Gudmund Gudmundson (Icelandic: Guðmundur Guðmundsson) (March 10, 1825 – September 21, 1883) was one of the first Icelanders to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and was among the first Mormon missionaries to preach in Iceland.
Icelandic is a North Germanic language spoken in Iceland. Along with Faroese, Norn, and Western Norwegian it formerly constituted West Nordic; while Danish, Eastern Norwegian and Swedish constituted East Nordic. Modern Norwegian Bokmål is influenced by both groups, leading the Nordic languages to be divided into mainland Scandinavian languages and Insular Nordic. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages until the Portuguese settlement in the Azores.
Icelanders are a North Germanic ethnic group and nation who are native to the island country of Iceland and speak Icelandic.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian, Christian restorationist church that is considered by its members to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States, and has established congregations and built temples worldwide. According to the church, it has over 16 million members and 67,000 full-time volunteer missionaries. In 2012, the National Council of Churches ranked the church as the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States, with over 6.5 million members reported by the church, as of January 2018. It is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith during the period of religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening.
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Gudmundson was born in Artun, Rangárvallasýsla, Iceland. He was christened a Lutheran on March 23, 1825.
Rangárvallasýsla was a county of Iceland, located in the Southern Region of the country and the South Constituency. The county extended from the highlands, between the ice caps of Hofsjökull and Vatnajökull, to the south coast. Municipalities within Rangárvallasýsla were Rangárþing ytra, Rangárþing eystra and Ásahreppur. The main towns were Hella and Hvolsvöllur.
In 1845, Gudmundson moved to Denmark to study goldsmithing. In 1851, while living in Copenhagen, Gudmundson heard LDS Church missionaries Peter O. Hansen and Erastus Snow preaching Mormonism. He was baptized into the LDS Church on February 15, 1851, by Hansen, and on April 18, 1851, he was given the Aaronic priesthood and ordained a teacher by Snow.
Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Nordic country and the southernmost of the Scandinavian nations. Denmark lies southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and is bordered to the south by Germany. The Kingdom of Denmark also comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean: the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark proper consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand, Funen and the North Jutlandic Island. The islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. Denmark has a total area of 42,924 km2 (16,573 sq mi), land area of 42,394 km2 (16,368 sq mi), and the total area including Greenland and the Faroe Islands is 2,210,579 km2 (853,509 sq mi), and a population of 5.8 million.
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Historically, goldsmiths also have made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and serviceable utensils, ceremonial or religious items, and rarely using Kintsugi, but the rising prices of precious metals have curtailed the making of such items to a large degree.
Copenhagen is the capital and most populous city of Denmark. As of July 2018, the city has a population of 777,218. It forms the core of the wider urban area of Copenhagen and the Copenhagen metropolitan area. Copenhagen is situated on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand; another small portion of the city is located on Amager, and is separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the strait of Øresund. The Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by rail and road.
On May 21, 1851, Gudmundson travelled to Vestmannaeyjar to preach. Shortly thereafter, he went back to his hometown of Artun to preach, but found no one willing to listen to his message. Gudmundson continued preaching in Iceland until July 1854. Eventually, he was given the Melchizedek priesthood by one of his missionary companions, after which he baptized nine individuals into the LDS Church. On June 19, 1853, the first branch of the LDS Church in Iceland was established on Vestmannaeyjar, with Gudmundson as branch president.
Vestmannaeyjar is a municipality and archipelago off the south coast of Iceland.
The Melchizedek priesthood is the greater of the two orders of priesthood recognized in Mormonism. The other is the Aaronic priesthood. The Patriarchal priesthood which is sometimes confused as a separate priesthood was explained by Boyd K. Packer, an apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as:
The patriarchal order is not a third, separate priesthood. Whatever relates to the patriarchal order is embraced in the Melchizedek Priesthood. "All other authorities or offices in the church are appendages to [the Melchizedek] priesthood." The patriarchal order is a part of the Melchizedek Priesthood which enables endowed and worthy men to preside over their posterity in time and eternity.
A branch president is a leader of a "branch" congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In July 1854, Gudmundson returned to Denmark to preach. He spent most of his time on Zealand and was imprisoned for preaching Mormonism in Kalundborg. He was released after seven weeks, but was immediately conscripted into the Danish army. After just over one year, Gudmundson was released from military service due to ill health.
Kalundborg is a Danish city with a population of 16,523, the main town of the municipality of the same name and the site of its municipal council. It is situated on the northwestern coast of the largest Danish island, Zealand, on the opposite, eastern side of which lies Copenhagen, 110 km (68 mi) away.
On April 18, 1857, Gudmundson left Copenhagen on a ship bound for America. He arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in Utah Territory on September 13, 1857. While emigrating to Utah, Niels Garff, one of Gudmundson's Danish converts, grew ill and died. Just prior to his death, Garff asked Gudmundson if he would marry his wife after he had died. Gudmundson agreed, and on October 4, 1857, Gudmundson and Marie Garff were married in Salt Lake City. They had three sons together. After arriving in Utah, Gudmundson began using the Anglicised form of his name.
Salt Lake Valley is a 500-square-mile (1,300 km2) valley in Salt Lake County in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It contains Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs, notably Murray, Sandy, South Jordan, West Jordan, and West Valley City; its total population is 1,029,655 as of 2010. Brigham Young said "this is the right place", when he and his fellow settlers moved into Utah after being driven out of several states.
The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th state.
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous municipality of the U.S. state of Utah. With an estimated population of 190,884 in 2014, the city is the core of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a population of 1,153,340. Salt Lake City is further situated within a larger metropolis known as the Salt Lake City–Ogden–Provo Combined Statistical Area, a corridor of contiguous urban and suburban development stretched along a 120-mile (190 km) segment of the Wasatch Front, comprising a population of 2,423,912. It is one of only two major urban areas in the Great Basin.
In the early 1860s, Gudmundson and his wife became involved with the Church of the Firstborn, a schismatic sect of Latter Day Saints led by Joseph Morris. They were excommunicated from the LDS Church, and Gudmundson became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Morrisites. Gudmundson was involved in the Morrisite War and was afterwards arrested and fined $100 for resisting arrest. He was later pardoned by territorial governor Stephen S. Harding.
Following the Morrisite War, the Gudmundsons ended their affiliation with the Morrisites and lived in Utah County, Utah, and Sacramento, California. In 1869, they moved to Draper, Utah Territory and were rebaptized into the LDS Church. In 1871, they moved to Lehi, Utah Territory.
Gudmundson died in Logan, Utah Territory, while living there temporarily with one of his stepsons. He was buried in Draper.
