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 considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The church is headquartered in the United States in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has established congregations and built temples worldwide. According to the church, it has over 16.6 million members and 51,000 full-time volunteer missionaries. The church is the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States, with over 6.7 million members as of 2021. It is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith during the early 19th-century period of religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening.
Latter Day Saints and Mormons have been portrayed in popular media many times. These portrayals often emphasize controversy such as polygamy or myths about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other Latter Day Saint movement religions.
Fred Emmett Woods IV is a Brigham Young University professor of Latter-day Saint Church History and Mormon Doctrine, an author specializing in Mormon migration and the Globalization of Mormonism.
Loren Charles Dunn was a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1968 until his death.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Arkansas refers to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in Arkansas. The first branch in Arkansas was organized in 1890. It has since grown to 32,307 members in 69 congregations.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has had a presence in Tonga since 1891. The Tongan Mission was organized in 1916. However, due to anti-Mormon rumors and government policies, the LDS Church did not grow steadily in Tonga until 1924. Between 1946 and 1956, church leaders published Tongan translations of the scriptures and built a church-sponsored school known as the Liahona School. In 1968, Tonga's first LDS stake was organized and the Nuku'alofa Tonga Temple was dedicated in 1983.
Jay Edwin Jensen has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1992. He served as a member of the church's Presidency of the Seventy from 2008 to 2012. Jensen was designated an emeritus general authority in the October 2012 general conference.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Australia began with the arrival of seventeen-year-old missionary Willian James Barratt in 1840. The LDS Church's first baptism in Australia was in 1842 when Barratt baptised Robert Beauchamp, who would later become an Australian mission president. However, official missionary work did not begin until John Murdock, who became the first official mission president in Australia, and Charles Wandell established a mission in Sydney, Australia on 31 October 1851. The colonies of New Zealand and Tasmania were added to the Australian Mission in 1854, creating the Australasian Mission. In 1898, however, the Australasian Mission was divided into the New Zealand Mission and the Australian Mission.
Patrick Kearon has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 2010 and a member of the Presidency of the Seventy since August 2017. On August 1, 2020, Kearon became the Senior President of the Seventy, becoming the first in this role to have been born outside the United States since the reconstitution of the Presidency of the Seventy in 1975.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established in Brazil in 1926 with the opening of the South American Mission. Missionary work was focused on small German immigrant colonies in South Brazil. The LDS Church was forced to expand missionary work to Brazilians and Portuguese speakers when non-Portuguese languages were banned in public meetings in 1938. The Brazil Mission was opened on February 9, 1935 with Rulon S. Howells as mission president. The first Book of Mormon translated into Portuguese was published in 1939.
Three missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started proselyting to white English-speaking people in Cape Town in 1853. Most converts from this time emigrated to the United States. The mission was closed in 1865, but reopened in 1903.The South African government limited the amount of missionaries allowed to enter the country in 1921 and in 1955. Starting around 1930, a man had to trace his genealogy out of Africa to be eligible for the priesthood, since black people were not permitted to be ordained. In 1954 when church president David O. McKay visited South Africa, he removed the requirement for genealogical research for a man to be ordained, stipulating only that "there is no evidence of his having Negro blood in his veins".
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Portugal refers to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in Portugal. As of 2019, the LDS Church reported 45,576 members in 687 congregations in Portugal, making it the third largest body of LDS Church members in Europe behind the United Kingdom and Spain. In 2019, Portugal had the most LDS Church members per capita in Europe. Nearly all members are native Portuguese or permanent immigrants from former Portuguese territories.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had a presence in Russia before the rise of the USSR, with the first baptisms occurring in 1895. Preliminary missionary efforts began before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the Russian government officially recognized the church in 1991. Membership increased in the 1990s and early 2000s. Missionary efforts were impacted by the 2016 Yarovaya law, which prohibited proselytizing outside of official church property. Current membership statistics are not available for Russia, but the church reported 19,946 members in 2009. As of 2021, there were three stakes and five missions in Russia. In 2018, Russell M. Nelson announced that a temple would be constructed in a major city in Russia.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has had a presence in Italy since 1850.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Wales refers to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in Wales.
Relations between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the natives of the Pacific Island groups of Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia and surrounding island groups are quite complex.
Karl Michael Tilleman is an attorney and two-time Canadian Olympian. Among his accomplishments, Tilleman holds the Olympic record for the most three-point baskets in a single basketball game, hitting ten of sixteen three-point shots, and scoring 21 points in a row for Canada, in a game against Spain in the 1988 Seoul Olympics (highlight video). His Olympic and other international performances against such hall of fame basketball players as Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, and Charles Barkley led team coach, Jack Donohue, to call him "the best three-point shooter in the world." His Olympic three-point record has never been broken, but has been tied twice, most recently by Carmelo Anthony of the US, in 2012.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Iceland refers to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in Iceland. Missionary efforts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began in 1851 with the baptisms of two native Icelanders visiting Denmark. They returned to Iceland to share the gospel. Missionary work has continued since then, although there were no permanent missionaries in Iceland from 1914 to 1974. As of 2016, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had 274 members in Iceland, divided into 3 congregations. There is also one Family History Center.
Spirit of the Game is a 2016 biographical film written and directed by Darran Scott aka Darran Page with cinematography by Brian J. Breheny. The film is based on the true story of the Mormon Yankees, an American basketball team which played in exhibition games before the 1956 Summer Olympics. The film stars, Aaron Jakubenko, Kevin Sorbo, Wade Briggs, Grant Pino and Anna McGahan.
The 1998 kidnapping of Mormon missionaries in Saratov, Russia involved the abduction of two missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Andrew Lee Propst and Travis Robert Tuttle, on March 18, 1998. One of the kidnappers had a friend invite the missionaries to his apartment in Saratov, Russia. Upon entry, they were hit in the head, driven to a separate location, and photographed as part of the kidnappers' demand for $300,000. A ransom note was left at the house of a local member of the LDS Church. The missionaries were released on March 22 after four days in captivity, without the ransom being paid. It was the first major incident involving foreign missionaries to occur in the "Russian heartland."
