Introduction
Many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) serve temporarily as a full-time missionary on a “Mormon mission.” In the 1830s, missionaries were called to preach in the United States, Canada, and the British Isles. By the 1850s, missionaries proselytized in additional countries and territories, including Chile, France, Germany, India, Malta, Scandinavia, South Africa, the South Pacific, and Switzerland (History 2017). Missions were established in Mexico, Turkey, Samoa, and Tahiti by the turn of the twentieth century. The first single women were called as missionaries in 1898 (ibid).
A mission currently lasts 18 months for young women and 24 months for young men. Scholars have noted that the Mormon missionary program follows exclusivist and fulfillment positions, namely, that the LDS Church claims it is the only religion with a fullness of truth and divine authority but also acknowledges that other religions possess truth and are God-inspired...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
“History of Missionary Work in the Church” (2007) 25 June 2007. https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/history-of-missionary-work-in-the-church. Accessed 17 Mar 2018
King T (1983) Missiology and Mormon missions. Dialogue J Mormon Thought 16(4):42–50
Martinich M (2014) Missionary (full-time). Online Document. The Cumorah Foundation. http://cumorah.com/index.php?target=view_other_articles&story_id=679&cat_id=35. Accessed 24 Nov 2017
Mims B (2018) Fewer missionaries means fewer missions for Mormon Church. Salt Lake Tribune. 1 February 2018. https://www.sltrib.com/religion/local/2018/02/01/fewer-missionaries-means-fewer-missions-for-mormon-church-former-utah-jazz-executive-dave-checketts-to-oversee-london-mission/
Stewart D, Martinich M (2013) Reaching the nations: International Church Growth Almanac: 2014 edition. Cumorah Foundation
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Martinich, M.L. (2018). Mormon Missions. In: Gooren, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_467-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_467-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-08956-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08956-0
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities