The Church Educational System (CES) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consists of several institutions that provide religious and secular education for both Latter-day Saint and non–Latter-day Saint elementary, secondary, and post-secondary students and adult learners. Approximately 700,000 individuals were enrolled in CES programs in 143 countries in 2011. CES courses of study are separate and distinct from religious instruction provided through wards. Paul V. Johnson, a General Authority Seventy, has been the CES Commissioner since August 1, 2019.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was unofficially established in South Korea as early as World War II due to religious influence by LDS servicemen; however, Korean people did not begin to get baptized until the missionary efforts of LDS servicemen during the Korean War. Kim Ho Jik was the first Korean person to be baptized in the LDS Church on July 29, 1951 in New York. Two of his children were of the first four Korean people baptized in Korea on August 3, 1952. LDS Church presence and missionary work was officially established on April 20, 1956 with the arrival of two missionaries: Don G. Powell and Richard L. Detton. The Korean Mission opened on July 8, 1962 with Gail E. Carr as the first president of the mission. Successful missionary work led to the growth of the LDS Church in the 1960s and 1970s leading to the organization of the first stake in Korea in 1973 and the dedication of the first temple in Seoul on December 14, 1985.
John Holbrook Groberg has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1976. He is the author of The Eye of the Storm, and was the protagonist in the movie made from the book titled The Other Side of Heaven.
John Murdock was an early convert to the Latter Day Saint movement and was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mentioned twice in the Doctrine and Covenants, he devoted most of his life to full-time missionary service for the LDS Church. He was the first mission president for the LDS Church in Australia where he oversaw the official organization of the church in the country and its early growth. A compatriot of Joseph Smith, Murdock attended School of the Prophets and participated in Zion's Camp. After the death of his first wife in childbirth, Joseph and Emma Smith adopted his infant twins. Julia Murdock Smith, who survived to adulthood, was the eldest child and only daughter of the Smiths.
George Carlos Smith Jr. was the eleventh general superintendent of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association (YMMIA)of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1962 to 1969.
Joseph Thomas Fyans was a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1974 until his death.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established in the Hawaiian Islands in 1850, 11 years after the Edict of Toleration was decreed by Kamehameha III, giving the underground Hawaii Catholic Church the right to worship, and at the same time allowing other faith traditions to begin establishing themselves.
August Joel Höglund was a Swedish convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was the first Mormon missionary to preach in Russia.
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.
Richard Lloyd Anderson was an American lawyer and theologist of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who was a professor of church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University (BYU). His book Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses is widely considered the definitive work on this subject. Anderson was the brother of Karl Ricks Anderson.
Ralph Lanier Britsch was a history professor at Brigham Young University who specialized in the history of missionary work by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, particularly in the Pacific Islands and Asia.
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.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established in Japan in 1901 when the church's first missionaries arrived on August 12. Among them was Heber J. Grant, who was then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve and later became the church's 7th president. Horace S. Ensign, Louis A. Kelsch and Alma O. Taylor accompanied Grant. The LDS Church's first baptism in Japan was on March 8, 1902, when Grant baptized Hajime Nakazawa, a former Kannushi. The Book of Mormon was translated three times. The first translation, which took over six years, was completed by Taylor in 1909. It was then recommended that the Book of Mormon be translated into bunshō, a more elegant literary style, which was done by Chōkō Ikuta in 1909, shortly before it was published and distributed. The second translation in 1957 was done by Tatsui Sato. In 1995, the Book of Mormon was translated again into a more colloquial style.
Brigham Roland Smoot was a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an executive of the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company. He was one of the two first missionaries to preach in Tonga and served as president of the Tongan mission from July 1891 to October 1892. Smoot was the son of Abraham O. Smoot and the brother of Reed Smoot.
Otto Vincent Haleck, Jr. has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 2011. He is the first person from American Samoa or Samoa to become a general authority of the LDS Church and is also the first non–New Zealander from the Pacific Islands in this position.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in French Polynesia was founded in 1843 as the first foreign-language mission of the church. It existed until 1852 when it was closed due to restrictions by the French government, and the missionaries left the territory. In 1892, the mission resumed with the return of the missionaries after general religious tolerance was established. It consists of 25,841 members, one mission, and one temple.
As of 6 April 2019, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reported 21,227 members in four stakes, three district, and 50 congregations, one mission, and one temple in Fiji. Currently one in forty three Fiji islanders is identified as a member of the LDS Church.
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.
Liahona High School is a high school in Tonga owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Thailand was officially established in 1966 when it was dedicated for missionary work by Gordon B. Hinckley. A previous attempt at missionary work was made in 1854 when Brigham Young sent four missionaries to Thailand. The only missionary to arrive was Elam Luddington whose only baptisms during his four-month service in Thailand were a non-Thai ship captain and his wife on April 9, 1854. The first known baptism of a native in Thailand was for Nangnoi Thitapoora on September 11, 1966. The Book of Mormon was translated twice. The first translation, which took about six years, was completed in 1976 by Srilaksana Suntarahut. A new translation was completed in 2010.
