Facts and Statistics

Ingeborg Zielinski went to school in the Netherlands and joined the Church there in October 1970. She returned to Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles in September 1971. Over the next few years, she met with a few Latter-day Saints that temporarily lived in or visited the country.

In 1973, Zielinski was crowned Miss Curacao. She hosted hourly radio programs and taught the family home evening program and other gospel subjects, which were well received across the island, though she used a non-denominational approach to her show. She was the most well-known member of the Church on the island.

Missionary work was opened and closed on Curacao in 1978 by the Venezuela Caracas Mission following many requests for missionaries by Zielinski. The Curacao Branch (a small congregation) was created in October 1979. Though missionaries had visited for a couple weeks at a time since 1972, it was not until mission president Wesley W. Craig, Jr. sent missionaries in 1982 and decided that meetings should be conducted in the local language of Papiamento that the Church began to progress among natives. A chapel was dedicated in August 1988.

Bonaire, which is part of Netherlands Antilles, had 79 members in 2004. The first branch was organized in September 1990.

Membership in Netherlands Antilles in 2002 was 342. 

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Sharellis F. Maria Browne
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