer” in the Maori language).
Louis Midgley Recalls Experiences with Matthew Cowley, Hugh Nibley

Missionary leaders such as Matthias Cowley and, later, Matthew Cowley strengthened this foundation in the twentieth century. Midgley, who later served in New Zealand himself, recalled that his first missionary experiences among the Saints there “changed my life for the better.”

A World Tour: David O. McKay in the Pacific

A landmark moment in Church history was the 1920–1921 world voyage of Elder David O. McKay and Hugh J. Cannon. It marked the first time an apostle had circumnavigated the globe, offering fresh insights into the global Church. The Pacific Islands were a focal point, as they contained the largest concentrations of Latter-day Saints outside North America and Europe. After visiting Japan, Korea, and China, the travelers spent weeks in Hawai‘i, Tahiti, and New Zealand before touring Tonga and Sāmoa. They then continued on to Australia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe before returning home.

Richard O. Cowan observed that Elder McKay’s tour not only deepened the faith of Pacific Saints but also increased respect for the Church among local governments. He notes that the experience “helped prepare him to give leadership as the Church entered the period of its greatest international expansion” in the mid-twentieth century.

How Did David O. McKay Transform the Church Into a Global Faith?

Micronesia and Guam

The Church’s presence in Micronesia and Guam began more recently than in Polynesia, starting during World War II. It has been growing rapidly since then:

The rise of the Church in Micronesia is part of a complicated story involving the Pacific War. The US military counterattack deployed waves of military personnel into this vast region, including many Latter-day Saints.

We show how gospel seeds sprang up quickly in some regions such as Kiribati and the Marshall Islands and how these seeds grew more slowly in areas such as the Federated States of Micronesia. All three of these areas are in the top ten in terms of Latter-day Saint population per nation. One temple has been built in Guam, and another has been announced in Kiribati.
How did the Church Start in Micronesia and Guam?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Europe: History and Modern-Day Presence

President David O. McKay (center, white) played a critical role in establishing the modern-day presence of the Church in Europe.

Overseas missionary work began in 1837 in England. Before the turn of the twentieth century, a majority of Church members were from Great Britain and Scandinavia.

First Mission to England

Missionary work in the 1830s spread across the United States and into Canada. The work in Canada, particularly Parley P. Pratt’s mission, paved the way for missionaries to travel to England. After his wife’s death, he returned to Canada:

Not one to wallow in grief or idleness, Pratt found distraction from his loss by abruptly departing for a return visit to Canada, this time with plans to lay the final groundwork for a momentous development in Mormon history: the first mission to overseas soil, planned for England. … A natural progression from Canada to England unfolded. …

Seizing the initiative, Pratt headed to Canada the first week of April 1837, less than two weeks after his wife’s burial, to “visit the Saints, and to confer on the subject of a mission to England.”
Did Parley P. Pratt Leave the Church?

Thomas Marsh and David Patten rebuked him for not coordinating with the rest of the apostles, ending Pratt’s plans at that time, which was soon compounded by Pratt being impacted by the fracturing of the Church in Kirtland.

Amid the crisis of early 1837, “Joseph Smith acted decisively, calling Kimball to preside over the mission to England that Pratt had been planning to launch just weeks before. … On June 11, Smith instructed Kimball, Orson Hyde, and Joseph Fielding regarding their English mission.”

The first mission to England, led by Kimball, was a tremendous success, marking the beginning of the Church’s presence in Europe.

Did you know?
George D. Watt (who would later edit the Journal of Discourses) ran a footrace with at least one other man to be the first person baptized into the Church in the British Isles in 1837.

Apostolic Mission to England

In 1840 and 1841, the majority of the Quorum of the Twelve served a mission to Great Britain, which had a significant impact on the lives of these leaders of the Church and the growth of the Church in the United Kingdom:

The mission of the Twelve to Great Britain from early 1840 to April 1841 proved to be one of the most significant events in Brigham Young’s life, in the life and experience of his quorum, and in the early church.

