John A. Widtsoe of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. IRI Photo.

In recent years, the Syrian city of Aleppo has been a staging ground of death, violence and horror. Civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and legions have been forced to flee this ancient city — contributing to a global refugee crisis.

Like countless others, Richard Morley has viewed the Aleppo tragedy from afar, lamenting the suffering that has come to define a city built centuries before the birth of Christ.

A lifelong Church member from Price, Utah, Brother Morley has a family tie to Aleppo and its brief but meaningful Mormon history. The city was once home to a small but faithful group of Latter-day Saints and missionaries. In fact, the remains of at least two missionaries are buried there. Their graves were dedicated by a latter-day apostle and became lasting reminders of the sacrifice sometimes exacted in service to the Lord and His gospel.

Elder Jacob Spori from Logan, Utah, opened the Turkish Mission in 1884, signaling the beginning of missionary work in the Middle East. According to James A. Toronto’s publication “The Church in the Middle East,” branches of the Church — consisting primarily of Armenian and European converts — were eventually established in several cities in the vast region, including Aleppo.

Over the next several decades, dozens of elders and one sister missionary would serve in the nations of Turkey and Syria.

Counted among those missionaries was Brother Morley’s maternal grandfather, John T. Woodbury, who labored in Turkey and Syria from 1904 to 1909. At the conclusion of his mission, Elder Woodbury received permission from the First Presidency to marry and return to his Utah home with a Mormon Armenian woman (Brother Morley’s grandmother) named Nimzar Gagosian Woodbury.

Missionary work in the Middle East around the turn of the 20th century was difficult. Political and religious turmoil often undermined the work. Conversions were scarce, the members risked persecution and, sadly, several missionaries lost their lives while fulfilling their callings.

Five missionaries succumbed to natural ailments such as small pox and pneumonia, according to Brother Morley, who has spent years researching the experiences of his grandfather and his fellow missionaries in Turkey and Syria.

The mission, wrote Brother Morley, “was finally closed in 1928, when [mission president] Joseph Booth died from exhaustion and pneumonia. His remains were laid to rest in Aleppo, Syria, at a cemetery near mission headquarters and near the grave of young Elder Emil J. Huber, who died there on May 16, 1908.”

Five years later, on June 18, 1933, Elder John A. Widtsoe of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles visited Aleppo and dedicated the graves of President Booth and Elder Huber.

The apostle would record his recollections of that sacred day:

“[President Booth’s] grave is at the very upper edge of the cemetery. It is visible from all parts of the cemetery itself and from the highway below. We held two meetings with the Aleppo saints; one in the early forenoon and another in the late afternoon. At the close of the afternoon meeting, members and friends present walked to the cemetery to gather around the grave. There a brief outdoor meeting was held.”

In his writings, Elder Widtsoe noted that he addressed the small group before dedicating the graves and a monument that had been placed at the cemetery. The service closed with a prayer and singing of “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet.”

“The exercises ended just as the sun set behind the western hills,” wrote Elder Widtsoe. “A few clouds floated in the blue sky and made slashes of color in the sunset. It was a peaceful happy hour.”

That placid Aleppo afternoon stands in stark contrast to the destruction of the day. Missionaries no longer serve in the city and Brother Morley hopes that the final resting places of President Booth and Elder Huber have not been disturbed.

In a recently published family history, he wrote: “I hope that the God of heaven has miraculously preserved the otherwise barely known good works of the Lord’s servants in the [Turkish] Mission.”

Original Source:  Article by John Swensen. Content link: DeseretNews.com. 

Megan Finley

In between writing short stories she’ll never finish and marathoning Marvel movies, Megan Finley is often found missing the loves of her life, her two cats Leia and Loki. Her passion for “geek culture” extends into her passion for academics, as she is an optimistic MA student with plans to be the next Professor X (with hair). Her life’s dream is a simple one—to drink a hot chocolate in every Disney park in the world.

The revelation, given through the Prophet Joseph Smith to his father reads in part:

“Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.  Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day … For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul” (Doctrine and Covenants 4:1-2,4).

This revelation has become a call to all Mormon missionaries to remind them whom they serve and how they serve.  Today, more than 55,000 Mormon missionaries are preaching the restored gospel at any one moment.  The history of Mormon missionaries, though much too large a subject to address succinctly here, is one of faith and sacrifice, demonstrating the power of Mormon beliefs to inspire the faithful to share their message with the world.

Periods:

The First Mormon Missionaries

Mormon missionaries and the Prophet Joseph Smith first preached the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the Eastern United States and Canada. Official missionary work did not begin until the Book of Mormon was published in March of 1830. The first official Mormon missionaries left in April and in the Fall of 1830, four Mormon missionaries departed to preach to the Indians, but instead baptized hundreds in Ohio. The Mormon Church was organized, and persecution drove its members to gather in Ohio.

The First Mormon Missions

The Mormons gathered to Ohio and began to build the first Mormon temple in Kirtland, while other Mormons gathered in western Missouri. For the first time Missions were organized with presidents, and organized missionary efforts were designed to ensure that every person would eventually hear the message. The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was organized, and they served missions throughout the United States, and as the first Mormon missionaries in England.

Mormon Missionaries in Foreign Lands

By the 1840s Mormon missionaries were preaching throughout Europe and North America, and some even reached the Middle East. Others began to proselyte in the Pacific Islands. The Book of Mormon was translated into new languages, but most Mormons converted in foreign lands soon emigrated to the United States, both to gather with the other Mormons and to flee persecution in their native lands. The Mormons moved to Utah, and despite fierce persecution, they sent thousands of missionaries into new lands in Asia, the South Pacific, and especially into Mexico and South America.

A New Century

As official persecution ended, Mormons expanded their missionary efforts into Japan, Lebanon, and especially throughout South America, where the Mormon Church began to grow very quickly. For the first time, Mormon missionaries received training beginning in the 1920s as some, but not all, Mormon missionaries reported to the Mission Home in Salt Lake City for a few weeks before leaving. Mormonism grew especially in Europe during this period.

Every Mormon a Missionary

After World War II and the Korean War, Mormon missionaries found great success in Korea, Japan, and the Philippines. Mormonism began its explosive growth in South America and temples were built throughout the world. Mormon missionary efforts became even more organized as the Language Training Mission and later the Missionary Training Center were built in Provo, Utah. President David O. McKay stepped up calls for more missionaries and for every member of the Mormon Church to do missionary work. He traveled the earth and sent missionaries into new lands.

The Nations of the World Open up to Mormon Missionaries

Beginning in the 1970s Mormonism saw its most rapid growth, especially in South America and Africa following the 1978 revelation on the Priesthood received by President Spencer W. Kimball. The Book of Mormon was translated into dozens of more languages in the 1970s and 1980s, and Mormons were encouraged to “flood the earth” with it in order to find all those who will join. President Kimball also received a revelation commanding all young men to serve as Mormon missionaries, and by the 1980s there were over 50,000 Mormon missionarie serving at any one time. Countries in Africa and South America began to open up to the Mormons, but the real miracle came as the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, and Mormon missionaries moved into Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia.

Mormon Missionary Work Today

Today, the focus of missionary work has been to consolidate the massive growth of the past few decades with President Gordon B. Hinckley’s call to help every convert find a friend, a responsibility, and nourishment by the word of God. Requirements to become a missionary are tightened and while the number of missionaries drops slightly, retentions rates among converts rises. Temples are built throughout the earth to bring the temples to the members of the Church. More Missionary Training Centers are built on nearly every continent to help all Mormon missionaries prepare spiritually and physically for their missionary service.  President Hinckley’s vision is carried on by President Thomas S. Monson.

These temples and the increasing public image of the Mormon Church has lead to many sincere seekers after truth meeting with the Mormon missionaries and joining the Church.  Since the 1970s the Mormon Church had been producing TV and Radio commercials to spread their message and to distribute free copies of the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and inspirational videos. Mormon missionaries training in the MTCs take the incoming phone calls for those ordering the free copies and send that information to the local missionaries who deliver the products.  The Mormons had also long been sending missionaries and choirs to international and local fairs.  The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has routinely sung at international expos and fairs around the world.  In 1997, the Mormon Church celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Mormon Exodus from Illinois to Utah with much publicized celebrations and reenactments around the world.  Ships sailed from Europe to commemorate the tens of thousands of European Mormons who left their homelands, sometimes fleeing persecution, to immigrate to America.  Others reenacted the wagon and handcart trains that brought nearly 80,000 Mormons to Utah before the first railroads were finished.  These activities generated much press around the world, and soon thereafter in 2002, Salt Lake City, Utah, where the Mormon Church’s headquarters are located, hosted the Winter Olympics.  While the Mormon missionaries did not actively proselyte to attendees of the games, millions nevertheless visited Mormon visitor’s centers in Utah and many thousands of Mormons volunteered to help with the Olympics.  Newspapers in the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, and throughout the Americas published articles about the Mormon Church during the games.

Some of the explosive growth of this period has meant that more people were being baptized into the Mormon Church than the local congregations could absorb.  This meant, unfortunately, that many people joined, but soon fell away again.  Beginning in the late 1990s, President Gordon B. Hinckley, the Prophet of God to the Church, began to emphasize retention based on three key areas which ensured that each convert to Mormonism would have: a friend, a responsibility in the Church, and continual nourishment by God’s word.  This new emphasis has sought to place more responsibility for missionary work on the local membership and to encourage the members to work more actively with the Mormon missionaries working in their area.  President Hinckley has also stressed that higher standards need to be placed on outgoing missionaries.  While this has decreased the number of missionaries slightly, the result is that those Mormon missionaries who do serve are more spiritual and more capable of preaching their message.  This renewed emphasis on worthiness is called “Raising the Bar.”  The result is that the Mormon Church continues to grow, especially in Central and South America and Africa, and that more converts are retained.

The real growth of Mormonism is not to be found in the numbers.  Lists of membership totals, baptism rates, full-time missionaries, and countries visited, present the miracle of Mormonism in a sterile light.  The real growth is to be found in the individual testimonies of every Mormon and in the sacrifice of tens of thousands of Mormon missionaries who leave behind family, friends, school, careers, and dating to devote themselves entirely to serving God and their fellowmen.  Real growth can be better seen by seeing the growth in active congregations.  Raw membership totals do not tell how many Mormons are participating and attending services and living according to their beliefs. It is more profitable to look at the growth in the number of congregations, because each Mormon congregation is run entirely by the congregation members, and it takes a certain number of active Mormons to justify a new congregation.

In 1974, when President Spencer W. Kimball became President and Prophet to the Mormon Church, there were 5,951 Mormon congregations (called wards or branches) worldwide.  That number doubled by 1983 to nearly 12,000.  By 2003 the number had doubled again to 24,000 congregations, and as of 2005 there were 27,084 congregations worldwide.  60% of Mormons live outside of the United States, and soon Spanish will surpass English as the most widely spoken language among Mormons.  The Book of Mormon is available in 105 languages, and the Mormon Church lesson books and manuals are available in 157 languages.  More than 120,000,000 copies of the Book of Mormon have been printed since 1830 with millions given away free every year to those interested.  Today, Mormon missionaries continue to visit nearly every land, with the goal of preaching the Gospel to every “nation, tongue, and kindred.”  They go forth, as the Savior Jesus Christ commanded, two by two, baptizing every one who believes in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.  The growth and history of Mormonism are best exemplified by the faith and sacrifice of every member and by the positive changes that the Mormon missionaries bring into the lives of those who accept their message.  In the future, Mormon missionaries will continue to go forth preaching the gospel, until they have preached to every person and God commands them to cease.  Joseph Smith, the Prophet, writing in 1842 said this:

Our missionaries are going forth to different nations … The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.

However, once the Mormons began to be settled in their new home in Utah, they ventured out even further.  From a mere 16 missionaries sent out in 1830, hundreds were sent out by the 1850s; at least 50 a year left to serve full-time missions, and hundreds of others preached as they traveled from area to area.  The Mormon Church had continued to grow, reaching a membership of 50,000 by 1850, the same year that the Mormons began translating the Book of Mormon into foreign languages.  In 1850, Mormon missionaries were sent to Scandinavia, France, Switzerland, and Hawaii.  The first foreign translation of the Book of Mormon was published in 1851 in Danish, followed quickly by German (1852), French (1852), Italian (1852), and Hawaiian (1855).  Before 1860, Mormon missionaries had preached in Australia, Chile, India, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong, and Siam (now Thailand).  The Mormons had great success in Scandinavia, where thousands joined and came to settle in Utah.  Mormons in other countries like Germany and Australia faced fierce persecution, so they fled to America.  In those places, Mormon missionaries were routinely arrested and jailed, books were confiscated and burned, and converts were threatened and expelled.  In other places like Chile, Siam, and India, few converts were made, but the first inroads were established, and the voice proclaiming the restored gospel of Jesus Christ was heard.  In most places, because the Mormons immigrated to America, the Mormons established little lasting presence at this time, except in New Zealand and Hawaii, where large congregations of native peoples remained in their homeland.  The Mormons had tremendous success among the Maori of New Zealand and the Hawaiians.  Over the next several decades the Book of Mormon would be translated into Spanish, Samoan, and Tahitian.

Following the American Civil War (1861-1865), the U.S. Federal Government severely persecuted the Mormons because of polygamy.  Clashes with non-Mormons living in Utah over economics and political control, in addition to the issue of polygamy, severely hampered Mormon missionary efforts.  The Mormons lost nearly everything.  Thousands were jailed, homes were randomly searched; Mormons lost the right to vote or hold political office and so came under the thumb of hostile Federal appointees.  Despite all this, the number of Mormon missionaries actually grew in this period and each year about 100 missionaries were sent out.  By the end of official government persecution in 1890, the membership of the Mormon Church had grown to nearly 200,000, even in the midst of severe persecution.  Moreover, Mormon missionaries had established new permanent missions in Mexico, Samoa, Tahiti, and the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey).  The Mexican mission was aided by Mormons who fled to northern Mexico during the dark days of persecution by the federal government.

On to A New Century

Anita Stansfield

Anita Stansfield began writing at the age of sixteen, and her first novel was published sixteen years later. For more than fifteen years she has been the number-one best-selling author of women’s fiction in the LDS market. Her novels range from historical to contemporary and cover a wide gamut of social and emotional issues that explore the human experience through memorable characters and unpredictable plots. She has received many awards, including a special award for pioneering new ground in LDS fiction, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Whitney Academy for LDS Literature, and also a Lifetime Achievement Award from her publisher, Covenant Communications. She has fifty-six published books. Anita is the mother of five, and has three grandchildren.

In 1837, the first mission was organized.  A mission in the Mormon Church is an organized missionary force led by a Mission president and usually covering a specific geographic area.  The first Mormon mission president was Heber C. Kimball.  Kimball, who had in 1835 become one of the first Apostles of Jesus Christ in the Mormon Church, was called to lead the first Mormon missionary efforts outside North America and in the British Isles.  This was the first of two missions of the Twelve Apostles to England.  He was accompanied by Orson Hyde, another Apostle, and they began in Preston, England, where there lived relatives of Mormons converted in Canada.  Mormon missionaries in England over the next few decades saw tremendous and even astounding success.  During the following year, they baptized 1,500 persons.

The onset of missionary work to England shows what revelation did for Joseph Smith, for the work was initiated during a time of the apostasy of several of his closest and most responsible leaders.  As they turned vehemently against him, he sent his most loyal apostles to Europe to proselyte, instead of keeping them close by to offer support.  This action was truly inspired; it was the opposite of logical, but its result was to bring thousands of strong, sincere converts into the Church.  Indeed, they became the backbone of the membership.

The next wave of apostolic missions to England began in 1839.  This mission lasted until 1841 and resulted in the baptism of  more than 4,000 people.  This time, most of the Apostles went, including newly called apostles Wilford Woodruff and John Taylor.  Woodruff became one of the greatest Mormon missionaries in Mormon history, personally baptizing more than one thousand people on this mission.  They likewise began in Preston, but ventured through the rest of England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland.  Early Mormons were encouraged to gather together, and most eventually moved to America, emigrating directly to Nauvoo, Illinois, which, after 1839, became the center of the Mormon Church.  Over the next few decades, more than 50,000 Mormons emigrated from the British Isles to America.  England also became the base of operations for further missionary work into Europe and the Middle East, and Mormons became so numerous in England that they published newspapers and hymnbooks, their own missionary tracts, and books (both in English and Welsh), and for a time in the 1850s, Mormons in England outnumbered Mormons in America.

