The Church in the Netherlands

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the first Dutch convert’s baptism in the Netherlands in 1861. Twenty years earlier, in 1841, Elder Orson Hyde was traveling on a missionary journey to Jerusalem; he stopped in Rotterdam and Amsterdam for more than a week and explained the gospel to several rabbis. The first missionaries assigned to the country arrived in 1861. By May 1862, they had baptized 14 people in Amsterdam and organized the first branch.

During the Church’s first century in the country, some 4,500 missionaries served there and more than 14,000 people were baptized. Many of these converts emigrated to the United States. In recent years, however, few members have emigrated, and today there are many second-, third-, and even fourth-generation Church members in the Netherlands.

Today, members total slightly fewer than 7,900 in the Netherlands, organized into 38 wards and branches. The first temple in the Netherlands is located in Zoetermeer and was dedicated in September 2002.