The International Diffusion of the Mormon Church

Transcription

1 Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive All Theses and Dissertations 994 The International Diffusion of the Mormon Church Samuel Otterstrom Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: Part of the Geography Commons, Missions and World Christianity Commons, Mormon Studies Commons, and the Sociology Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Otterstrom, Samuel, "The International Diffusion of the Mormon Church" (994). All Theses and Dissertations. Paper 54. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact scholarsarchive@byu.edu.

2 the international diffusion of the mormon church A thesis presented to the department of geography brigham young university in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree master of science by samuel M otterstrom august 994

3 this thesis by samuel M otterstrom is accepted in its present form by the department of geography ofbrigham brigham young university as satisfying the thesis requirement for the degree of master of science v cc rijharsh T j jg comm4thair richard RijharSHH jackson commroejelchair jyn43 fc to james jamas jamvs A davis committee member ae rate yate a e ay 7y cyl y- cel e alan H grey graduate courdin coordinate

4 acknowledgements it would not have been possible for me to complete this thesis in a timely manner without the consistent support given to me by my family and the faculty in the geography department professors jackson davis shumway and emmett have all given very valuable editing and content revision suggestions it is amazing to me that they even took the time to read the whole thing I especially appreciate dr davis help in regards to formatting and printing of the final project he has encouraged me all the way jeff bird also deserves thanks for assisting me a cartographic amateur in learning how to use the aldus computer program to make the maps used in the study I would like to especially thank my wife lori who has motivated me and taken care of our rambunctious boys nils and ethan very unselfishly so I could have time to write and write and finally thanks are extended to my motherinlaw law jean thomas who has been very generous to us by letting us live in her home during most of my graduate experience at BYU without her help we would be impoverished instead ofjust plain poor lil lii iii

5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page LIST OF TABLES v LIST OF FIGURES vi I THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING I II THE literature REVIEW AND conceptual FRAMEWORK 5 III ili ill DATA AND methodology IV OVERVIEW OF international LDS GROWTH 9 V SOUTH AMERICA 35 VI MIDDLE AMERICA 68 VII vil EUROPE AND CANADA 85 VIII vill ASIA 9 IX SOUTH PACIFIC X AFRICA 4 XI SUMMARY conclusions AND recommendations 8 APPENDIX 5 bibliography 6 IV

6 LIST OF TABLES table page I countries with more than LDS in LDS growth rates for nations in table I 34 3 south america early mormon diffusion 37 4 south america 994 mormon geography 39 5 brazil number of stakes by city and year 4 6 brazil number of stakes by state and capital 47 7 chile number of stakes by city and year 49 8 chile number of stakes by region 53 9 argentina number of stakes by city and year 57 peru number of stakes by city and year 6 middle america early mormon diffusion 69 middle america 994 mormon geography 7 3 mexico number of stakes by city and year 73 4 europe early mormon diffusionmormons asia early mormon diffusionmormons south pacific early mormon diffusionmormons africa early mormon diffusion mormons v

7 LIST OF FIGURES figure page I preliminary conceptual model of international LDS diffusion 5 brazil stakes and missions brazil stakes and missions brazil stakes and missions chileargentinauruguay stakes and missions chileargentinauruguay stakes and missions chileargentinauruguay stakes and missions peruecuador Ecuador and missions Peru stakes 9 mexico stakes and missions mexico stakes and missions mexico stakes and missions philippines stakes and missions philippines stakes and missions conceptual model of international LDS diffusion VI vi

8 I THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING introduction the church of jesus christ of latterday saints also known as the mormon church has grown from its simple beginning in 83 of six members in new york state to over million followers around the globe in 994 this amazing growth has not been evenly spread over time and place but today there are mormon congregations in at least 49 nations and territories the mormon church feels it has been given the divine mandate to spread its beliefs throughout every nation kindred tongue and people normon mosiah 3 book ofmormon additionally its doctrine states that the diffusion ofmormonism mormonism of to all countries must occur before the end of the world and again this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come or the destruction of the wicked pearl of great price joseph smithmatthew matthew 3 the mormon church has made missionary work a high priority ever since the churchs founding in 83 throughout the rest of the 8s the church had success in gaining in converts in some foreign countries particularly upper canada great britain denmark switzerland and the society islands french polynesia most of these new members except those in the society islands gathered to utah after their conversion leaving few mormons in their native countries

