A district of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) is a geographical administrative unit composed of a number of congregations called branches .
59-464: A district is a subdivision of a mission of the church and in many ways is analogous to a stake of the church. The leader of a district is the mission president , who selects a local district president as his agent. The district president may choose two men to assist him; the three together form the district presidency . The three members of the district presidency are given the honorific title "President" . Districts are usually established where
118-543: A ward and a branch . Once the membership in a district achieves sufficient numbers, it may be reorganized as a stake. Districts differ from stakes in the following ways: There is no minimum number of members or branches needed to create a district. A mission president can propose the creation of a district by lodging an application to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles . For
177-423: A district is the mission president , who selects a local district president as his agent. The district president may choose two men to assist him; the three together form the district presidency . The three members of the district presidency are given the honorific title "President" . Districts are usually established where the church is new or where there are insufficient numbers of church members to organize
236-444: A district to become a stake, the following requirements must be met: The LDS Church also uses a geographical division called a temple district . A temple district is a geographical area that is assigned to a church temple . Members residing in a temple district are asked to attend the temple that defines the district. Members may attend any of the church's temples, but temple districts are designed to help members determine what temple
295-478: A formal mission call , assigning them to a particular mission for the duration of their two years or eighteen months of service. Each mission has, on average, about 150 missionaries serving there. All missionaries serve in a mission under the direction of a mission president , who, like individual missionaries, is assigned by the LDS Church president . The mission president must be a married high priest in
354-739: A large and permanent scale can be dated to the organization of the Southern States Mission. This mission was started in 1876 with Henry G. Boyle as president. A short time later John Hamilton Morgan was made the president of this mission. The next mission to be organized was the Northern States Mission (initially called the Northwestern States Mission) with headquarters in Council Bluffs, Iowa . The first president of this mission
413-597: A ninth mission in the United States. However, missionary work was not going on in the Philippines , Puerto Rico or any of the smaller areas the U.S. had acquired in the Spanish–American War . Arizona , Nevada , Utah , Southern Idaho and Western Wyoming, all areas which by that time had large Mormon populations, were not in any mission. Missionary work, to the extent that it occurred in these areas,
472-550: A particular mission, but with a non-standard language assignment. To cite some examples: Kentucky Louisville, Spanish speaking; California Anaheim, Vietnamese speaking; Canada Vancouver, Mandarin speaking; Illinois Chicago, Polish speaking; California San Diego, Arabic speaking. The work of the missions is overseen by the Missionary Committee, which consists of the First Presidency and Quorum of
531-538: A stake was organized in Oregon in 1901 with Bramwell as president, the mission headquarters were moved to Portland, Oregon . The next year Nephi Pratt replaced Bramwell as mission president, and the mission moved toward a system of preaching the gospel in areas where Latter-day Saints were a minority. In 1900, the United States was divided into eight missions, with three whole states and parts of two others outside of all missions. The newly acquired Hawaiian Islands made
590-426: A stake. Districts differ from stakes in the following ways: There is no minimum number of members or branches needed to create a district. A mission president can propose the creation of a district by lodging an application to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles . For a district to become a stake, the following requirements must be met: The LDS Church also uses a geographical division called
649-449: A stake. Prior to the late 1920s, districts were known as conferences . A district may be thought of as a stake in a beginning or embryonic state. A district has a function analogous to a stake, but is organized where there are too few members to organize a stake. Its relationship to a stake is similar to the relationship between a ward and a branch . Once the membership in a district achieves sufficient numbers, it may be reorganized as
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#1732802002940708-451: Is assigned a district president who is usually a local resident; the district president reports directly to the mission presidency. The district presidency perform most of the day-to-day functions that a stake presidency would perform in a stake. Certain duties, such as the issuance of recommends to attend the temple , remain the sole prerogative of the mission president . Districts within a mission are composed exclusively of branches. After