Thousands accepted the message of the young apostles from America. They soon emigrated from Britain to enrich the small and still struggling church on the American frontier—first by the hundreds and then by the thousands.
What Did Brigham Young Write About in His Journal?

Did you know?
Recorded while while serving in England in 1840, Wilford Woodruff's journal includes an entry about the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and demarcated the entry with a drawing of the Queen.

Artistic Training in Europe

During the nineteenth century, Europe was the cultural center of the West. When the Latter-day Saints wanted to invest in ways to display sophistication, they looked to Europe for training and inspiration.

For example, architects working on temples in pioneer Utah toured Europe for inspiration. And the artists who would paint the murals in the Salt Lake City Temple were sent to Paris to train, with the Church offering funding for them:

A group of aspiring Utah painters approached Church leaders with the proposition to send them to Paris art academies in exchange for painting murals in the Salt Lake Temple upon their return. They presented the leaders with projected costs and assured them of their religious devotion and desires to use their talents to enhance the Kingdom of God. …

All the art missionaries attended the prestigious Julian Academy in Paris, a private atelier founded in 1868.
What Was the Paris Art Mission?

Reversing the Call to Gather

Jed Woodworth noted that during the 1800s, “Latter-day Saint converts stream into the Great Basin as they heed the prophet’s call to physically gather to Zion,” but that this imperative for physical gathering eventually ended:

At this time a worldwide financial depression makes jobs in Utah scarce. To avoid competition for scarce resources, the First Presidency instructs Lund to have the European Saints remain in their native lands and build up the Church there.
See How the Church Changed in Remarkable ‘Saints 3’

This led to an effort to build more permanent foundations for the Church in Europe.

John and Leah Widtsoe Mission

John Widtsoe and his wife, Leah Dunford Widtsoe, were instrumental in building a long-term foundation for the Church in Europe during the early twentieth century. One aspect of John’s time as a mission president was to rehabilitate the Church’s image in the wake of plural marriage and nineteenth-century anti-Mormon propaganda:

John A. Widtsoe worked with Reed Smoot in meeting with officials and opinion leaders in various countries in Europe to help them to understand that the church no longer practiced polygamy and that the other things about the church—that it was a radical sect, that it engaged in violence, and various other things— were simply not true.
Who Was John A. Widtsoe?

Another aspect of this was helping to build up Church auxiliaries, like the Young Women’s organization:

We pick up the thread of international development in the 1930s when the church had firmly shifted away from the gathering paradigm and was beginning to understand the need to offer the whole church experience to members wherever they live.

John and Leah Widtsoe, who led the European Mission, were important figures in this shift. Manuals and other materials began to be translated, and strong efforts were made to call and train local members to become church leaders. The Bee-Hive Girls program proved especially adaptable and popular, and was one of the first to be established.

By the eve of World War II, there were more members in Germany than anywhere else outside the U.S. The war, of course, disrupted these trends, but because of the prewar efforts, European members could hold on and maintain the church in the face of great difficulty.
“Carry On”: A History of the Young Women Organization

Nazi Surveillance

In the period leading up to WWII, Nazi government officials kept a close watch on Latter-day Saints in Germany. As Stephen O. Smoot explained:

The Nazis monitored the Church nationwide through informants, interrogations of missionaries, and observation of meetings. Local leaders and members were scrutinized, and senior Nazi officials received regular reports on Church activities and publications. The surveillance was systematic and coordinated throughout the Reich, not limited to isolated incidents.
Did Nazis Spy on the Church?

Baseball Baptisms

Unfortunately, tales of plural marriage, religious fanaticism, and violence in the United States were not the only public relations challenge that the Church faced in Europe. A trend emerged in missionary work during the mid-twentieth century that left a stain on the Church’s reputation: “baseball baptisms.”

What Were Baseball Baptisms?