9 it was not until the twentieth century when church leaders began to encourage converts to stay and support mormon congregations in their own countries that the mormons began to have an international presence the most substantial worldwide diffusion of the church has been a recent phenomenon in 93 approximately 9 percent of all church members lived in the united states this figure has dropped dramatically so that by 98 only 7 percent of mormons lived in the USA by 99 only eleven years later this proportion was less then 555 percent otterstrom 999 deseretnews church almanac 99 this research will analyze the patterns of international growth of the church of jesus christ of latterday saints to show the principal models of spatial diffusion which have operated to create the present worldwide church membership distribution it will also mormonism illustrate the magnitude and extent of this increase ofmormonism the study will not attempt to show how religious diffusion operates on a microlevel neither is it intended to be a complete history of mormon international expansion furthermore it will not describe the effect of internal relocation of church members in a country on diffusion patterns not because migration is not a factor but because of the lack of obtainable data it is assumed that the locations of stakes missions wards and branches see appendix for the definitions of these terms within countries or regions can be considered to be reliable indicators of the actual diffusion of LDS church populations this assumption will be explored further in the chapter concerning the data sources

10 the imlortance importance of the study the purpose of this thesis is to show the nature and magnitude of the geographic spread of the church worldwide it explores the international expansion of the mormon church from a geographic perspective which has not been done in this way before it also seeks to bring further understanding to a type of religious diffusion which deserves more investigation as a spatial phenomenon by so doing it will be able to show where mormonisms spatial diffusion within international countries fits into current diffusion theory the organization of the remainder of the study chapter two will review related studies on general and religious diffusion as well as specific works on the growth of the mormon church the conclusion of the chapter will outline the geographic conceptual framework which will govern the approach to the problem chapter three describes the data their sources and the methodologies which will be employed to test the stated hypotheses chapter four is an overview outlining the history of the growth of the mormon church since its inception chapters five through ten correspond to six different regions of the world south america middle america europe and canada asia the south pacific and africa the emergence of mormonism in these regions is illustrated by outlining the original diffusion of the church into the countries within these regions and showing the ongoing growth patterns which account for the current mormon 3

11 distributions this will be to determine the part which hierarchical and contagious diffusion processes play in the international spread of the mormon religion the final chapter includes the summary of the findings of the thesis and the recommendations for further study in the realm of mormon international diffusion and growth now follows a look at previous studies related to this thesis 4

12 II THE TBE literature REVIEW AND conceptual FRAMEWORK overview of diffusion studies the phenomenon of spatial diffusion has been the subject of much discussion and research in the world of geographic study the seminal theory of spatial diffusion was set forth by torsten hagerstrand in his 953 dissertation innovation diffusion as a spatial process morrill et al 9883 hagerstrand produced a model which helped explain the spatial nature of the spread of a farm implement innovation in sweden hagerstrand argued that because most peoples contact network is localized the diffusion of an innovation would likewise be a local process where an innovation spread outward in a contagious manner morrill et al the research of hagerstrand has had great influence on the many paths that diffusion research have followed see brown many books and papers have been written on the diffusion of innovations and culture though space using the hagerstrand model or variants thereof these studies range from the spread of black ghettos to the diffusion of of amish influenza in iceland to the growth ofamish communities in the united states 98 explains the three general patterns often associated with the diffusion brown 98 process over time a graph of the cumulative level of adoption is expected to approximate an S shape in an urban system the diffusion is expected to proceed from larger to smaller centers a regularity termed the hierarchy effect within the hinterland of a 5

13 single urban center diffusion is expected to proceed in a wavelike fashion outward from the urban center first hitting nearby rather than fartheraway away locations and a similar pattern is expected in diffusion among a rural population this third regularity is termed the neighborhood or contagion effect later diffusion models have included the elements of relocation migration and the influence of an innovation propagator in the conceptual models studied brown 9885 relocation is an important element of the diffusion of the LDS church because much of the geographic spread ofmormonism mormonism can be attributed to the relocation of its members this type of spatial diffusion has included large migrations in the early history of the church eg moving to utah and settling new colonies and movements of families from utah in this century for job opportunities schooling and other reasons the relocation process has been fundamental to the international diffusion of the LDS church missionaries the main instruments of mormonisms spread are intentionally relocated in new countries or regions of countries where the church has been allowed to proselytize other international relocations of american members who are in military government or business fields have provided the groundwork for the initial diffusion of the church into a surprising number of countries propagators of although brown 98 used business corporations as his examples ofpropagators an innovation eg a satellite dish manufacturer a restaurant franchise corporation or a department store chain some aspects of his conceptual model can help explain the way the mormon church operates as the propagator of the LDS religion brown argues that it is important to look at a more complete picture of diffusion than one which just concentrates on what influences the individual or household to adopt an innovation 6

