News Release

Church Historians Visit Australia

 Historians for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently visited with members in Australia. Elder Steven E Snow along with his wife Phyllis, Dr Reid & Shelley Neilson, and Lindsay & Tina Dil visited Tasmania, Melbourne and Sydney where they met with missionaries and congregations of all ages.

Elder Steven E. Snow serves as both as a senior Church leader and as Church Historian and Recorder for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Reid L. Neilson is the Assistant Church Historian and Managing Director of the Church History Department. Lindsay Dil and his wife Tina are the Church History Advisors in the Pacific.

The historians toured the Public Records Offices in Melbourne and Sydney where Church volunteers work together to gather and catalogue Australian records to be preserved for future posterity.

Missionary gatherings occurred in Melbourne and Sydney with the leaders, providing opportunities for a question and answer format discussion on early church history, as well as learning about the importance of keeping our own personal histories.

 

On Saturday 21st April, members who were baptised in the Sydney area prior to 1960 were invited to a reception to meet Elder & Sister Snow, Brother & Sister Neilsen and Brother & Sister Dil. These early members of the Church shared memories and stories of their baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Allen Murren reflected, “This is the first gathering that I can recall where these current living pioneers were invited to come together to be thanked and honoured.”

Pictures and posters of timelines of the history of the Church included names of all those who had been baptised in the early years in Australia.

 

Diane Morris, Ron Westbrook and Kent Scott shared their missionary memories with each other. They were three of the four missionaries that served their missions in the USA from Australia. Missionaries usually came from the United States to foreign countries including Australia, but this all changed in April 1961 when four missionaries from Australia were called to serve in the United States.

Pacific Area Church History Advisor Lindsay Dil remarked, “The goal of Church history worldwide is to collect, preserve and share information and physical items that help us remember and inspire future generations.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a worldwide Church with a membership 15.9 million with 148,862 members in Australia.

 

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