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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sweden

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sweden
(Logo in Swedish)
The Stockholm Sweden Temple
AreaEurope North
Members9,531 (2022)[1]
Stakes4
Districts1
Wards25
Branches15
Total Congregations[2]40
Missions1
Temples
  • 1 Operating
FamilySearch Centers37[3]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) (Swedish: Jesu Kristi Kyrka av Sista Dagars Heliga), headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, has been in Sweden since 1850.[4][5]

History

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Sunday School in Oslo ca 1902
Membership
YearMembers
19301,854
19401,614
19501,483
19602,569
19704,722
19806,888
1989*7,700
19998,587
20098,966
20199,649
*Membership was published as an estimate or rounded number.
Source: Windall J. Ashton; Jim M. Wall, Deseret News, various years, Church Almanac Country Information: Sweden[1]

The Book of Mormon was translated into Swedish in 1878.[6] As with many other Scandinavian converts, Swedish LDS were encouraged to emigrate to the US and build up "Zion" there; these included the ancestors of a previous church president, Thomas S. Monson, whose grandfather, Nels Monson (born Torhamn), emigrated at the age of 16. This depleted local numbers for a number of decades, until in the late twentieth century, this policy was discontinued, and a temple built within the country itself.

As of 2021, the LDS Church counted its number of members in Sweden to be just above 9,528, divided into 5 regional units with a total of 40 congregations.[7][verification needed] This was an increase in membership from 2014, which was 9,463.[8] The Church also maintains one temple in the country, the Stockholm Sweden Temple, in Västerhaninge.

The Swedish Rescue

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Around 2010, a number of Swedish members of the LDS Church, including former area seventy Hans Mattsson, began to doubt the veracity of the church.[9] Marlin K. Jensen, a church general authority, and historian Richard E. Turley Jr. soon after conducted a fireside, an informal church meeting, at the Västerhaninge Chapel in Stockholm, Sweden, on November 28, 2010.[10][11] The audio was surreptitiously recorded and sparked much discussion and interest in the blogosphere.[12][13][14]

Membership history of the LDS Church in Sweden
Service in Gubbängen in 2015

Stakes

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A meetinghouse next to the Stockholm Sweden Temple

As of February 2023, the following stakes were located in Sweden:

Mission Organized
Göteborg Sweden Stake 20 Nov 1977
Malmö Sweden Stake 1 Sep 1996
Stockholm Sweden Stake 20 Apr 1975
Stockholm Sweden South Stake 20 Aug 1995
Umeå Sweden District 1 Jan 1960

Missions

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  • Sweden Stockholm Mission: On June 15, 1905, the Swedish Mission was organized from the Scandinavian Mission, which was renamed the Danish-Norwegian Mission.[15][16] When established, the mission covered Sweden, Finland, Russia and northern Germany, with Petter Matson as its president.[17] It has since been split among other missions, reducing the area of the mission to only Sweden.

Temples

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A guest house for the Stockholm Sweden Temple
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Location:
Announced:
Groundbreaking:
Dedicated:
Size:
Style: 		Västerhaninge, Sweden
1 April 1981 by Spencer W. Kimball
17 March 1984 by Thomas S. Monson
2–4 July 1985 by Gordon B. Hinckley
31,000 sq ft (2,900 m2) on a 4.47-acre (1.81 ha) site
Modern adaptation of six-spire design - designed by John Sjostrom and Church A&E Services

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Facts and Statistics: Statistics by Country: Sweden", Newsroom, LDS Church, retrieved 3 June 2023
  2. ^ Excludes groups meeting separate from wards and branches
  3. ^ Sweden Family History Centers, familysearch.org, retrieved August 29, 2022
  4. ^ "Historia" (in Swedish). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sweden. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  5. ^ Inger Höglund. "Kyrkan i Sverige: Tillväxt, emigration och styrka" (in Swedish). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sweden. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  6. ^ Anderson, Kai A. (June 1997), "In His Own Language", Liahona: 29
  7. ^ "The Church's local webpage for Sweden". Jesu Kristi Kyrka av Sista Dagars Heliga. 2015. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  8. ^ Höglund, Inger (December 2014). "The Church in Sweden". churchofjesuschrist.org. Ensign. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  9. ^ Goodstein, Laurie. "Some Mormons Search the Web and Find Doubt", The New York Times, 20 July 2013. Retrieved on 22 March 2020.
  10. ^ "REMEMBERING THE SWEDISH RESCUE, FROM THOSE WHO ATTENDED", Mormon Stories, 25 September 2018. Retrieved on 22 March 2020.
  11. ^ "2010 Sweden Fireside held November 28, 2010 (Transcript)", FairMormon, 2010. Retrieved on 22 March 2020.
  12. ^ "A FairMormon Response to Questions Asked at 2010 Swedish Fireside (a.k.a. the "Swedish Rescue")", FairMormon, 2010. Retrieved on 22 March 2020.
  13. ^ "Apologetics of the "Swedish Rescue"". 21 July 2012.
  14. ^ "Swedish Rescue".
  15. ^ "Swedish Mission", Church History: Missionary Database, 2020. Retrieved on 22 March 2020.
  16. ^ Johansson, Carl-Erik. "History of the Swedish Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints", BYU Scholars Archive, August 1973. Retrieved on 22 March 2020.
  17. ^ Potter, Damion. "Swedish Mission centennial celebrated", Church News, 15 July 2005. Retrieved on 23 March 2020.
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