List of LDS missionary entries by country


The following list indicates when missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first preached in the territory of present-day countries.
DateCountry First official church missionaryNotes
1830United StatesSamuel H. SmithSmith is regarded as the "first missionary" of the LDS Church. He preached in New York in June 1830.
1830CanadaJoseph Smith, Sr. and Don Carlos SmithAlthough Phineas Young preached in Upper Canada several months before the Smiths, when he did so he was not a member of the church and therefore was not an official missionary of the church. The Smiths preached in villages north of the St. Lawrence River in Upper Canada in September 1830.
1837United KingdomHeber C. Kimball and Orson HydeKimball and Hyde first preached in Preston, England
1840IrelandJohn Taylor, James McGuffie, and William BlackA few months before Taylor, McGuffie, and Black arrived in Ireland, Reuben Headlock preached in Belfast, which was part of Ireland at the time but which is now in Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom
1840AustraliaWilliam BarrattBarratt was a 17-year-old convert from England whose family emigrated to Australia. Before his departure, he was set apart as a missionary to Australia.
1841NetherlandsOrson HydeHyde spent a week in Rotterdam and Amsterdam preaching to rabbis.
1841GermanyOrson HydeA British church member named James Howells preached in Germany in 1840, but he was not an official missionary of the church.
1841TurkeyOrson HydeHyde preached in Istanbul.
1841Israel/PalestineOrson HydeHyde preached in Jerusalem and dedicated Palestine for the return of the Jews.
1844French PolynesiaAddison Pratt, Noah Rogers, and Benjamin Franklin GrouardPreached first in Tubuai. Preached in Tahitian; first official church missionaries to preach in a language other than English.
1848Channel Islands
1849FranceWilliam Howells
1850DenmarkErastus Snow, Peter O. Hansen, John E. Forsgren, and George P. DykesFirst preached in Copenhagen
1850ItalyLorenzo Snow, Joseph Toronto, and Thomas StenhouseFirst preached in Genoa
1850SwedenJohn E. Forsgren
1850SwitzerlandThomas Stenhouse and Lorenzo SnowFirst preached in Geneva
1851NorwayHans F. PetersenPetersen was one of the first converts baptized in Denmark
1851IcelandGudmund Gudmundson and Thorarinn ThorasonGudmundson and Torason joined the church in Denmark and were sent back to their native Iceland as missionaries.
1851IndiaJoseph RichardsChurch members Benjamin Richey and George Barber preached in India in 1849, but they were not official missionaries of the church.
1851ChileParley P. Pratt, Phoebe Pratt and Rufus C. AllenPhoebe was one of Parley's plural wives.
1852MaltaLorenzo Snow and Jabez Woodard
1853South AfricaJesse Haven, Leonard L. Smith, and William H. WalkerPreached first in Cape Town. In 1852, Joseph Richards spent nearly a month in Cape Town on his way home from his assigned mission in India. He distributed some tracts and preached a few sermons. Haven, Smith, and Walker were the first missionaries specifically assigned to South Africa.
1853Hong KongHosea Stout, James Lewis, and Chapman DuncanThe missionaries were called to preach in China, but conditions allowed them to only preach in Hong Kong, which was a British colony at the time.
1853JamaicaDarwin Richardson, Aaron F. Fan, Jesse Turpin, and A. B. Lambson
1853Sri LankaChauncey W. West and Benjamin F. Dewey
1854New ZealandAugustus Farnham, William Cooke, and Thomas HolderPreached first in Auckland, Wellington, and Nelson
1854ThailandElam LuddingtonPreached first in Bangkok.
1856MauritiusGeorge Kershaw
1863SamoaKimo Pelia and Samuela Manoa
1865AustriaOrson Pratt and William W. Ritter
1876MexicoDaniel Webster Jones and Ammon N. Tenney
1876FinlandCarl A. Sundstrom and John E. SundstromPreached first in Vaasa.
1884Czech RepublicThomas BiesingerPreached in Prague.
1885HungaryThomas Biesinger and Paul HammerPreached in Budapest.
1888BelgiumMischa MarkowPreached in Antwerp.
1891TongaBrigham Smoot and Alva J. ButlerMet with and granted permission from King George Tupou I before preaching.
1895RussiaAugust HöglundPreached in St. Petersburg.
1898Syria
1899GreeceFerdinand F. Hintze
1899SerbiaMischa MarkowPreached in Belgrade.
1899CroatiaMischa Markow
1899RomaniaMischa Markow
1899Cook IslandsOsborne J. P. Widtsoe and Mervin Davispreached first in Rarotonga
1900BulgariaMischa Markow
1901JapanHeber J. Grant, Horace S. Ensign, Louis A. Kelsch, and Alma O. Taylor
1903LatviaMischa MarkowPreached in Riga.
1925ArgentinaRulon S. Wells and Rey PrattPreached first in Buenos Aires. Wells preached in German and Pratt preached in Spanish.
1928BrazilRheinhold Stoof, William F. Heinz, and Emil SchindlerPreaching began among German speakers.
1929SlovakiaArthur GaethGaeth was the first mission president of the Czechoslovakia Mission. Thomas Biesinger had previously preached within Czechoslovakia, but only in the current territory of the Czech Republic.
1930ZimbabweGeorge C. Maw, Vern D. Greene, and Bertram C. Cutforth
1946Costa RicaArwell L. Pierce, Robert B. Miller, and David D. Lingard
1947GuatemalaSeth G. Mattice, Earl E. Hansen, Robert B. Miller, and David D. Lingard
1947UruguayFrederick S. Williams
1949El SalvadorGlenn W. Skousen and Omer Farnsworth
1950ParaguayFrederick S. Williams, Sister Williams and William S. FarnsworthThe first baptism was performed by Samuel J. Skousen, a former missionary in Argentina who was then working as the military attache to the United States Embassy in Paraguay, he baptized Carlos Alerto Rodriguez, having previously been authorized to do so by the First Presidency. Williams was president of the Argentine Mission when he went with his wife and Elder Farnsworth to begin missionary work in Paraguay. Three additional missionaries, Keith J. Morris, Norval C. Jesperson and Daryl L. Anderson were sent after President Williams had determined that the government would allow missionary work to proceed.
1952HondurasJames T. Thorup and George W. Allen
1952NiueThayne ChristensenFritz Bunge-Kruger and his family arrived earlier in 1952 and traveled about the island doing missionary work, but none of the members of the family were official church missionaries
1953NicaraguaManuel Arias and Archie R. Mortensen
1954FijiBoyd L. Harris and Sheldon L. Abbott
1954South KoreaRichard L. Detton and Don G. Powell
1964BoliviaSterling Nicolayson was President of the Andes Mission; he met with American expatriate members in Bolivia in October to November. Missionaries under him arrived in late November and baptized their first covert, Victor Walter Vallejos, just before Christmas. In 1962 Norval Jesperson, who had been among the first six missionaries in Paraguay, became the director of the American-Bolivian Center in Cochabamba. He shared the gospel with several people and baptized Maria van Gemerfen.
1956PeruDarwin Thomas, Edward T. Hall, Donald L. Hokanson, Shirrel M. Plowman
1956TaiwanWeldon J. Kitchen, Keith Madsen, Duane W. Dean, and Melvin C. Fish
1957Guam
1961PhilippinesRay Goodson, Harry Murray, Kent Lowe, and Nestor Ledesma
1963LuxembourgHyrum M. Smith and Gerald E. Malmrose
1964Puerto RicoVerl Tolbert and Dwight K. HunterThe first baptisms of Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico had occurred May 7, 1959 when Cristina Burk and Irma Haws, both of whom were married to American Mormons, were baptized. Tolbert and Hunter mainly worked with US military personnel in Puerto Rico, although they did baptize Becky Farticelli, the first Puerto Rican convert who did not have familial connections to the U.S. mainland. Steven Johnson and Craig Van Tassell in 1969 were the first missionaries in Puerto Rico to preach in Spanish.
1964MacauDarryl Thomander and Gilbert Montano
1965EcuadorCraig Carpenter, Bryant R. Gold, Lindon Robinson, and Paul O. Allen
1965PanamaTed E. Brewerton
1966ColombiaRandall Harmsen and Jerry BroomePreached first in Bogotá.
1966Bermuda
1967VenezuelaTed E. Brewerton, Floyd Baum, Neil Gruwell, David Bell, and Fred Podlesny
1968SingaporeKim A. Shipley, Joel Richards III, Rhett T. Bake and Melvin D. Shurtz
1968New CaledoniaHarold Richards and Jeannine Richards
1970SpainClark Hinckley and a few others.
1970IndonesiaFrank Willard, Dale Storer, Robert Meier, Ross Marchant, Greg Hawker, and Larry Hunt
1972KiribatiEb L. Davis
1972MalaysiaElam Luddington had preached on the island of Penang in 1854. Anthony Lim, the first Malaysian baptized in Malaysia, was baptized on December 3, 1972.
1973VietnamColin B. Van Orman, James L. Chrisensen, David T. Posey, and Richard C. Holloman
1974PortugalWilliam Grant Bangerter
1975SloveniaNeil D. Schaerrer
1975VanuatuAsaeli Mokofisi and Peni Malohifo’ou and Brett Edward Olsen and Rodvern Lowry
1975Northern Mariana IslandsJeff Frame and Callis Carlton
1975IranKent Bowman, Randy Clark, Kerry Riley, and Derrin Watson
1976MicronesiaGeorge L. Mortensen and Aldric PorterPreached first on Pohnpei.