767-498: Is closest to where they reside. A temple district is defined by a list of stakes and districts. Mission (LDS Church) A mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) is a geographical administrative area to which church missionaries are assigned. Almost all areas of the world are within the boundaries of an LDS Church mission, whether or not any of the church's missionaries live or proselytize in
826-477: Is the first time the mission was a truly regional one, supervising missionary work throughout much of the eastern United States. By the 1890s, the leaders of the church were beginning to encourage converts to no longer gather to Utah. With more church members from Utah moving east for employment and education, a nucleus was building around which the church could grow. Still, most people were baptized by missionaries traveling without purse or scrip. Unlike missions in
885-413: Is the organization of the missionaries. The mission president assigns missionary leaders to help him direct the work. Among the leadership assignments in the mission are assistants to the president, zone leaders, and district leaders. There are two or more missionaries who serve as assistants to the president (not to be confused with the counselors in the mission presidency). The assistants carry out
944-567: The Cherokee and the Creeks . There were also several converts made among the followers of Lyman Wight some of whom by that time were residing in Oklahoma. At the end of the year a company of 65 left for Utah. Early church apostle Parley P. Pratt was killed in the mission near Alma, Arkansas in 1857. An early leader of the mission here was Henry Eyring, who presided 1858 to 1860. Eyring
1003-477: The Cherokee in what is today Oklahoma . There were some converts made in the following five years, however, the mission was soon afterward disbanded. In 1865, John Taylor again organized the Eastern States Mission. However, this mission stopped functioning in 1869. The true advent of fully functioning missions, with missionaries functioning under a mission president, in the United States on
1062-764: The Chinese landmass and population. Outside of Hong Kong and Macau , there are no LDS missionaries in China. Prior to its split in November 2007 the India Bangalore Mission has the largest population amongst which proselytizing is allowed. This mission covers all of India, thus it has more than one billion inhabitants in its borders. It is unclear whether the New Delhi or Bangalore mission should now be considered to cover more inhabitants partly because
1121-564: The Melchizedek Priesthood ; his wife is asked to serve alongside him. In 2013 the mission president's wife was given additional leadership roles in the mission. Mission presidents are typically in their forties or older, and usually have the financial means to devote themselves full-time to the responsibility for three consecutive years. The church provides mission presidents with a minimal living allowance but it normally requires them to supplement it with their own funds. Often,
1180-580: The Native Americans . One such was headed by Orson Hyde and tried to convert the Shoshone in Wyoming . The Southern Indian Mission, with Jacob Hamblin as its most famous missionary, made much progress. These missions were often directed by church leaders in regular wards and stakes and did not become an organized mission at this time. There were three more missions organized at this time in
1239-647: The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles , one member of the Presiding Bishopric and the executive director of the church's Missionary Department, who is usually a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy . As of 1 August 2015, the executive director's identity is not known. Prior to August 2015, David F. Evans had been serving in this capacity. On 19 August 2015, it was announced that Bonnie L. Oscarson ,
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#17328020029401298-663: The San Francisco Bay Area . Henry S. Tanner arrived the next August, with missionaries, thus he was able to preside over missionaries. The headquarters of the mission remained in San Francisco, but by August 1895 a branch had been organized in Los Angeles. That year also marked the division of the California mission into Conferences . In 1893, the Eastern States Mission was organized again. This
1357-773: The San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906, the mission headquarters was relocated to Los Angeles from San Francisco. In the next few years the headquarters of the Central States Mission were moved to Independence, Missouri , and the headquarters of the Northwestern States Mission were moved to Portland, Oregon . By 1907, the Colorado Mission was renamed the Western States Mission. Also in these years,