14 more recent research indicates that this perspective alone does not provide sufficient explanation if as is the case for most contemporary innovations the innovation is propagated by an entity motivated to bring about rapid and complete diffusion in this setting the mechanisms through which innovations are made available to potential adopters are of equal if not greater importance that is it is necessary to 985 consider supply as well as demand factors brown 985 is brown further describes the role of the propagator which is the LDS church in this is study in the establishment of diffusion agencies in various locations these agencies which can be compared with church missions become the points from which the innovation eg mormonism spreads into surrounding areas thus the locations of the agencies and the temporal sequencing of their establishment determine where and when the innovation will be available and provide the general outline of the spatial pattern of diffusion brown 985 chapters three and four of browns book discuss the first two stages of propagator supported diffusion which are diffusion diffiusion agency establishment and agency operating procedures strategies used to promote the innovation the third aspect of the process is the actual adoption of the innovation by individuals most corporations seek to spread their innovation following these stages of diffusion for the purposes of increasing sales and profits the LDS church also follows a similar pattern but its goal is to increase the numbers and quality of converts or adopters of the mormon faith rather than multiplying profits brown also describes some of the methods and patterns of diffusion which typify centralized decisionmaking structures where a single propagator determines the number of diffusion agencies to be established and their location size and other characteristics 7

15 989 the LDS church is characterized by a centralized hierarchy of leadership which is responsible for deciding the locations of missions and the number of missionaries sent to these areas brown concluded that the patterns of diffusion associated with centralized decision making structures vary and are not necessarily hierarchical in nature 9863 geographic studies of religious diffusion A number of spatial diffusion studies have been written on religions other than the cormons mormons Mormons crowley 978 shared an interesting historical geography overview of the diffusion of old order amish settlements he traced the movement ofamish amish people to the united states and the establishment of amish communities in various parts of north america he compared the number and location of both surviving and defunct settlements he also outlined the factors which influenced the amish to settle in particular regions the of amish spatial diffusion ofamish communities described is more related to the early colonization mormonism efforts of the mormons in the great basin than to the modem spread ofmormonism hemmasi hemmati 99 describes the diffusion of islam as an example of a phenomenon which can help teach students a variety of geographic principles the islam faith is an interesting religion to study because of its great growth and its virtual saturation of many countries in the middle east hemmasi hemmati describes how different types of diffusion affected the spread of islam through history these diffusion categories include expansion diffusion colonization diffusion and relocation diffusion expansion diffusion contains the subtypes of voluntary forced and hierarchic voluntary diffusion occurs when one converts to islam on their own accord 8

16 while forced diffusion is characterized by coercion into the faith hierarchical diffusion fl floccurred when islam was initially introduced to those who lived in highorder in settlements of conquered or submitted nations hemmati hemmasi Hemmasi 9969 colonization diffusion of islam is similar to that which occurred in the intermountain west under the direction oflds LDS oflas church leaders settlers would begin new communities in dispersed areas in regions conquered by muslim kingdoms or in the case of mormonism away from salt lake city relocation diffusion is when muslims moved to new regions to live without proselyting this produced isolated pockets of muslims in europe the caribbean and elsewhere without resulting in many converts among the host population finally intellectual diffusion consists of missionaries merchants seamen etc who spread islam to other areas of the world during their travels barriers to the diffusion of islam are also discussed by hemmasi hemmati Hemmasi these include physical barriers such as mountains oceans and dense forests and cultural barriers like language economic political and religious differences barriers alter the diffusion of religions such economic as mormonism and islam so that different regions of the world experience different rates of adoption of the belief system in the LDS church political barriers particularly delay the establishment of missionary work in a country while additional impediments such as language culture and physical remoteness can hinder the rate of conversion to the faith after missionary efforts are initiated these along with other barriers help explain the spatial conversion rate variability of mormon proselyting efforts the barriers which the diffusion of mormonism face will be discussed in chapter five 9