1977Marshall IslandsWilliam Wardel and Steven Cooper
1977PolandMatthew and Marion Ciembronowicz
1977Trinidad and TobagoChris Doty, Doug Mathews, Randy Clark, and David Roos
1978Dominican RepublicJohn A. Davis and Ada DavisLatter-day Saints Eddie Amparo and Mercedes Amparo preached prior to 1978, but they were not official missionaries of the church.
1978GhanaEdwin Q. "Ted" Cannon, Janath Cannon, Rendell N. Mabey, Rachel MabeyBilly Johnson and others had shared the Book of Mormon with many people in Ghana and even been recognized as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by the government in 1968, but none of these people had been baptized. Immediately after the June 1978 Revelation on Priesthood, Ted Cannon, and Merrill J. Bateman had made a short fact-finding trip to Ghana and Nigeria where they laid the final ground-work for the entry of missionaries a few months later. The missions of the Cannons and the Mabeys resulted in the baptism of several hundred people, most of whom were among those prepared by Johnson and his associates.
1978NigeriaEdwin Q. "Ted" Cannon, Janath Cannon, Rendell N. Mabey, Rachel MabeySee note on Ghana, above. In Nigeria there had been others who set up unofficial congregations of the LDS Church, such as Anthony Obina.
1978SurinameJohn Limburg and Beverly Limburg
1978PalauRon Brown and Stanton Akana
1978United States Virgin Islands
1978Curaçao
1979Réunion
1980BelizeSamuel Flores and Robert Henke
1980HaitiGlenn E. Stringham
1980Papua New GuineaL. Douglas Johnson and Eva Johnson
1980St. Vincent and the GrenadinesSteven B. Wooley and Terry Williams
1983St. LuciaTodd Hardy, Paul Jackson, Jay Schroeder, and Marty Harris
1983MartiniqueKenneth Zabriskie
1984St. Kitts and NevisDouglas Myers and Robert J. Molina
1984Antigua and BarbudaRalph Tate and Aileen Tate
1984NauruJoseph B. Keeler
1984TuvaluJoseph B. Keeler, Glen Cornwall, and Shirley Cornwall
1984Guadeloupe
1985GrenadaRobert W. Hoffmaster and Leonard G. Gill
1985Cayman Islands
1986Democratic Republic of the CongoR. Bay Hutchings and Jean Hutchings
1987SwazilandKenneth Edwards and Betty Edwards
1987LiberiaJ. Duffy Palmer and Jacelyn Palmer
1987ArubaClay Jorgensen and Julio Gonzalez
1988GuyanaBenjamin Hudson and Ruth Hudson
1988Cape VerdeMarion K. Hamblin, Christopher Lee, and Ken Margetts
1988Côte d'IvoireBarnard S. Silver and Cherry Silver
1988Sierra Leone
1989LesothoMarc Modersitzki and Bradley Saunderson
1989CyprusJames O. Henrie and Evelyn H. Henrie
1989French Guiana
1990BotswanaR. J. Stone
1990Namibia
1990UgandaLark Washburn and Arlea Washburn
1990EstoniaGary L. BrowningBrowning was the president of the Finland Helsinki East Mission, which had jurisdiction over Estonia.
1991UkraineGary L. BrowningBrowning was the president of the Finland Helsinki East Mission, which had jurisdiction over Ukraine.
1991Kenya
1991Republic of Congo
1992MongoliaKenneth H. Beesley and Donna Beesley
1992MalawiJames Griggs and Diane Griggs
1992Tanzania
1992Albania
1992LithuaniaGary L. Browning; Robert A. Rees and Ruth ReesBrowning was president of the Helsinki Finland East Mission, which had jurisdiction over Lithuania. The Rees were the first missionaries assigned to preach in Lithuania.
1993Angola
1993Cameroon
1993Central African Republic"a French missionary couple"
1993EthiopiaEugene Hilton and Ruth Hilton
1993Madagascar
1993Pakistan
1993Belarus
1994Cambodia
1995Solomon IslandsE. Crawford Jones and Judith Jones
1997Moldova
1998Benin
1999Mozambique
1999TogoDermoine A. Findlay and Joyce Findlay
1999GeorgiaPhilip Reber and Betty Reber
2001KazakhstanBarry A. Baker and Tamara H. Baker
2006Dominica
2006Laos
2008Turks and Caicos Islands
2010Burundi
2011KosovoGriseld Merepeza and Eliot Steimle
2012Republic of MacedoniaJoel Kay and Chase Adams
2012MontenegroTyran Schouten and Taylor Nelson
2012Bosnia and HerzegovinaPhilander Knox Smartt Jr. and Gloria Rose Smartt
2017Senegal"Missionaries from the Cote d'Ivoire Mission"

Countries where LDS Church missionaries have not preached

Official LDS Church missionaries have never preached in the following countries and territories:
Additionally, LDS missionaries are currently not preaching in a number of countries where they have preached previously, including Israel/Palestine, Iran, Laos, Lebanon, and Syria.