1416-492: The 1850s the church also had an organization in St. Louis with first Erastus Snow and later Orson Spencer having a regional leadership position somewhat equivalent to that of a mission president, although neither was referred to by this title while they presided from St. Louis. In the western United States families would be called on settlement missions, but these were not primarily proselytizing missions. Some started as missions to
1475-684: The Eastern United States of America from 1830 on, no mission was organized until 1839. In this year a mission was organized in New York City presided over by John P. Greene . However, at this time missionaries continued to serve outside of regular mission areas. With the removal of the main body of the Saints to Utah Territory and other western states, the number of church members in the Eastern United States
1534-645: The Eastern United States, in this period missions in the Western States were generally set up in areas into which church members had already begun to move. The origins of the Northwestern States Mission go back to the Oregon Lumber Company which was run by David Eccles and Charles W. Nibley . Many Latter-day Saints worked in the company's offices in Baker City, Oregon , and a branch was organized there in 1893. At that point this branch
1593-494: The New Delhi mission covers Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan as well as northern India, and outside of Northern India does little formal proselytizing. Russia contains missions with very large areas. In the Russia Novosibirsk Mission, it is possible to take a 42-hour train ride to get to the city of Novosibirsk from some places within the mission boundaries. Missionaries are sometimes called to serve in
1652-642: The Temple Square Mission. The mission with the largest geographical area is currently the Micronesia Guam Mission, which covers an area that is roughly the size of the continental United States. However, the vast majority of this mission is composed of empty ocean. The largest mission in terms of geographical land mass and population is currently the China Hong Kong Mission, which encompasses nearly all of
1711-600: The Twelve. Much of the actual work of overseeing the missions is delegated to the Missionary Executive Council (MEC). This committee has roots in the Radio, Publicity and Missionary Literature Committee formed in the 1930s, with Stephen L. Richards as chair and Gordon B. Hinckley as executive secretary. In the late 1940s, Richards and Hinckley held the same positions, with Hinckley essentially fulfilling
1770-534: The United States as we define it today. The California Mission thrived for a short time with the presence of such men as Parley P. Pratt and George Q. Cannon . However, there were nearly as many men on gold-mining missions as regular proselytizing missions. By the time of the Utah War , the California Mission had largely stopped functioning. The Sandwich Islands Mission was begun in 1850. Among
1829-483: The area. As of July 2020, there were 407 missions of the church. Geographically, a mission may be a city, a city and surrounding areas, a state or province, or perhaps an entire country or even multiple countries. Typically, the name of the mission is the name of the country (or state in the United States), and then the name of the city where the mission headquarters office is located. New missionaries receive
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1888-416: The call of the gathering to Utah, given more power by the preaching and leadership of Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow , caused many of the saints to "flee Babylon and gather to Zion". The advent of the U.S. Civil War and its connection in the minds of the Saints with Joseph Smith's prophecies on war caused the vast majority of the Saints to leave the eastern United States and gather to Utah Territory. During
1947-415: The church being established in a sparsely populated area of the world. In these stake-less areas, the mission president is the presiding local church authority and he is responsible for the welfare of all the members, not just the missionaries. The mission is divided into districts (not to be confused with the other type of district mentioned above) which serve much the same role as stakes do. Each district
2006-423: The church is new or where there are insufficient numbers of church members to organize a stake. Prior to the late 1920s, districts were known as conferences . A district may be thought of as a stake in a beginning or embryonic state. A district has a function analogous to a stake, but is organized where there are too few members to organize a stake. Its relationship to a stake is similar to the relationship between
2065-633: The church operates. The title of "First Mission" is normally given to the British Mission, today considered the lineal ancestor of the England London Mission. This was begun under the direction of Heber C. Kimball in 1837. Missionary work had previously occurred in the United States and Canada, but missionaries were not organized into specific missions. The work of this mission began in Preston, England , largely because one of