17 in a study of the diffusion of the reorganized church of jesus christ of latter day saints RLDS peffers 98 used a descriptive historical narrative combined with diffusion path maps within countries to show the relatively small international spread of that church various models of diffusion were not readily utilized perhaps because of the limited penetration that the RLDS have made around the world peffers does mention the LDS church at various junctures in her thesis at such places and times that RLDS missionary cormons efforts have been affected by that of the mormons Mormons example RLDS missionaries for struggled in europe in the late 8s and some of the blame was placed on the mormons in who ruined their efforts by proselyting in the various countries before the RLDS no other relevant recent studies concerning the diffusion of other churches were found studies of LDS growth johnson 966 and louder 97 both wrote their dissertations in geography about the diffusion of the LDS church throughout the united states both studies emphasized the american nature of the mormon church and the spatial diffusion models were tested using only the LDS membership distribution in the continental united states louder particularly emphasized the concentration of members in the western united states louder 975 louder & bennion 978 johnson used a diffusion model similar to that developed by hagerstrand he divided the continental united states into a large number of hexagons placed all US wards in a U S hexagon corresponding to its location and compared this pattern with one produced using

18 his contagious type diffusion model this effort produced mixed results and low correlation with actual membership patterns louder improved upon johnsons efforts by using a time sequence model which emphasized the correlation of church growth in western counties including such factors as total county population percent of LDS in the county and the standardized number of irrigated acres in the county he also added the inverse relationship of airline distance to salt lake city to show the relationship between distance to salt lake and date when a ward was formed louder 9758 louders model proved to be fairly successful in predicting the geographic spread ofmormonism mormonism in the western united states since the 97s when louder modeled LDS diffusion in the united states the church has grown at an incredible rate outside of this country louders model although successful in predicting mormon diffusion in the west did not attempt to account for the growth of the church in other areas of the world for example it is doubtful that the number of irrigated acres in an area has any influence on the degree of LDS diffusion in the international setting in 984 rodney stark a nonmormon sociologist at the university of washington posited that the LDS church can now be seen as a new world religion and that the mormons will soon achieve a worldwide following comparable to that of islam buddhism christianity hinduism and the other dominant world faiths stark 9848 stark emphasized the unique qualities of the LDS church and showed how growth rates pointed to a future of a continuously expanding world membership the magnitude of this ongoing international growth prompted me to study its possible financial implications for the church otterstrom 99 this study compared worldwide

19 church population projections with present gross national product GNP per capita figures of nations with large LDS populations countries with mormon populations greater than were used to make growth rate calculations these countries constitute the vast majority of the world membership the same method used to calculate growth rates in that study are used in this thesis these exercises show the magnitude of the churchs ongoing shift to a population increasingly made up of members in developing countries this emphasizes the fact that the most successful recent diffusion ofmormonism has occurred in the lessdeveloped developed realm I further postulated that financing church missionary educational welfare and building programs in farflung flung areas of the world could prove to be more difficult in the future as budgets have to be stretched to accommodate the needs of church members in the rapidly growing third world mormon community jackson rinschede and knapp 99 discussed the pilgrimage phenomenon in the mormon church it included a descriptive background discussion on the growth of the church and used maps to show the distribution of members in the united states and throughout the world the bulk of the study concentrated on the importance of certain mormon sites as holy sites and the patterns of visitation to these places arrington 987 wrote a short but comprehensive overview of the historical events which have led to the international growth of the LDS church the paper described international missionary endeavors ranging from the first efforts with american indian nations in 83 to the tremendous growth of the church in mexico during the 97s

20 van orden 993 is writing a complete history of the worldwide expansion of the church for a brigham young university religion course on the subject he is about halfway through with the project the second half of the packet contains chapters from the international church moss et al 98 which was the previous class manual van orden divides the world into regions and gives detailed accounts of missionary work and church expansion in the areas through different time periods throughout the various chapters he emphasizes the positive influence that the following factors among others have had on numbers of converts to the LDS faith high degree of religious freedom a large christian sector and a substantial population of those in lower socioeconomic classes overall the student manual is comprehensive and current is the information supplied in van ordens more nations than 7 one A global history of the LDS church and moss et als the international church will complement the historical capsules of the worldwide church section ofthe ne odthe deseret news church almanac those two works will provide the necessary background data for the structure of the remainder of the thesis conceptual framework of the study the growth of the LDS church in the international setting has great potential as a subject for diffusion research the spatial patterns are guided by a number of factors which affect both the rate of diffusion and the degree of penetration in a country to help organize these factors in an understandable manner I have developed a framework which will guide the remainder of the study 3

21 figure I outlines the conceptual model of international LDS diffusion this model stems in part from the comparison of functional and spatial perspectives of diffusion described by brown the functional perspective of this model is the supply demand and temporal portions while the spatial perspective is represented by the spatial box on the bottom of the figure this study concentrates on the spatial perspective by showing the patterns of LDS spatial diffusion within countries so discussion of the functional portion of the model and how it relates to the international growth ofmormonism mormonism is mostly limited to this chapter functional perspective supply and demand are both important when looking at the functional manner in which mormonism is the the LDS church spreads over time the propagator of the innovation ofmormonism mormon church with headquarters in salt lake city utah the church programs including missionary efforts are administered by a central decisionmaking body known as the general authorities the general authorities direct the affairs of the missionary program and decide when and where new missions will be established the factors which influence the international supply of the mormon religious innovation are many they include the number of members who relocate to foreign countries for military business or governmental purposes the supply of missionaries available for service periods ranging from one to two years the number of members in a country who actively participate in sharing the mormon religion the extent of the international transportation 4

22 functional perspective THE innovation MORMONISM SUPPLY DEMAND supplier of the innovation the church of jesus christ of latterday saints consumer of the innovation population of country A factors affecting amount of supply in country A a number of mormons who relocate to country A b number of missionaries available c financial resources of the church d number of new converts in country A e churchs strategies to proselytize in country A f number of converts who return to country A factors affecting amount of demand in country A a political stability b religious freedom c religious makeup of population d economic conditions per capita income e education f culture g population growth rate h mobility A few scenarios innovation DIFFUSION RATE HIGH HIGH HIGH MED MED MED LOW LOW LOW supply demand rate supply demand rate supply demand rate I functional sloat SiDat spatial i lal lai interface j I spatial perspective Q 8 hierarchy of urban places urban spatial diffusionstages stages hagerstrand 95 brown 98 country A urban setting primary stage hierarchy effect initiated primary diffusion centers ie missions established in largest cities diffusion stage hierarchy effect continues contagious effect added secondary diffusion centers established ie other missions 3 saturation stage random spatial pattern around diffusion centers condensing and filling in as more of the population adopts the mormon religion C 9 e 4d oo rv ON. spread into the hinterlands of both the primary and secondary centers o6 9 ooo 6 figure I preliminary conceptual model of the international diffusion of the LDS church 5

23 network and the financial resources available for use by the church to support the missions and desired proselytization strategies eg the radio or television media the greater the number of mormons who relocate to foreign countries especially those with small indigenous LDS memberships the greater the possibility that sustained church growth will occur in those countries the foundation of the more seasoned expatriate members can help support these membership increases those who join the church in foreign countries become part of the supply side themselves because all members are strongly encouraged to share their faith with those around them it is obvious that a greater supply of missionaries means a larger number of places in which the church can place these full time mormonism although much of diffusers ofmormonism the missionaries living expenses are paid by themselves their families or their home wards the church still incurs great expenses in supporting missionary headquarters around the globe paying for missionary travel translating and printing church literature in foreign languages and supporting missionaries from less developed countries As the amount of money that the church devotes to its missionary programs increases the potential supply of mormonism to more remote locations also grows this is because increasing distance from salt lake city and the united states where the bulk of mormons are increases the cost of diffusing mormonism the bulk of missionaries in foreign lands still come from the united states and conditions within this country can greatly affect the supply of missionaries the united states government can sometime limit the number of missionaries by military conscription 6

24 during wars like the korean and vietnam periods of economic troubles in this nation may also decrease the number of US mormons who can afford to serve a fulltime time mission the demand for the mormon religion in a specific country is affected by such factors as the amount of religious freedom religious orientation ie percent christian income characteristics political stability cultural attitudes languages amount of migration or displacement of a countrys people and population growth rates one possible view is that more religious freedom less per capita income larger proportions of christians and greater political stability all exert a positive influence on the demand for mormonism higher population growth rates also tend to increase the demand for mormonism because there will be more second generation adopters of the LDS religion ie there will be more young children of new converts baptized into the church after turning eight each country receives different levels of supply from the LDS church and exhibits varying degrees of demand for the religion an increase in demand usually encourages a growth in supply while a welladvertised advertised supply can create a measurable amount of demand for optimal diffusion rates however high amounts of both supply and demand are required the variable effects that both supply and demand can have on the diffusion rate in a country is entitled innovation diffusion rate A few possible scenarios are represented of how a specific rate of LDS diffusion in a country may result when there is no supply and a large demand for mormonism substitute LDS type churches are sometimes formed as was the case in nigeria before 978 missionaries were first sent there that year and found that a number of successful churches bearing the church of jesus christ of latterday saints name had been previously organized without official 7