Greg Prince explained the basic outline of the story of baseball baptisms:

Elders in the British Mission in the late 1950s, under constant pressure from their mission president to achieve higher and higher numbers of baptisms, found that American baseball, then almost unknown in England, was a powerful attractant to young boys and an entrée to their families.

What began as an innovative and innocent approach to proselytizing morphed into a scandal whose ripples reached the highest echelons of the church and triggered a strident response from church president David O. McKay. …

The pressure was intense and unremitting. Elders who did not produce were shamed and punished. Their response was to turn a corner and use baseball as the doorway to youth baptisms, rather than the doorway to meeting the boys’ families. It got to the point where to join a baseball team, a boy was required to go through an initiation: baptism.

Many of those boys had no idea what the initiation rite meant, which was confirmed later when elders were assigned to visit the homes of the boys and inquire as to their religious affiliation, only to find the parents oblivious.
What Were Baseball Baptisms?

David O. McKay’s response was to send Marion D. Hanks to “clean up the mess” of baseball baptisms that had been occurring there.

Latter-day Saints in Africa: The Church’s Fastest-Growing Region

The Church’s relationship with Africa was complicated before the 1978 revelation that ended the priesthood and temple ban on individuals with Black African ancestry.

South Africa

Most early efforts in Africa were concentrated in South Africa, where a significant population of White Europeans resided (a topic discussed in Saints, Volume 2).

As Jay H. Buckley wrote,

Since its founding on April 6, 1830, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has emphasized missionary work. Fewer than six months after the organization of the Church, the Latter-day Saint prophet Joseph Smith Jr. revealed that it was the will of the Lord to preach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation and to send missionaries to gather his elect from the four corners of the world. South Africa represented one of those remote corners of the globe.

During the 1850s and 1860s, the LDS Church initiated missionary activity in the shadows of Table Mountain and other parts of the British-controlled Cape Colony.
“Good News” at the Cape of Good Hope: Early LDS Missionary Activities in South Africa (BYU RSC)

The early Church in South Africa grew steadily through sustained missionary work and local conversion despite significant challenges. After three missionaries arrived in Cape Town in April 1853, six branches were quickly organized in areas such as Mowbray and Newlands. Within a few years, converts in Grahamstown, Fort Beaufort, Alice, Uitenhage, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town numbered in the hundreds. Between 1857 and 1865, 281 emigrants left for Utah as the local Church matured.

Missionary work resumed in 1903 with the reestablishment of the Cape Town Mission. Growth followed, with baptisms beginning again in October 1904. Although world events repeatedly disrupted missionary activity—withdrawals came during World War I, World War II, and under apartheid restrictions—the Church persevered. White congregations built chapels in the 1950s (Springs, Port Elizabeth, Durban, and Johannesburg), and in 1970, the first South African stake was organized in Johannesburg. Visits from Presidents David O. McKay (1954) and Spencer W. Kimball (1973) further buoyed membership.

By the latter part of the 20th century, the mission had expanded to include southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and several thousand Saints across the region had taken on leadership roles.

West Africa

Due to the priesthood and temple ban, Latter-day Saints did not actively proselyte outside of South Africa until the 1970s. Due to the spread of Latter-day Saint literature, however, some Nigerians and Ghanaians converted to the religion and self-organized as congregations in anticipation of the Church’s official presence in the future.

Billy Johnson is one example from Ghana who was discussed in Saints 4. After first encountering the Book of Mormon in 1964, Johnson felt a spiritual confirmation about the religion—including a vision in which a heavenly voice called him by name and commissioned him to preach—which propelled him into zealous missionary work.

Without baptism or official priesthood, Johnson organized multiple independent “LDS” congregations—eventually leading seven to ten groups totaling 500–1,000 members—despite persecution, mockery, and no formal support from Church headquarters. He repeatedly petitioned Church leadership for missionaries, and after the 1978 revelation lifting the priesthood ban, he and hundreds of his followers were officially baptized.

Learn more about the Church’s beginnings in West Africa in this lecture by Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp at Utah State University.