2124-453: The church's General Young Women President, had been invited to become the first female member of the MEC. The church's Missionary Department works under the direction of the MEC. The Missionary Department does not develop policy, but oversees its implementation. It directs the missions of the church, along with the 15 Missionary Training Centers and the 20+ visitors' centers and historical sites
2183-485: The church. The other thing he did was supervise immigration from Europe to Utah, being the first to meet the saints when they came out of Castle Garden . He did preside over the few Saints in New York City but did not functionally administer the church in any larger region. On the eve of the American Civil War missionary work made much progress in New York City as well as other eastern metropolises. However
2242-429: The counselors varies by mission, but they typically serve as liaisons between the mission and the local membership of the church. In some areas where the church is newer senior men who are serving full-time missions along with their wives may be called as counselors in the mission presidency. Like other units of the church, a leadership council is used to assist in the governance of the mission. Prior to April 2013, this
2301-412: The direction of the mission president in organizing the mission; assigning companionships and proselytizing areas; and overseeing the welfare and training of the missionaries. Missionaries serving in a given geographic area typically bounded by stakes are organized into a zone. Zones are led by one or more zone leaders and sister training leaders. In many missions a companionship of elders constitutes
2360-541: The duties later undertaken by the missionary department. By the early 1970s, the MEC consisted of Spencer W. Kimball , Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson and Bruce R. McConkie , all members of the Quorum of the Twelve. L. Tom Perry was chairman of the executive committee for several years in the late 2000s. He was then succeeded by Russell M. Nelson . As of August 2015, most of the current members are not known. However, membership has historically included at least two members of
2419-611: The first missionaries sent to what are now called the Hawaiian Islands was George Q. Cannon who converted Jonatana Napela . The two of them translated the Book of Mormon into Hawaiian , and the church was able to gain many native Hawaiian converts. The last antebellum mission was the Indian Territory Mission. Organized in 1855 with Henry W. Miller as president, this mission mainly focused on teaching
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2478-623: The headquarters of the Southern States Mission moved from Chattanooga to Atlanta, Georgia . In 1919, the first major change to missions in more than 15 years occurred. Ontario , Manitoba and Québec were split from the Eastern States Mission and the Northern States Mission and organized as the Canadian Mission. In 1925, the North Central States Mission was organized with parts of the Western States, Northern States, and Canadian Missions included. In 1926, Ohio
2537-417: The membership has grown sufficiently, the branches may be converted into wards and the district may be converted into a stake. Typically, this will not occur until there are least five ward-sized congregations in the district. Once a district becomes a stake, the mission president is only responsible for the proselytizing missionaries in the area, not the local members of the church. The LDS Church mission with
2596-500: The mission leaders could play a role in organizing the emigration of Latter-day Saints to America. In 1929 when the British Mission was separated from the European Mission, its headquarters were moved to Birmingham . The headquarters were moved to London in about 1930 since by this time the church was no longer encouraging Latter-day Saints to emigrate from Britain. Although the church's missionaries served in many parts of
2655-414: The mission president must learn the local language spoken in the mission, as the missionaries do (although many mission presidents today have either previously served a mission in the mission language or speak the mission language as their native language). The mission president has at least two counselors, who are Latter-day Saints usually from the local area who keep their regular employment. The role of
2714-623: The missionaries Joseph Fielding had a brother there who initially opened his chapel to the missionaries preaching. Later they often preached at the location also used by the Temperance Society . The first convert in the British Mission was George D. Watt , who would later be important in the compilation of the Journal of Discourses . Within the first year of missionary work the headquarters of this mission were moved to Manchester . In 1840 they were moved again to Liverpool , largely so
2773-422: The missionaries, see after their welfare, conduct interviews, proselytize together, and share successes. Each missionary companionship has a geographical area which may include all or part of one ward and branch or even several wards or branches. The missionaries are responsible for preaching to the people in their own area. A mission's ecclesiastical line of authority is from the mission president down to
