Illinois Nauvoo Mission Created

The Illinois Nauvoo Mission, the Church’s 334th, was created on 1 November 2000. The new mission unifies missionaries involved in a variety of activities at or near the historic location. Nauvoo had been included in the Illinois Peoria Mission and will now function as a mission within a mission, much like the Utah Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission.

Various groups of missionaries are currently at work in the Nauvoo area, including temple construction missionaries, building restoration missionaries, Nauvoo Visitors’ Center and Carthage Jail Visitors’ Center missionaries, and guides at other Nauvoo locations. The creation of the new mission brings these groups of missionaries under the ecclesiastical leadership of one mission president.

“This is a unique situation,” said Richard K. Sager, newly called president of the Nauvoo mission, who had been serving as director of the Nauvoo Visitors’ Center. “There aren’t many places in the world where there is such a concentration of 200 or more missionaries in one place.”

Missionaries in Nauvoo, including those involved in temple construction, are now under the ecclesiastical leadership of one mission president. (Photo courtesy of Gene and Peggy Shurts.)