Central Africa

More recently, the Church has expanded into Central Africa, with remarkable growth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Saints, Volume 4, highlights the story of Willy Sabwe Binene, a Congolese leader who played a pivotal role in the Church’s development in Luputa.

Without full-time missionaries in the area, Willy and local branch leaders helped membership grow from about 1,200 in 2008 to more than double that within a few years. Under his stewardship, over 34 young members were called to serve missions across Africa and around the world. He also directed major humanitarian efforts, including a multi-year water project that united communities across the city—a lasting example of faith-driven service and community building.

See how Willy Binene’s story contributes to the official history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Latter-day Saints in East Asia: Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China

Missionary work in East Asia by Latter-day Saints began in 1852, with the call of missionaries to serve in China and India. While not particularly successful, more attempts would be made in the future.

Japan

Heber J. Grant in Japan

Heber J. Grant was called to open missionary work in Japan during the early twentieth century. His attempt also only saw limited success:

Heber J. Grant’s time in Japan was not a happy one. He saw only three converts during his term (1901–03) as mission president. …

My own personal view is that this unpleasant experience in Japan colored his attitude toward the work in Japan when he became church president, which may have contributed to his reluctance to add missionaries (only a handful of missionaries served at any one time in a country whose population was half the size of the U.S.) and his ultimate decision to close the mission in 1924.
Who Are the Japanese Latter-day Saints?

Heber J. Grant was called to open and preside over the Japanese mission in 1901.

Japanese Latter-day Saints

Japanese Latter-day Saints face significant challenges from their native culture in embracing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Shinji Takagi observed that “the activity rate of Japanese Latter-day Saints is quite low—at most 20 percent.” Those who do remain, however, are very committed:

Faced with the conflict Latter-day Saints frequently encounter with the expectations of the larger society, only those who are truly committed remain active in the Church. They are the ones who have been able to negotiate the culture to find a niche for their lifestyle.

A logical consequence of the Church policy of world-wide uniformity is that foreign members must make their own acculturation to learn to practice the Latter-day Saint faith comfortably. Only a few succeed.
Who Are the Japanese Latter-day Saints?

A World Tour: David O. McKay and the Dedication of China

During his 1920–1921 world tour, Elder David O. McKay stopped in Beijing, where he offered a dedicatory prayer for the land of China. With Hugh J. Cannon at his side, the two chose a quiet grove in Zhongshan Park, near the Tongzi River, as the setting. McKay felt impressed to conduct the prayer beneath a tree with a divided trunk, which he saw as providential.

Before praying, McKay asked Cannon to consecrate the spot as a place of “prayer and supplication.” Then, acting under President Grant’s direction and with apostolic authority, Elder McKay dedicated China “for the preaching of the glad tidings of great joy.”

Although this dedication was a significant symbolic moment, missionary efforts in mainland China have remained limited. Most Church growth among Chinese people has occurred in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and in Latter-day Saint communities abroad—for example, as seen in Saints, Volume 4, which recounts the story of Nora Koot and the Church in Hong Kong.

Korea

World War II was a turning point for the Church in Korea. Latter-day Saint servicemembers modeled discipleship in daily interactions, often showing respect to locals in small ways. One Korean worker, impressed by a private’s humility, called him a “Number One Christian” (Our Heritage, 116–17).

By 1967, the Book of Mormon was translated into Korean and organized units were established across the country. Saints, Vol. 4 highlights early members such as Hwang Keun Ok and the music group New Horizon, who deepened the Church’s foundation and identity in South Korea.

Saints 4 also discusses the story of Hwang Keun Ok in South Korea, along with the music group New Horizon.

The Church of Jesus Christ in Southeast Asia: Philippines, Vietnam, and More

A Latter-day Saint choir in Southeast Asia reflects the region’s growing faith community and cultural diversity.

Southeast Asia is a region where the Church has a substantial presence, particularly in the Philippines, where over 880,000 members reside. Surprisingly, however, very little historical research on Mormonism in the region has been published.