25 approval from the LDS headquarters in salt lake city deseret nes news church almanac moss et al33 al 3 3 on the other hand low demand can result in only a few converts even with an abundant supply as has occurred recently in the netherlands for example the netherlands amsterdam mission will be discontinued this july 994 and consolidated with another mission this may mean a possible decrease in the supply of mormonism eg fewer missionaries in the country for the country even though there are more than 5 million in people in the country who are not LDS church news march ws this change may be attributed to the low conversion rates that the country has experienced in the last two decades van orden 9933 over time it is expected that the supply of the mormon monnon non innovation in a country will tend to equalize the corresponding demand for the religion however the supply side of missionaries media programs etc is sometimes even increased in those regions where there is a low demand for the religion in an attempt to create more interest in the church this is an effort to allow as many people as possible to hear about the church and to fulfill the first LDS prophet joseph smiths prophecy concerning the church 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 fili till fill the purposes of god shall be accomplished and the great jehovah shall say the work is done history of the church this goal to diffuse its beliefs to all nations has meant a greater dispersion of the mormon religion than if the church only sent missionaries to areas where conversion successes were the greatest where the demand was the highest 8

26 spatial perspective mormonism is this discussion on the effects of supply and demand on the diffusion ofmormonism related to the second part of the conceptual model the spatial perspective the interactions of both supply and demand sides of the mormon innovations create a specific rate of diffusion within each country as shown in the innovation diffusion rate box this rate of growth interfaces shown as the functionalspatial Functional Spatial interface with the spatial structure of the countrys population the greater the rate the faster the religion will spread throughout a nation the spatial patterns exhibited by LDS diffusion within a country are shown only as hypothetical stages in figure these stages are after hagerstrand 95 who placed the three regularities of diffusion the shape sshape S curve for diffusion through time the hierarchy effect and the neighborhood effect into an interrelated framework brown 98 hagerstrands stages of diffusion are used in this study as the background model which guides the development of mormonspecific specific phases of diffusion his framework also parallels the main hypothesis of this thesis modem post WW II mormon diffusion within international countries involves a distinct pattern of initial introduction of the church by north american mormon expatriates by citizens converted to mormonism elsewhere or by mormon missionaries followed by conversions and the eventual establishment of missions in the largest cities which produce through organized proselytization strongly hierarchical patterns of church unit formation alurban each country is unique in population size area and shape and ruralurban makeup so the spatial manifestation of the phases of diffusion will vary among nations consequently 9

27 some countries may not even follow an outlined pattern however I hope to show that most of the countries with large mormon populations have exhibited similar spatial characteristics in their growth during the modern modem period however before the exploration of these spatial patterns can occur a look at the data and the methodology which will be employed to guide this process is in order

28 III DATA AND methodology data requirements the data required for this study are various they can be divided into two types LDS church data and country data the church data include the locations and dates of establishment of church stakes and missions throughout the world church histories of countries and the rates ofmormon membership growth in various nations country data are the populations of the nations cities provinces districts andor states which contain LDS stakes and missions in some instances distance measurements from central cities to other cities where stakes and missions have been established will be required church data the mormon church keeps very detailed statistics of the numbers of church members and their location around the globe the deseret nes news church almanac hereafter referred to as the almanac contains a brief overview of church growth in the different countries nations and territories as well as in the various states of the united states within these accounts are also the location of all stakes and missions in that geographic area and the date each stake or mission was created the latest edition of the almanac 99 contains stake and mission data as of october 99 fortunately the church nes news a weekly supplement to the deseret news publishes

29 the creation of new missions and stakes as the information becomes publicly available the names of all stakes and missions formed since october 99 have been obtained from the various church news editions so the data are current as of march 994 the LDS church publishes a directory each year which contains the names of all of its wards and branches and the stakes or missions to which they belong A copy of the directory is available at the history and religion reference desk on the fourth floor of the harold B lee library however photocopies of pages of the directory are not allowed the directory has been used just to check the accuracy of the church almanac and as an aid in locating hardtofind stakes the name of a ward or branch usually corresponds with the town or city where the congregation meets however in large metropolitan areas with numerous wards and branches unit names are often repeated with a number qualifier eg manaus 3rd ward or spokane 9th ward or are differentiated by a neighborhood name or physical feature eg independencia Independen ward atlixco mexico stake or valley ridge ward kearns utah west stake this type of naming makes the exact location of some church units very difficult to find additionally the directory does not indicate the date when the individual wards or branches were formed which is a disadvantage as one attempts to track the diffusion of the church over time the church almanac does list the dates of stake and mission creation scale however the macroscale of this project renders much of the specifics of ward and branch locations within large cities irrelevant correspondingly a diffusion study using the locations of the huge number of wards and branches over in the world as data points is out

