The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Arkansas
As of December 31, 2019, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reported 32,307 members in seven stakes, 69 congregations, 25 Family History Centers, two missions, and one temple announced in 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. 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. 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.
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.
Permanent presence of the church was established on May 30, 1890 when the first Latter-day Saint meetinghouse was built in White County. Benjamin Franklin Baker, an early influential convert, helped establish the Barney Branch in 1914 with over 100 members. By 1930, three branches had been organized in Arkansas 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.
The first institute building, adjacent to the University of Arkansas, was dedicated in the fall of 1999.
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.
Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, several thousand Latter-day Saint volunteers, from a 7 state area, 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.
Arkansas Latter-day Saints volunteered relief in their own area on several occasions including the April 2, 2006 Tornado Outbreak, and the 2008 Super Tuesday tornado outbreak. In September 2008, Arkansas Latter-day Saints went to the Baton Rouge area to aid cleanup efforts following Hurricane Gustav. Church members from northwest Arkansas and West Plains, Missouri Stake assisted in the Joplin, Missouri tornado cleanup in 2011, completing over 7,400 work orders. Arkansas members from Little Rock, North Little Rock, and Searcy Stakes again provided volunteers to help clean up homes in the Baton Rouge area following the 2016 flood, completing over 1,400 work orders.
On Oct. 5, 2019 plans to construct a temple in Bentonville were announced during the Women's Session of General Conference.
In 2020, the LDS Church canceled services and other public gatherings indefinitely in response to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
Arkansas Membership History
Stakes
Arkansas is currently part of 13 stakes. 7 of those stakes have their stake center within the state. On October 26, 2014 the Bentonville Arkansas Stake was established making it the 7th stake in Arkansas. Two stakes were formed in 2014. Since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have no paid clergy, stake presidents, bishops, etc. have their own occupation.Arkansas Stakes
- The Arkansas Stake was renamed to the Little Rock Arkansas Stake.
- The Jacksonville Arkansas Stake was renamed the North Little Rock Arkansas stake when the stake center was moved to North Little Rock.
Other Stakes with congregations in Arkansas
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 Arkansas Bentonville Mission, renamed in 2015 from the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission. The far south and southwest parts of the state are in the Mississippi Jackson Mission and the Texas Dallas Mission respectively.
Significant members that lived in Arkansas
- Elder David A. Bednar is a former associate dean of Graduate Studies in the 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.
- Amy Daniel of the Benton Ward, Little Rock Arkansas Stake, is a former president of the Arkansas School Boards Association.
- 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.
- Robert L. Hall, CEC, of the Morrilton Ward, North Little Rock Arkansas Stake, served as chef garde manger at the International Broadcast Center during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China, May - August, 2008. Hall, former Executive Chef of the University of Central Arkansas, currently Culinary Director for the University of Arkansas System, Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain, Morrilton, Arkansas.
- Elder Taniela B. Wakolo, of Fiji, served as president of the Arkansas Little Rock Mission from July 2014 to June 2017. During the April 2017 General Conference he was sustained as a General Authority of the Church.
- Elder Michael V. Beheshti, of Little Rock, was sustained as an Area Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at General Conference on 22 April 2016. He serves in the North America Southeast Area.
- Elder David J. Harris, of Siloam Springs, Arkansas, was sustained as an Area Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at General Conference on 31 March 2018. He serves in the North America Southwest Area.