The Philippines

The Philippines has the fourth-largest population of Latter-day Saints:

A few Filipinos joined the Church in the 1940s and 1950s, but missionary work did not begin in earnest until 1961. After that point, it accelerated quickly. By the end of the decade, the Church had a presence on eight major islands. In 1973 the first stake in the Philippines was organized.

Latter-day Saints’ faithful service led not only to the construction of the country’s first temple, dedicated in 1984, but also to the opening of a local missionary training center as well as to efforts to translate Church materials into multiple Philippine languages. In the 1990s Church membership grew to over a quarter of a million members.
Facts and Statistics

A temple was built in the capital city of Manila in 1984. During the December 1989 coup attempt, rebel forces briefly occupied auxiliary buildings and even entered the temple grounds; temple security officer Dignardino Espi successfully negotiated with rebels to keep them out of the temple proper, and though the compound sustained minor damage, the temple itself remained unharmed.

The Church of Jesus Christ in West Asia and the Middle East

An early photograph from the Holy Land illustrates the Church’s historic connection to West Asia and the Middle East.

Dedicating the Holy Land

The Holy Land has been dedicated multiple times by Church leaders since the nineteenth century. The first was in 1841, when Apostle Orson Hyde left Jerusalem before sunrise, crossed the Kidron Valley, and climbed the Mount of Olives. There, he offered a prayer setting apart the land “for the gathering together of Judah’s scattered remnants” and invoking God’s blessing on those who would aid in the restoration of Jerusalem.

By 1933, ten more dedicatory prayers had been offered by Latter-day Saint leaders, including those given by Lorenzo Snow and George A. Smith during an 1872–1873 journey through Western Asia and North Africa.

As scholars Blair G. Van Dyke and LaMar C. Berrett observed, these dedications invoked heaven’s power on the land, encouraged missionary activity, supported the establishment of branches, and symbolically aligned with later developments such as the founding of the State of Israel.

While challenges in the region remain, the prayers continue to be seen as consecrating this part of the Lord’s vineyard for the good of all people.

Eliza R. Snow in Egypt, February 11, 1873, during a journey that connected Latter-day Saint pioneers with the sacred landscapes of the Holy Land.

Armenian Latter-day Saints

Early Branches in the Ottoman Empire

Latter-day Saint missionaries began proselyting in modern-day Türkiye in 1884, when the region was still part of the Ottoman Empire. Almost all converts were Armenians living in central Anatolia and southern Cilicia.

By the early 1900s, approximately 200 members were organized into five branches in Aintab, Aleppo, Zara, Sivas, and Marash. These Armenian Saints often faced persecution from their neighbors, losing jobs and turning to crafts such as Persian-style rug making and Armenian lacework for support. Church leaders even considered establishing a colony for them, but the idea never materialized. In 1909, riots forced missionaries to withdraw.

Persecution During World War I

A 1913 coup brought radical nationalist officers to power, and when the Ottoman Empire entered World War I, Armenians were targeted as enemies of the state. Beginning in 1915, Armenian communities were uprooted—men were killed, families were driven into the Syrian desert, and many perished in camps. Latter-day Saint Armenians suffered the same fate. Branches in Zara, Sivas, and Marash disappeared entirely, and many members in Aintab and Aleppo lost their lives.

The Armenian Exodus

After the war, conditions remained unstable. As French forces prepared to withdraw from Aintab in 1921, local Saints feared reprisals. Mission president Joseph W. Booth, aided by Elder David O. McKay during his world tour, organized an evacuation of fifty-three members to Aleppo.

Booth later described the process as the result of “many fervent prayers,” as he worked through French authorities to secure the group’s safe passage.

The Aintab Saints remained in Aleppo for several years before eventually emigrating—most to Utah, others to Soviet Armenia.

This exodus of the Aintab members has been looked upon by the members of the Church in the Near East as the greatest event in the history of the Church in the Near East.

