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    Turkey Click here for the Turkey Newsroom

    658

    Total Church Membership

    1-in-

    9

    Congregations

    0 Wards
    9 Branches

    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

    Members
    Congregations

    791,837

    Members

    2,559

    Congregations

    Missions

    40Missions

    FamilySearch Centers

    421

    Temples

    6Temples

    Asia

    Total Church Membership

    Members
    Congregations

    1,281,560

    Members

    2,103

    Congregations

    Missions

    45Missions

    FamilySearch Centers

    368

    Temples

    8Temples

    Europe

    Total Church Membership

    Members
    Congregations

    503,692

    Members

    1,318

    Congregations

    Missions

    36Missions

    FamilySearch Centers

    660

    Temples

    14Temples

    North America

    Total Church Membership

    Members
    Congregations

    9,551,107

    Members

    18,426

    Congregations

    Missions

    175Missions

    FamilySearch Centers

    2,819

    Temples

    113Temples

    Oceania (Pacific)

    Total Church Membership

    Members
    Congregations

    591,950

    Members

    1,308

    Congregations

    Missions

    18Missions

    FamilySearch Centers

    317

    Temples

    11Temples

    South America

    Total Church Membership

    Members
    Congregations

    4,269,273

    Members

    5,616

    Congregations

    Missions

    97Missions

    FamilySearch Centers

    1,119

    Temples

    24Temples