Turkey
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708
Total Church Membership
7
Congregations
History
Early leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints preached in Turkey in 1850, recognizing present-day Ephesus as the New Testament home of the Christian congregation to which Paul, Timothy and John belonged. In May 1854, Latter-day Saints organized a congregation in Turkey. It consisted of British Latter-day Saint soldiers who, along with allied forces from Turkey and France, fought against Russia in the Crimean War.
In 1884, the Church established the Turkish Mission and sent Jacob Spori, born in the Swiss Alps, to preach in Turkey. Three months after arriving in Istanbul and teaching himself the Turkish language, Spori began preaching. While there, he also taught English, French and German. Mischa Markow, a Hungarian living in Istanbul, joined the Church in 1887. After his baptism, he returned to Hungary to preach. In September 1889, the first Armenian converts were baptized in Aintab. For many years Church growth in Turkey was slow but efforts during recent decades have led to the organization of several new congregations. The first of these was organized in Ankara in October 1979. In 1991 the Church sent an estimated 13,000 blankets, 80,000 pounds of clothing, and funds for medical supplies to aid Kurdish refugees in Turkey.
Africa
Total Church Membership
849,568
Members
2,721
Congregations
Missions
45Missions
FamilySearch Centers
Temples
6Temples
Asia
Total Church Membership
1,298,181
Members
2,113
Congregations
Missions
45Missions
FamilySearch Centers
Temples
10Temples
Europe
Total Church Membership
507,748
Members
1,296
Congregations
Missions
35Missions
FamilySearch Centers
Temples
14Temples
North America
Total Church Membership
9,637,503
Members
18,423
Congregations
Missions
175Missions
FamilySearch Centers
Temples
120Temples
Oceania (Pacific)
Total Church Membership
599,065
Members
1,308
Congregations
Missions
17Missions
FamilySearch Centers
Temples
11Temples
South America
Total Church Membership
4,320,129
Members
5,629
Congregations