During the following years, its anniversary was celebrated. Stories and poems were written to immortalize it. Pageants were presented to remind the members of the goodness and mercy of God in their deliverance. This exodus became the rallying cry to induce repentance, just as the exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt was by Moses and later prophets as a rallying cry.
Rao Lindsay, A History of the Missionary Activities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Near East, 1884-1929.

Jerusalem Center

The most notable presence of the Church in Western Asia today is the BYU Jerusalem Center.

As outlined by the institution’s website:

On Mount Scopus, adjacent to the Mount of Olives and overlooking the Old City, the Kidron Valley, and the Holy Mount, the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies (known as the Mormon University locally) has become a major landmark in this ancient and historic city.

The Center’s purpose is twofold: (1) to provide students, scholars, and visitors with a unique opportunity to study the Bible in the land of its setting and to study Near Eastern languages, cultures, and history in the area from which they derive; and (2) to establish cultural and service-oriented programs designed to benefit the Holy Land and its people.
About the Center

Conclusion: The Global Story of the Latter-day Saints

From its beginnings in 19th-century America, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has evolved into a global faith. The stories of Mexico, Korea, Ghana, Samoa, and beyond show common threads of migration, translation, and adaptation—yet also the distinctive voices of local Saints.

Together, these experiences reveal a community that is both global and deeply rooted in local cultures.

The history of global Mormonism is still being written, as new temples rise and new generations of members shape the future of a worldwide Church.

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Table of Contents

Latter-day Saints in North America

Latter-day Saints and Native American Communities

Book of Mormon and Native Americans

Were there Native American Converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

How did Latter-day Saint colonization affect Native Americans?

Did Latter-day Saints enslave Native Americans?

Did Native Americans perpetrate the Mountain Meadows Massacre?

What was the Indian Student Placement Program?

Further Reading

Latter-day Saints in Mexico and Central America

Why did Latter-day Saints take an interest in Mexico?

From California to conflict

A haven for polygamy

The rise of Mormon colonies

Early Missionary Work in Mexico

Challenges in Mexico

Who was Rey L. Pratt?

What is the Third Convention?

Eduardo Balderas and Spanish Translation

Continuing Growth in Mexico

Further Reading

Latter-day Saint Growth in South America: Brazil, Peru, and More

A brief mission to Chile

Dedication of South America

Early missionary work in Brazil

Priesthood Revelation in Brazil

Further Reading

Latter-day Saints in Oceania: Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, and New Zealand

Early Missionary Work in Hawai’i

Joseph F. Smith in Hawai’i

Hawaiian Gathering Places

New Zealand (Aotearoa)

A World Tour: David O. McKay in the Pacific

Micronesia and Guam

Further Reading

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Europe: History and Modern-Day Presence

First Mission to England

Apostolic Mission to England

Artistic Training in Europe

Reversing the Call to Gather

John and Leah Widtsoe Mission

Nazi Surveillance

Baseball Baptisms

Further Reading

Latter-day Saints in Africa: The Church’s Fastest-Growing Region

South Africa

West Africa

Central Africa

Further Reading

Latter-day Saints in East Asia: Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China

Japan

Heber J. Grant in Japan

Japanese Latter-day Saints

A World Tour: David O. McKay and the Dedication of China

Korea

Further Reading

The Church of Jesus Christ in Southeast Asia: Philippines, Vietnam, and More

The Philippines

The Church of Jesus Christ in West Asia and the Middle East

Dedicating the Holy Land

Armenian Latter-day Saints

Early Branches in the Ottoman Empire

Persecution During World War I

The Armenian Exodus

Jerusalem Center

Further Reading

Conclusion: The Global Story of the Latter-day Saints

Further Reading

Global Mormonism

Region-Specific Books and Scholarly Articles

Native Americans

Academic Articles

Books:

Mormonism in Mexico

Academic Articles

Books:

South America

Academic Articles

Books

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