30 of this projects scope finally the use of stakes for location data does not mean a dearth of data As of march 994 the church had nearly stakes in the world approximately 7 of these stakes were located within the united states the names of stake and missions always have some geographic reference usually they lice indicate the location of the stake center building or mission headquarters mice office ofm omm although stakes and missions are more regional in nature and include greater areas than their component parts of wards and branches they are easier to locate and their dates of creation are readily available additionally the wards and branches of the world are component parts of stakes and missions so one still gets an accurate feel for the overall mormon distribution by using the stakes and missions as diffusion locators to help one further understand how stakes are an indicator of mormon international diffusion I will briefly describe the processes related to stake creation new stakes normally come into being by one of two processes both related to membership growth the first method is to divide an existing stake or stakes which have grown large enough to warrant splitting them into a more manageable size an example of this is the recent creation of the pago pago samoa central stake from the pago pago samoa and the pago pago samoa west stakes often times the new stake is named after a city other than the one from which it was divided this new city acts as the stake center and it acts as a helpful locator of LDS diffusion an instance where newly created stakes have been headquartered in a city other than the original stake is the 993 division of the florianopolis Floria brazil stake into the monte cristo brazil and sao jose brazil stakes 3

31 the second source of stake formation is from branches under church missions jurisdictions church branches that are not part of established stakes but which are dependent on specific missions are directed by the missions which cover that area A number of these dependent branches under mission control make up a mission district when the branches in a mission district become large and numerous enough a new stake is formed and the old mission branches become either wards or branches within the new stake organization depending upon their size an example of this is the creation in 99 of the chetumal Che in mexico stake in southeastern mexico from the chetumal Che in mexico district there are numerous historical data sources available on the international spread of the church As mentioned above the deseret news church almanac is a good general reference book on the subject additionally bruce van ordens 993 student packet for the history of the international church class is an excellent source for information on how when and where the church diffused to the countries of the world it also contains substantial bibliographic references at the end of each chapter which constitute a fairly comprehensive reference list of where to obtain more detailed information on the history of the church is various world areas needed statistics on church growth have primarily come from my honors thesis otterstrom 99 and LDS church statistics the church membership growth rates in the thesis were computed for countries which had at least LDS in 989 about 37 nations the rates were an average of growth from 98 until the end of 989 the church almanac contains membership figures for each country as of december 3 4

32 99 iggi I have revised the membership growth rates using the newer 99 statistics country data populations of specific cities states and provinces have been obtained from the 99 of the AAA worldatlas atias the atlas contains the most recent and extensive population edition ofiheaaa world atlas estimates available in one volume the distance measurement from central cities to other cities nave been obtained from country road maps found in the harold B lee librarys map collection research methodology to effectively explore both the functional and spatial aspects of the international of mormonism a variety of methodologies will be employed chapter four begins diffusion ofmormonism with an overview of the international diffusion of the LDS church from 83 to the present 994 approximate 994 LDS membership figures for countries with over mormons are given these figures are calculated by projecting the average mormon growth rates from the recent period of through to 994 the number of stakes in these countries will also be shown after this general overview the world is divided into regions these regions are south america middle america europe and canada asia south pacific africa within each regional chapter is a short overview of the LDS church geography in those countries the mormonisms diffusion to the countries is illustrated using a chart showing chronology ofmormonisms dates of the establishment of the first branch and mission in the country along with the size 5

33 of the present mormon population A brief description of the methods of initial entry ie expatriates from north america or elsewhere citizens converted in other nations or missionaries from neighboring nations is also included on the south and middle america tables the first two regions of south and middle america also contain detailed accounts of the diffusion patterns using stakes and missions for location indicators of mormonism within most of the regions countries during the postworld war II period these two regions have provided the bulk of the new converts to the LDS church during the modern era and so the most attention is being given to them in this thesis mormons in south and middle america comprised less than one percent of the total mormon population in 93 by 989 these two regions had over 6 percent of the worlds mormons cormons Mor second only to north america in numbers of LDS members otterstrom 999 the discussion on the remaining regions illustrate some interesting anomalies and patterns in the process of LDS diffusion which do not fit the patterns shown in south and middle america to give specific examples of mormon diffusion patterns in the other regions canada the philippines the united kingdom germany australia and new zealand will be discussed in some detail each of these three countries has an interesting and unique mormon spatial diffusion history the importance ofmiddle and south america in LDS church geography is emphasized in table in although the united states has the greatest number of mormons of any nation its ils LDS diffusion patterns will not be discussed because the focus of this thesis is on is international areas 6

