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

As of year-end 2007, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reported 25,296 members, 5 stakes, 32 wards, and 24 branches in Arkansas. [LDS Newsroom (Statistical Information) [http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/contact-us/usa-arkansas] ]

History

Elders Wilford Woodruff and Henry Brown arrived as missionaries in Bentonville on January 28, 1835. They held their first meeting four days later and preached to an attentive congregation. Later they were confronted by an apostate member, Alexander Akeman. [Excerpts from The Life and Times of Wilford Woodruff, a Mormon Prophet [http://www.signaturebooks.com/excerpts/heaven.htm ] ] Akeman was a man who earlier endured severe persecution in Missouri, but later turned bitterly against the Church. However, this man died suddenly and Elder Woodruff preached his funeral sermon. This event, along with Woodruff's teachings led to the baptism of a Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Hubbel, the first converts in Arkansas, on 22 February 1835.

In 1838, Elder Abraham O. Smoot was called to a five-month mission to Arkansas where he preached frequently with varied results.

The year 1857 marked a tragic era in Church history in Arkansas. Elder Parley P. Pratt was murdered in on May 13, 1857 near Alma, Arkansas. ["Parley P. Pratt's Gravesite [http://www.angells.com/pratt/default.asp] ] He had just been acquitted by a court in Van Buren of charges pressed by Hector H. McLean, the former husband of Pratt's wife Eleanor. At the trial she testified that her former husband frequently physically abused her. Disappointed with the verdict, the McLean followed and assassinated the apostle. On April 2, 2008, Crawford County Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell gave the Pratt family permission to move Parley Pratt's remains to Utah. [ Reburial for Pratt in Utah(Friday, April 4, 2008)LDS Church News [http://www.ldschurchnews.com/cn/archives/1,2407,,00.html] ]

Later that same year, a party of Arkansas immigrants heading for California were killed by a group of Latter-day Saints and Indians in southern Utah at Mountain Meadows. This is also known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. [Mountain Meadows Massacure [http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=1c234dc029133110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&locale=0] ]

Negative feelings, and later the U.S. Civil War, kept the Church from the area for the next two decades.

After the War, the church again sent missionaries to Arkansas in 1876. In 1877, Elders Henry G. Boyle and J.D.H. McAllister visited a member in Des Arc. By 1877, 27 families totaling 125 converts emigrated west. Through the 1880s, converts continued to join the main body of the saints in Utah. [The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=3695#] ]

Permanent presence of the church was established on May 30, 1890 when the fist Latter-day Saint meetinghouse was built in White County. Benjamin Franklin Baker, an early influential convert, helped establish the Barney Branch (about 5 miles north of Enola) in 1914 with over 100 members. By 1930, three branches had been organized in Arkansas (Barney, El Dorado, and Little Rock) with a total membership of 944.

The first Arkansas stake was created on June 1, 1969 in Little Rock. This was known at the time as the Arkansas stake and later renamed to the Little Rock Arkansas Stake. [Deseret News Church Almanac, 2008 [http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10151&productId=10309&langId=-1&storeId=10151] ]

The first institute building, adjacent to the University of Arkansas, was dedicated in the fall of 1999. [Fayetteville Institute of Religion [http://www.lds.org/institutes/home/0,8473,768-1-36-60520,00.html] ]

On July 20-22, 2006, over 1,000 Latter-day Saint teens from all 5 of the Arkansas Stakes gathered for a 3-day multi-stake youth conference. Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve and former associate dean of Graduate Studies in the College of Business Administration at the University of Arkansas spoke to the youth and encouraged them to live high moral standards. [Display integrity, apostle tells youth(July 29, 2006)LDS Church News [http://www.ldschurchnews.com/cn/archives/1,2407,,00.html] ]

Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, several thousand Latter-day Saint volunteers, from a 7 state area (including Arkansas), went to Louisiana and Mississippi. Many of them taking time out of their jobs or came down on the weekends to help anyone needing assistance regardless of faith. [Latter-day Saints to Mobilize Another 4,000 Volunteers in Chainsaw Brigade’s Second Wave [http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/latter-day-saints-to-mobilize-another-4-000-volunteers-in-chainsaw-brigade-s-second-wave] ] [Joining Hands as Neighbors and Now Friends [http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/joining-hands-as-neighbors-and-now-friends] ]

Arkansas "Mormons" volunteered relief in their own area on several occasions including the April 2, 2006 Tornado Outbreak, [Church members help with clean-up, roof repair (July 29, 2006)LDS Church News [http://www.ldschurchnews.com/cn/archives/1,2407,,00.html] ] and the 2008 Super Tuesday tornado outbreak. [Helping Hands [http://www.angells.com/HelpingHands/] ] In September 2008, Arkansas Latter-day Saints went to the Baton Rouge area to aid clean up efforts following Hurricane Gustav.

Arkansas Membership History

Missions

Arkansas formed part of several church missions. Originally a conference of the Southern States Mission, it later became part of the Indian Territory Mission. Southwestern States Mission, Central States Mission, Texas-Louisiana Mission, Gulf States Mission, and ultimately the Arkansas Little Rock Mission formed in 1975 with Richard M. Richards as president.

The northwest part of the state is in the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission. The far South and Southwest part of the state is in the Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission, and the Texas Dallas Mission Respectively.

A few significant members

* Elder David A. Bednar is a former associate dean of Graduate Studies in the [http://waltoncollege.uark.edu College of Business Administration] at the University of Arkansas. While at the University of Arkansas, he served as stake president for the Fort Smith Arkansas Stake and then for the Rogers Stake. He later became the president for Ricks College in Idaho and ultimately was sustained member of the Quorum of the twelve Apostles in 2004. [Elder David A. Bednar [http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/background-information/leader-biographies/elder-david-a-bednar] ]

* H. Wallace Goddard, Ph.D., is a Professor and Family Life Specialist with the [http://www.uaex.edu/ University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service] . He has created numerous family programs and a PBS television series and has served on national committees for parenting and marriage. [Dr. Wally Goddard [http://www.drwally.org/about/] ] He is also a CES Institute faculty member for the Little Rock Institute. [Little Rock Stake Institute Faculty [http://www.lds.org/institutes/faculty/0,8498,775-1-36-60145,00.html] ]

* Amy Daniel of the Benton Ward, Little Rock Arkansas Stake, is a former president of the Arkansas School Boards Association. [ Arkansas School Boards Association [http://www.arsba.org/boardofdirectors.html] ]

* Dottie Zimmerman,then 24, of the Ash Flat Branch, North Little Rock Arkansas Stake, received three bronze medals in powerlifting at the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Dublin, Ireland, June 16-29, 2003. Dottie had been trained in the bench press, deadlift and combination-bench and deadlift. Her team spent four days in Belfast before traveling to Dublin for the opening of the games. Dottie competed earlier that year in the Arkansas Special Olympics in Searcy, Arkansas, at which she received three gold medals.

See also

* The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints membership statistics (United States)

References

External links

* [http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=3695# The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture]
* [http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/contact-us/usa-arkansas LDS Newsroom (Statistical Information)]
* [http://www.angells.com/pratt/ Parley P. Pratt Grave Site]
* [http://www.angells.com/HelpingHands/ Mormon Helping Hands]