2832-408: The missionaries. The missionaries answer to the mission president directly, as opposed to the local branch president , bishop , or stake president . The other type of mission structure exists where there are no organized stakes of the church in an area due to a relatively small number of Latter-day Saints living in the area. This may be the result of the church being relatively new in an area or
2891-593: The smallest geographic area (approximately 10 acres) is the Utah Salt Lake Temple Square Mission, in which missionaries from around the world serve on Temple Square , often to visitors from their own homelands. These missionaries serve at Temple Square, and occasionally serve in another mission in another part of the United States for a few months, then return to Temple Square for the final months of their 18-month mission call. Only female missionaries and older, retired couples are called to
2950-493: The zone leaders. However, there are also missions where only one elder is designated the zone leader and his companion holds no special designation. The zones may be geographically large or small, depending on the mission. The number of missionaries in a zone also varies widely. The zones are divided into districts , each being led by a missionary assigned as a district leader . A district usually has two to four missionary companionships. The zone leaders and district leaders train
3009-500: Was Cyrus H. Wheelock . Wheelock had served as a missionary in both Iowa and Michigan about this time. The mission was organized in 1878. It was renamed the Northern States Mission in 1889. The mission headquarters were moved to Chicago in 1896. In 1883, the Indian Territory Mission was reestablished with Matthew W. Dalton as president. In 1898 it was renamed the Southwestern States Mission, signifying it
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#17328020029403068-617: Was administered through the Home Missionary Program at the stake level. In 1902, the Middle States Mission was created with Ben E. Rich as president. However, in 1903, Ephraim H. Nye, president of the Southern States mission, died. He was replaced by Ben E. Rich and the boundaries of the missions were realigned. In 1904, the Southwestern States Mission was renamed the Central States Mission. After
3127-418: Was an ancestor of the scientist Henry Eyring and apostle Henry B. Eyring . District (LDS Church) A district of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) is a geographical administrative unit composed of a number of congregations called branches . A district is a subdivision of a mission of the church and in many ways is analogous to a stake of the church. The leader of
3186-601: Was formally organized in 1897 George C. Parkinson served as president. The Northwestern States and Montana Missions were merged in 1898, at which time Franklin Bramwell , who had been president of the Montana Mission, was made president of the new mission, the entire region now being called the Northwestern States Mission. The Northwestern States Mission was headquartered in Baker City, Oregon. However, when
3245-602: Was not only teaching the Native Americans but everyone else in its jurisdiction who would listen. 1892 saw a mission organized in California . This marked the beginning of proselytizing there. John Dalton worked initially in Oakland and San Francisco. In 1893 Karl G. Maeser arrived as head of the Utah exhibit at the mid-winter fair in San Francisco. He also presided over the mission, focusing his efforts on gaining friends in
3304-456: Was often called a zone leader council, consisting of the mission president, assistants to the mission president and zone leaders. In April 2013 the zone leader council was replaced by the mission leadership council, which adds the mission president's wife and sister training leaders, a new position consisting of sister missionaries called to give leadership to other sister missionaries. Missions are organized in two parallel structures. The first
3363-572: Was part of the Oneida Stake headquartered in Preston, Idaho . In 1896 Edward Stevenson was appointed to go open a mission in Oregon , Montana and Washington . As a missionary Stevenson preached in Walla Walla, Washington , Spokane, Washington , Lewiston, Idaho and Baker City, Oregon . The Colorado and Montana Missions were created in 1896. When the Northwestern States Mission
3422-479: Was transferred to the Northern States Mission. To get a sense of how large these missions were, in 1922 part of southwest New Mexico was added to the jurisdiction of the California mission. The Missouri Independence Mission is one of the oldest missions. Its history goes back to 1855. In the 1855 General Conference the church called missionaries to the Indian Territory. They worked primarily with
3481-467: Was very small. As mission president of the Eastern States Mission, Wilford Woodruff tried to bring all the saints in New England and other eastern areas to move to Utah Territory. In 1854, after having been defunct for about three years, the Eastern States Mission was organized again. John Taylor presided over this mission. His main function was to publish a paper to disseminate the teachings of
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