On to Mormon Missionaries in Foreign Lands

Anita Stansfield

Anita Stansfield began writing at the age of sixteen, and her first novel was published sixteen years later. For more than fifteen years she has been the number-one best-selling author of women’s fiction in the LDS market. Her novels range from historical to contemporary and cover a wide gamut of social and emotional issues that explore the human experience through memorable characters and unpredictable plots. She has received many awards, including a special award for pioneering new ground in LDS fiction, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Whitney Academy for LDS Literature, and also a Lifetime Achievement Award from her publisher, Covenant Communications. She has fifty-six published books. Anita is the mother of five, and has three grandchildren.

Lorenzo Snow. Courtesy of the LDS Media Library.

Missionary work slowed considerably during World War I, but following the war, Mormon missionaries had great success in Europe, particularly in Germany, where thousands joined the Mormon Church during the 1920’s and 1930’s.  In fact, in the interwar period, Germany led the Church in growth. Mormon missionaries also began preaching in Portugal and in Brazil, which has since become one of the strongest areas of Mormon growth.  David O. McKay, a Mormon Apostle and future Mormon prophet, traveled to every mission of the Church in the 1920’s and, along the way, dedicated China and other nations preparatory to sending in Mormon missionaries.

In 1925, Melvin J. Ballard, one of the Twelve Apostles, created the South American Mission headquartered in Argentina.  He prophesied that, one day, the work in South America would grow tremendously and that millions would join the Church.  Today, more than 2,000,000 Mormons live in South America, and it remains the fastest growing region of the world for the Mormon Church.

The number of Mormon missionaries remained fairly consistent throughout the early twentieth century, and the calls to missionary service remained irregular.  Not every Mormon was expected to serve a full-time mission, though all were expected to share the Gospel with friends and families in their daily lives and serve in volunteer capacities with their local Mormon congregations.  Instead, men or women would be issued calls to go to a certain place for up to three years. Prior to World War II, it was not uncommon for Mormon missionaries to be married.

In the years before World War II, the Mormon missionary force remained at around 5,000 a year, even as, by the 1940s, the Mormon Church’s membership approached 1,000,000.  Most Mormons at this time lived in the American West, in the historical band of Mormon settlements that stretched along the Rocky Mountains from Alberta Canada to northern Mexico, though Pancho Villa’s revolt had driven many Mormons out of Mexico and into Arizona.  Beginning in the early twentieth century, Mormon leaders began to urge members to remain in their home countries and to build up the Mormon Church in their home lands.  This required that temples be built throughout the earth.  In the early part of the twentieth century, Mormon temples were built in Hawaii and Canada. The first European temple was built in 1955 in Bern, Switzerland.  During World War II, few Mormon missionaries served (only hundreds per year as opposed to thousands).  After the war, when David O. McKay became President of the Mormon Church, all that would soon change.

The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1921. Standing, left to right: Joseph Fielding Smith, James E. Talmage, Stephen L Richards, Richard R. Lyman, Melvin J. Ballard, and John A. Widtsoe. Seated, left to right: Rudger Clawson, Reed Smoot, George Albert Smith, George F. Richards, Orson F. Whitney, and David O. McKay. Both Melvin J. Ballard and David O. McKay helped the Church make great strides in missionary work. Courtesy of the LDS Media Library.

Today, missionaries continue to serve by preaching the gospel, but they also offer service in the communities where they serve. The catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March 2011 caused such extensive damage that it will take years to repair everything. Mormon news shows that missionaries have helped in this clean-up effort. The Church continues to encourage its members to support humanitarian endeavors as part of its goal to bring people to an understanding of God’s love for them.

On to Every Mormon a Missionary

Anita Stansfield

Anita Stansfield began writing at the age of sixteen, and her first novel was published sixteen years later. For more than fifteen years she has been the number-one best-selling author of women’s fiction in the LDS market. Her novels range from historical to contemporary and cover a wide gamut of social and emotional issues that explore the human experience through memorable characters and unpredictable plots. She has received many awards, including a special award for pioneering new ground in LDS fiction, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Whitney Academy for LDS Literature, and also a Lifetime Achievement Award from her publisher, Covenant Communications. She has fifty-six published books. Anita is the mother of five, and has three grandchildren.