I’m also surprised that one of the German missions had more members than in all of Britain. But that is mainly due to all the migration of saints from England to the US.

Elder Uchtdorf mentioned at one General Conference that the main reason why Europe had so few members was that it was mostly depleted of members by immigration. However, I’m unaware of how much immigration occurred from continental Europe compared to the British Isles. My assumption is that immigration from continental Europe was much lower, both in terms of raw numbers and in terms of percent of members, than that of Great Britain.

By the end of 1941, there were two stakes in Canada (in southern Alberta) and one in Mexico (in Colonia Juarez). There was one stake in Hawaii (Laie). And there were 135 stakes in the continental United States. So, the majority of church members lived in stakes, and the overwhelming majority of those who did were in the United States.

Also, I thought it interesting that Elder McKay went to such lengths to assure listeners that the local European leaders were competent and duly authorized. Maybe a hint of ethnocentrism?

Oh, and only two missions in all of South America. Wow.

The post, for me, raises a question that perhaps Ardis or another reader could tackle: how were within payments handled when made by members to church units out of contact with Church HQ due to the war? Were they saved for future remittance to HQ, used and administered locally, or some combination of the two? I expect that the inability to remit tithing funds to Salt Lake was matched by an inability by Salt Lake to distribute funds to local units….or were tithing funds handled in a completely different way than today?

The numbers are interesting: over 40% of the total European membership of the church at that time was German, and another 20% was British. In April 1941, those two countries were effectively the only combatants. (That was two months before Germany invaded the Soviet Union and eight months it declared war on the U.S., and Italy, for all Mussolini’s bluster, really didn’t count.)

I’d like to know more about that British soldier at Dunkerque. (Or Dunkirk, even!) Was that story reported in the Millenial Star?

How wonderful is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Church that carries that Gospel in its fulness.