34 NATION REGION iggi drmons99 MORMONSM 99 stal STAKES STAI ces994 CES MISSIONS NS 994 united states north america 4336 ooo mexico brazil chile middle america south america south america asia south america hii e philippines 66 ooo. peru argentina united kingdom south america europe canada guatemala japan ecuador north america middle america asia south america colombia australia new zealand bolivia south korea uruguay south america south pacific south pacific south america asia south america venezuela western samoa honduras el salvador germany Cj south america south pacific middle america middle america europe pe ooo dominican tonga portugal france republic middle america south pacific europe europe spain S europe panama south africa costa rica taiwan hong flong elong kong nigeria puerto rico italy paraguay french polynesia american samoa middle america africa middle america asia asia africa middle america europe south america south pacific south pacific 3 ooo ooo nicaragua middle america TOTAL for nations with 5 LDS TOTAL world As of december 3 99 As of about march 994 adof As asof july table countries with more than mormons in 99

35 along with regional descriptive narratives I use five year increment mapping of a number of countries in the world from 969 or 979 through 994 to illustrate the concurrent diffusion of stakes and missions over time the countries have been selected because they all contain multiple stakes and they are located except for the philippines in the middle and south american regions where the more detailed analysis will be concentrated these map sets are brazil chile argentinauruguay Argentina Uruguay peruecuador Peru Ecuador mexico and the philippines the maps will help illustrate the spatial patterns of growth exhibited within the context of each countrys unique geography and will visually complement the discussion on this diffusion in the body of the thesis to aid in the analysis I have created tables showing the spread of stakes by city population over the same five year increments and in the same countries which were used in the mapping exercise in the concluding chapter the results of this exploration of the patterns of international LDS diffusion are incorporated into the conceptual model discussed in the previous chapter in the chapter hagerstrands 95 stages of spatial diffusion shown in the figure I model are transformed into phases specific to the mormon church 8

36 IV OVERVIEW OF international LDS GROWTH the international expansion of the church is not a new development missionary work has been emphasized since the very beginning in 83 when the church was organized in the state of new york the early period of proselytizing helped the church garner many converts these new members were instrumental to the growth of the church as everyone was a new adopter of the faith these people often left their homes to be closer to the growing groups of members in america which growth allowed the church to eventually establish communities and church centers in kirtland ohio independence missouri nauvoo illinois and finally salt lake city utah it did not take long for joseph smith the first LDS prophet to send some of the new converts to preach the merits of the new church to citizens in surrounding areas in june 83 about two months after the church was organized samuel H smith joseph smiths brother began a missionary journey which signalled led the beginning of the diffusion of the church almanac 995 in october 83 the first diffusion of the church to other nations was attempted by oliver cowdery parley P pratt peter whitmer and ziba peterson who preached to the indian nations of the catteraugus Catteraugus in western new york the shawnees and delawares delawarek Dela in eastern kansas and the wyandots Wyan dots in western ohio arrington 987 9

37 more successful international missionary endeavors occurred in upper canada now ontario starting in 83 and in england beginning in 837 work in canada spread to what is now quebec new brunswick and nova scotia in england the missionaries spread their labors from their initial efforts near preston to other areas in the country as well as in wales scotland and ireland arrington in the early 84s joseph smith sent missionaries to palestine australia india germany jamaica and the society islands with mixed results by the end of 847 LDS C-T ermany church membership in foreign countries approximated in england 9 in wales.4 I in scotland 4 in ireland in the society islands and an additional 46 scattered worldwide arrington 987 by 85 there were over 3 members in in great britain compared with 7 in all of the united states and canada van orden 9934 the diffusion efforts were the most successful in england many of the converts from the british isles and elsewhere emigrated to americas mormon settlements during the next sl several overal decades this pattern continued throughout the century giving much strength to the church the abundance ofbritish converts resulted in the majority of the LDS in the church being either from britain or descending from members who had joined the church in the british isles van orden 9934 the beginning of the british mission in 837 marked the start of organized missions with presidents to direct proselytizing efforts in a specific geographic area other international missions organized during the nineteenth century include the following 3